January 22, 2011
Make Your Wood Fence Last With Proper Maintenance! 
Proper maintenance of your wood fence will make a huge difference in how long it lasts.  It's really a shame to see beautiful wood fences deteriorate and fail long before they have to.  As a builder I'm of course happy to have the work to build new wood fences.  But I'd like to see homeowners take proper care of their new wood fences, especially the ones I've built, so they last a very long time!

I've planned to author a pamphlet about this but never seemed to have the time.  So here's what I recommend!

First, keep soil out of contact with the wood, especially the bottom of the posts immediately above the concrete.  This is where almost all fences fail first.  Over the years people add top soil for gardening and landscaping, plant roots grow larger sometimes displacing soil and driving it upwards, rain and irrigation moves soil.  All these factors in concert can make the soil cover your concrete post foundations and surround your wood posts with soil before you know it.  Then the clock starts ticking against your fence.  Subterranean termites now have an off ramp directly to your fence and rot will begin as well.  A 50 year fence then turns into a 5 or 10 year fence. 

Same thing applies to the wood bottom of the fence between the posts.  Don't let the ground touch the fence!  Whether you've got a $2,500.00 fence or a $25,000.00 fence, why not spend a tiny amount of time to make it last so you can save your hard-earned money for something more worthwhile?  Right?

Keep the plants and plant droppings/dead leaves off the fence.  Plants growing on the wood fence create a condition similar to roots growing underground.  Termites are on the way to take over, populate and eat your wood fence inside out.  I've replaced wood fences that only remained erect because the supporting plants/vines/ivy had grown into them that thick and strong!  They're full of termites! 

When plant droppings and dead leaves land on the fence and decompose, they turn into mulch which is enough like soil for flying termites to call a new home!  This may sound like a stretch to some, but I've seen it enough times to recognize it.  Again a 50 year fence turns into a 10 year fence!  What a waste! 

Adjust/reposition irrigation so you don't water the fence.  Municipal water usually contains chlorine which will bleach and accelerate the weathering of the wood.  Well water may not have chlorine but just the added saturations and subsequent dryings accelerate the weathering and deterioration of the wood.  I've seen a 50 year fence appear 30 years old in 2 to 3 years when the owner did not move the sprinkler.  What a waste!

I'll address the subject of staining over time in a coming post on this BLOG.  The above factors alone are by far the most important.  Please follow them to enjoy your wood fence to it's potential.