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Having had our fence replaced this week, due to our 20yr old fence disintegrating and patched over the years.
I never pained the last fence, it lasted 20years and looked rather rustic !
I like the look of natural wood not some weird oak or grey, personally I think painted fences don’t look good. Can’t find a clear paint, also don’t want to waste my time painting 14 panels in length about 100ft.
new panels are on 30cm gravel boards.
worth it or not !
Not
Bird Brand do a clear preserver that also helps UV protection. Your last fence panels may have been good quality wood with good pressure treatment, your news ones perhaps not so good- on the principle that things were always better back then!
Yes.
There are many clear preservatives/treatments - Rustins, Sika, Barretine for starters.
Paint:
Definitely not. Job for life as soon as you paint any exterior woodwork (unless it’s part of your house and needs to last 100 years+)
Clear Preservative:
Maybe. Up to you. Slap it on with low effort to gain some extra life. I wouldn’t bother, I’d sooner buy good pressure treated panels.
My vote is with 'yes'.
Maybe not paint but some sort of neutral-ish coloured treatment/varnish type thing. I'm sure the pannels are 'pre-treated' or whatever, but you'll never really know to what standard until they start falling to bits, or not, and by then it's too late.
So I'd say yes, if you have the motivation to do it, it certanily won't do any harm.
Panels no. Posts yes, becasue they're a right pain when they rot. With preserver not paint of course.
Why use wooden posts?
Not durable, will rot, pain to replace.
Concrete posts, concrete gravel boards.
Yes apply some sort of preservative, coloured or clear your choice. I married a woman who enjoys an hour or 10 with a 4" fence painting brush and litres of preservative. I get to do the replacement of broken screws/featheredge board as and when required.
Also 20 years ago timber was preserved with all sorts of environmentally unfriendly stuff (chromium salts went into tannalising compounds) which kept things sweet for longer.
Concrete posts, concrete gravel boards
Yep, that's why councils use them.
Concrete posts, concrete gravel boards
For that authentic council estate asthetic!
Only worth it if you've got a new bike.
If you don't paint the fence, how do you expect to ever block a punch?
Not allowed proper Creosote anymore 😔use the substitute don't use any of that Ronseal coloured water crap waste of time and money.
Probably do it in summer aswell, after a dry patch, so you know the woods pretty dried out and you're not just sealing moisture in.
mr fez - very funny!
Could be a coal yard.
For clarity...8/9ft post, 6ft out of the ground, one 1ft high gravel board, 5ft fence.
I know my home town was Wallsend but I've moved on a bit from there!
If aesthetics is the main consideration...dry stone wall constructed by your local stonemason!
Creocote light brown (creosote substitute). Gives a wet look and is cheap. Stinky but lasts well and looks great.
I like the look of natural wood
You need to spend a lot of money to get that. Greeny grey pressure treated softwood isn't really the natural wood look.
Our fence is a nice light blue by the way - looks great, and much better than the crappy decaying wood in most of the gardens here. Paint it.
You have to paint it grey these days, apparently.
how old are you now and in twenty years, will you still be fit enough to do fencing, if that timeframe prolonged,
i've got some to replace this summer, we'd just moved in and did budget, the cheap £18-22 ones have disintegrated in 7 years, i've had paint fence on job list since early covid,
As above Mrs FD wanted ours doing. Took multiple attempts to cover up the wood. Now looks anything but natural, already starting to fade to some form putrid colour. I think this was 'natural oak' - about 3 coates of Ronseals finest water based crap.
I can't imagine painting a fence with a clear coating! It's bad enough doing it in a colour and missing spots. You'd have to be so meticulous it would take bloody ages. A job for someone who really likes staring at fences.
Mr Miyagi says yes - but take care with your brushing action.