Introduction
Now when you look at a garden fence, it’s a relatively simple construction, right? Well in most certainly years, but it’s so easy to get it wrong as well and for you to sit back in your house once it is built and think, that doesn’t look straight or why then fencing slats all look out of line or it could be that’s the fence start rocking in the wind.
This is why it’s so important to build a garden fence right, because it can take quite a bit of time to construct, and the last thing you want to do is have to rebuild parts of it and break up concrete to rebuild the fence posts.
As the old saying goes is better to get it right first time around and that’s why we are here to help.
We are fencing installers within Cardiff, however through our company blog, we offer a lot of really helpful tips and advice on how to build all kinds of fencing.
So, the first thing we are going to do is start to talk you through all the different fencing options that you might want to purchase from a local timber merchants, but there are also a lot of websites which will allow you to purchase online and then they get delivered to you via a lorry.
So, without further ado let’s start to have a look at the different types of fencing and which option might best suit your garden.
Composite fencing
We are going to start with a type of fencing that not many homeowners will have heard about, that is composite fencing. We all heard of wooden fencing, as that’s the go to option for a lot of homeowners, but we think it’s worth paying that bit more to get composite fencing and we shall explain why.
It could be argued that our summers don’t last that long, the sun comes out for a short period of time, and we really do need to make the most of the British summer before winter starts once again.
So, on a nice warm summer’s day when you could be unwinding say on a beach somewhere, not a lot of us want to be out in our gardens painting the fence, waiting for it to dry and then giving it another coat again stop
Therefore this is why a lot of people opt composite fencing, because quite simply put in never needs to be painted. The reason for this is is not made from natural wood such as pine, instead it made in a factory, is therefore a manufactured product, that is offered by manufacturers in a wide selection of different colours.
Now when you look at this fencing from your house, sometimes it can look like real wood, that’s because it can come in shades that look like real wood, but it has the benefit of never incurring wood rot, it will also come in a colour and therefore never needs painting, and also if you pick a good brand of composite fencing and it can last a very long time.
A lot of people are fed up with purchasing a really cheap fence, and then having to replace its on a fairly regular basis because slats become damaged, fence posts because a wood rot or let’s say that the hall fence might start to rock because the construction is flimsy.
To this is why people are looking for higher quality types of fencing, and this is where we often recommend choosing composite, sure it’s a lot more expensive than a wooden panel fence, but when you think of the benefits such as never having to paint it, that it won’t incur wood rot, and also that depending on which brand you choose it can be a very durable type of fence.
So, we thought we’d start off this mammoth blog post by talking about composite fencing, what we’d also like to say is that there is also composite decking as well.
So, what you can do is get composite fence built, you can also have composite decking in the same colour.
Why not opt for feather edge fencing?
If you’re planning on building a garden fence yourself, then why not think about purchasing feather edge slats from your local builders’ merchants?
Most of the fencing that we build is built using feather edge, so if a building a fence for a local business, often they want feather edge and if we are building a fence for a homeowner want a really durable fence then often they opt for feather edge as well.
The good thing about feather edge is it widely available, most builders’ merchants stock it, so you can buy it easily.
However, what we would say is that the quality of the timber can vary massively between different suppliers.
So, you need to buy some good quality timber, we would recommend paying that little bit more to get better quality timber because you wanted durable fence.
You don’t want the fence to have excessive amount of splits in the wood, this can sometimes happen with really cheap feather edge in that it can warp very easily, also it can suffer from excessive splits and also the feather edge might easily come away from the nails and this might cause parts of the feather edge slats to fall off the rail.
So, what you really need is a quality timber, so we would recommend shopping around different building merchants to make sure that you get a quality timber.
Panel fencing
If your garden fence has become damaged say in strong winds, then you might not want an expensive type of fence, you might want to replace the garden fence with an option that’s inexpensive, can be built quickly and can come in many different heights, we would therefore recommend panel fencing.
Panel fencing is simply fencing that’s made into a panel, yet it can come in different heights, and also it can be made from composite or timber. Also, there are options trellis at the top, so if you want you could put climbing plants to climb up on bamboo, and then once they have reached a certain height you can start it intertwine the climbing plants into the trellis, so that if you wanted to you could have climbing plants growing along your fencing which can really enhance your garden.
The best part about panel fencing is it’s very easy to build, that’s because the panels are already made in a factory.
You simply therefore just have to dig the post holes, mix up and concrete which is very easy to do and then you can put the wooden posts into the holes surrounded completely by concrete.
You then need to let the concrete set, this depends on how warm it is when you are building the fence, and then you simply can just nail panels to the fence posts.
You can also buy concrete which is already mixed, and is suitable for use for using to support fence posts.
We would recommend that you dig deep holes to support the fence post, this might seem like hard work when you are digging the holes by hand, however if the halls are too shallow, then what you can find is the sheer force of the win hitting the fence panels can cause it to rock and can even cause the fence to fall over.
So, what you want is to dig deep holes, you might want to hire a skip, you can simply then wheelbarrow all of the soil and to the skip easily.
Then put in the fence posts and allow the concrete to set.
You might have bought a fence panel that is relatively short, in which case the fence posts might go well over the height of the fence panel, you can simply cut the fence post at a later date with a hand saw.
What’s great about opting for a panel fence, is that you can painted in a huge range of different colours. You might wish to stain the wood and then sometimes you can just see the colour of the timber underneath depending on which stain you purchase. However, a lot of people like to buy a quality fence paint, which means that you can colour the fence, you might want an olive green colour example.
This can therefore add a splash of colour into your garden another popular colour is to go up blue colour.
Alternatively, you might want to paint the fence panel a colour so that it makes the wood look like a hardwood.
