Home Improvement Blog

In most cases a fence will mark an internal or external boundary of some kind; it may act merely as marker or be used for total or partial privacy. There are several consideration to take into account before you choose a fence for your home.

An important factor could be security: is the fence to keep out intruders or keep children and animails in or out? If your house is on an exposed site, you will have to consider wind resistance; choose a fence with medium or low wind resistance since a solied barrier could create sufficient turbulance to damage plants or be completely blown over. Consider the aspect of light transmission, a fence may cast shadows on your plants, especially if it is built on the south side of a small garden, even a low fence can cast considerable shadow, especially in winter. You must consider the appearance of the fence, especially in suburban areas. The fence may only need to be temporary until a hedge has grown or you could use a wire fence and let the hedge grow over it, or the sole purpose of fence may be to support climbing plants. The most important factor in your decision is to ensure the fence blends in with the overall garden design and with the building it adjoins.

Timber, the traditional fencing material, is often chosen for its mellow, rustic appearance. Other materials, including metal, concrete, and plastic, can be used for fences. Posts are subject to continuous damp conditions below and above ground. It is very important to choose a timber which is resistant to decay, and the ideal timber in this respect is oak. Rails and boards can be made from softwood as long as you treat them correctly with preservative. Most softwood are less likely to crack or twist than hardwoods used above the ground for this purpose; Douglas fir, spruce, pine and hemlock are suitable softwoods.

Types of fencing
These is a variety of fencing available for different purposes and situations. You can either build the fence on site from timber ordered from your local timber yard or buy a fencing kit for most types of timber fences.

Close-boarded fence
This is probably the most common type of timber fence. It has a high wind resistance, but is useful for privacy and security since light cannot pass through it. The fence is normally built 0.9-1.8m (or 3-6ft) high and consists of posts connected by horizontal rails- called arris rails if they are triangular in cross section or cant rails if they are square sawn with a bevelled top edge. The simplest close-boarded fence is constructed with sawn posts and rails, the rails can be mortised into the posts, or secured with special metal fixing brackets, and the boards nailed to the rails.

Paling fence
This is a popular fence also known as picket or palisade, it has a post and rail frame as for the vertical close-boarded fence and the palings are nailed to the rails, leaving gaps between them. You can cut the palings to give a variety of decorative shapes. This type of fence is basically to mark a boundary, particularly at the front of a house. Light transmission is quite good and the higher sizes give security. Particularly the military-type palings sawn from square section, but they give only slight privacy and have moderate wind resistance. They can be painted or finished with wood preservative. The usual height range is 0.9-1.4mm (3-4ft 6in) although you could build one up to 1.8 (6ft) if required; the palings are usually cut from 19 x 75mm (or 3/4 x 3in) timber. A paling fence can be built on site, assembled from a fence kit or built up with bought sections fixed to the posts with metal brackets.

Ranch style fence
Also called horizontal open-boarded, this type has board fixed to 75 or 100 x 100mm (3 or 4 x 4in) vertical posts spaced up to 2m (6ft 6in) apart. Boards can vary in thickness from 19 to 25mm (3/4-1in) and widths can range from 150 or 125mm (6 or 5in) for normal height fences, down to 75mm (3in) for dwarf fences about 0.6m (3ft) high. Ranch fences have no security value, but light transmission is good and they give moderate privacy with medium wind resistance. You can make this type of fence sawn timber treted with wood preservative, but it is common to paint them white to highlight the effect of the horizontal boards. Fit a capping strip to the top board to give improved weather resistance.

Post and rail fence
This type consist of sturdy horizontal rails nailed to the faces of vertical posts or fixed with mortise joints. These strong fences are widely used to define boundaries, for decoration or as stock fencing. You can use straight sawn timber for the posts or planed timber which can be painted. A decorative low boundary-marking fence of this type has V-shaped nothces cut into the tops of the posts to support a 75 x 75mm (3 x 3in) rail; the normal height of the top rail is 1.15m (3ft 9in) and two or three rails are fitted between. For a decorative fence you can choose more or less any height. Minimum rails sizes are 38 x 75mm (1 1/2 x 3 in) and usually 125 x 75mm ( 5 x 3in) posts are used.

Split chestnut paling fence
More usually seen in the country, this type is supplied in rolls about 9m (or 10yd) long, it consists of cleft chestnut stakes linked top and bottom with strands of galvanized wire.  The fencing is fixed to round or split chestnut poles or round or square softwood posts spaced about 2,4m (8ft) apart. It is one of the cheaper forms of fencing, but is not very durable; this makes it ideal for long runs of fencing where appearance is not very important. Split chestnut fences have medium wind resistance; light transmission and security are both fairly good.

Fence panels
These are cheaper than the conventional fence and can be fitted easily and quickly. This is because the method of construction allows you to use fairly thin timber sections, although fot this reason the fences are not particularly durable. Concrete posts are often used for extra durability; these are either grooved at the sides to give an H-section so the panels will fit into the slots or are cast with a T-shaped cross-section and the panels are held with galvanized plates and screws. You can buy concrete posts coloured brown to blend in with the fence panels.

There is a wide range of panel types; the most common are waney-edged larch, interwoven larch, vertical and horizontal close boarded and a double-slatted type similar to the double-sided ranch style fencing. All panels fence have a high wind resistance and give good privacy, especially those which have overlapping boards. The interwoven types may not offer complete privacy, but none of them will allow light to pass, you can partially overcome the latter aspect by fitting a trellis panel to the top of the fence ir by making a horizontal louvre panel. All panels fences are good from the point of view of security except the interwoven type, which usually has thin slats which could be easily broken.

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