If you want us to install your fence, what we can do is have a chat with you about the different paints that we can recommend, we can recommend different paint shops in Cardiff where you can purchase the fence paint from.
We can of course paint the fence for you but this will cost extra to do.
What we would also recommend is that when you are building a panel fence, not to use the same fence posts again but to replace them and to break the concrete out and to reset new fence posts in its place.
The reason for this is some people try to save money and time by using the old fence posts, because they think that they look fine and can be reused. However, if the fence post has been there for some time, they are likely to have wood rot in the, so even though the fence post look fine, sometimes they can snap in heavy winds.
Because you may have painted the fence post previously, it may look fine but underneath the layers of paint might be wood rot, so what can happen is that the fence post could snap in strong winds, so it’s worth replacing the fence posts and panels at the same time.
Also don’t buy cheap fence posts, that are too thin, because these will be able to withstand the stresses and strains that the wind will impose on the fence, opt for chunky thick fence posts.
Would you like an acoustic fence built?
To build an acoustic fence, you’re going to need a fencing contractor, that’s because the fence needs to be built correctly if it is to help reduce noise entering into the garden. An acoustic fence will obviously never block out all noise from outside of your property, but what it can sometimes do is help to block out some of the noise from say a busy road.
As we mentioned earlier, and acoustic fence will not block out all noise, but there are some very good quality acoustic fences which can help to reduce some of the noise.
Out of all the fencing that we build, and acoustic fence would be one of the most expensive, that’s because acoustic fence panels are expensive for us to purchase.
We would need to visit your garden, and we would need to assess whether an acoustic fence would bring you any benefit.
It’s entirely possible that let’s say a busy road is too high in comparison to where the fence will be built so that it will have no effect.
This means that passing trucks for example will still create the same amount of noise because the motorway for example might be at a high level, therefore if the fence is at a low level it is unlikely to block out any of the noise.
So, what we would say is that sometimes acoustic fencing is not effective, we would therefore need to visit your garden and have a look whether our acoustic fencing would bring you any benefit.
Sometimes an acoustic fence is built not to block noise coming into the garden but to help stop noise from leaving.
For example, you might have a garden room built, and you might use that building in your garden to play the drums, and you might now be thinking while I want an acoustic fence to help reduce the amount of the noise that is omitted from the garden room.
We would need to visit your garden, and see if an acoustic fence would be effective, yet this type of fencing can be used for this purpose as well as helping to keep more noise within the garden as well.
One of the most expensive types of fencing with our fencing company builds his hardwood fencing, however a lot of people still want their fence built using hardwood even though it’s a lot more expensive than using softwood such as pine.
The reason the people want a hardwood fence built a is because hardwood looks totally different from softwoods, it is therefore often used on automated gates on a driveway to a property, because the wood is very luxurious and it comes in a range of different colours.
Hardwood is also very durable, so for example if you are going to build a set of automated gates leading into your property and then have fence built to match the same what, then this is a very hard wearing type of work that will last a long time. However, what we would say is that hardwood still requires upkeep in terms of maintaining it, this does depend on the type of wood that it is, but if we were to build a hardwood fence we would often have a conversation with the customer about different products and when to use them to help protect the wood and to seal the grain of the wood.
As we said hardwood fencing is very expensive to build, because for us to purchase the hardwood such as oak from the builders’ merchants it’s very expensive to buy. This is why it is important that if you were to build this type of fence yourself what you have to understand is that to maintain it you have to apply products such as lacquers to help protect the wood.
It does depend on which type of hardwood you choose, and depending on which would you choose will dictate how regular it will need a coat of lacquer.
It’s also worth noting that there are different products for different types of hardwood, for example there will be a different type of lacquer for oak then there would mahogany.
Hit and miss fencing
You might want to build a “hit and miss fence”, you will need more time to build this type of fence because it is quite different from close board fencing.
With a close board fence, which is commonly referred to as a “feather edge fence”, you simply take each individual wooden slat and slightly overlap it and then put a nail through the board, which then attaches it to the rail which runs along the top and bottom of the fence and joins the fence post.
Hit and miss fencing is different, that’s because the boards, that is the wooden boards are applied on different sides of the fencing rail, you will therefore need to take your time to make sure that you fix the board’s so that one is one side of the rail and then there’s another board on the other side of the rail this take slightly longer to build because you need to make sure that you position all of the boards correctly.
This type of fence is very popular because it can allow the garden fence to look similar both sides of the fence, so what we mean by that is, the neighbours side will look the same as your side. This is why a lot of homeowners choose this type of fence, because often you may not want the back of the fence facing your neighbours home, so often a neighbour may want their side of the fence to look the same as your side of the fence, this is what a hit and miss fence can offer.
We would say that the wooden boards which are normally used to build hit and miss fencing are a bit more expensive than a feather edge slats of wood to purchase, the reason for that is the hit and miss boards are normally quite thick and therefore this timber is more expensive to purchase.
This is worth keeping in mind when you are choosing a garden fence, simply because if you are to build a long length of fencing along your garden, then if you were to pick a more expensive wood, then this can obviously mean that the fence can be a lot more expensive to build.
If you’ve got a long length of fencing to build, and you want to build a fence at a lower cost, then we would recommend either panel fencing or to opt for feather edge these are the most cheapest options that we offer.
Should you use concrete or post foam
A lot of people won’t have heard about post foam, as it’s a relatively new product, yet instead of using concrete in the holes where the fence post is supported you could use foam instead.
It does totally depend on what product you want to use, we are a fencing company that has always used concrete, we use concrete on all our fences, whether we are building a fence for a business, or for a residential customer.
