We have varying weather patterns here in this fabulous country of Great Britain. Our summers can be baking hot, yet our winters have such powerful storms that they can blow over garden fencing relatively easily.
Therefore, many homeowners will want to identify the different parts of the fence, perhaps so they can talk with a fencing contractor in order to discuss which parts need repairing. Alternatively, they might want to go to a local DIY store to purchase individual pieces of the fence to repair it themselves.
Composite decking and fencing
Before we go any further, it’s worth explaining why we highly recommend that you choose composite decking and fencing. We believe that high-quality brands of composite fencing are far superior to using wood. Not only is this product great for the environment, but it’s also often made from recycled waste, such as waste plastics.
This type of fence also doesn’t rot (composite), and in a world where many people are short on time, and therefore don’t have the time to drive to the local DIY store to buy paint tins to pay for their fence. So, some good news here as a composite fence panel never needs painting.
Therefore, we highly recommend composite fencing and decking. Its a little bit more expensive than some other types of wooden or steel fence panels, but if you pick a top-quality brand, a well known British company that manufactures composite fencing, they often come with a long and substantial guarantee period.
Chain-link fencing
This type of fence is typically not used in people’s gardens; however, sometimes, it is made of interwoven galvanised steel and often seen built around factories and commercial buildings such as warehouses. Its coated with a green plastic. Normally, it’s very long-lasting.
Ground screws
Ground screws are not typically used to construct garden fencing, but they are becoming more and more popular when building decking. Therefore it’s well worth thinking about having ground screws installed if you could have your garden decking replaced at the same time as your fencing?
They can offer a strong, sturdy, and reliable base for the decking in some gardens. Then add your composite decking boards, and you will have a long-lasting amazing garden decking built into your garden.
Brown timber
There are two main ways to help protect timber when its used outside: pressure treating the timber and adding a wood preservative. This is known as “Brown timber”, its dip-treated, and a dye usually added to the wood preservative to give it a dark brown appearance.
If you were to pop along to a local DIY store or to a builders merchants, we would recommend that you buy “Green timber”, which is another term for” pressure-treated timber”. A slight word of caution here, in that pressure-treated timber can vary massively in terms of its overall quality.
Some can be put into a large stainless steel, pressurised vessels. The wood preservative is then blasted and forced into the timber using expensive and good quality equipment. This is the green timber that you will want to buy. This produces a good-quality product; however, low-quality timber is sometimes just subjected to a lower pressure and low-quality wood preservative, so it doesn’t last as long.
Fence rail
Generally speaking, the wooden rail is simply the piece of wood that runs horizontally across the whole fence, and when all the batons or wooden slats are nailed to. You will need every piece of timber to be pressure-treated because it otherwise can rot quote quickly, and all the fence slats and boards will fall away.
Post foam
This is not the product that we generally do use use, but some fencing contractors do use alot. Its used to hold the fence post in place, rather than having to mix concrete.
Close board fencing
Close board fencing is a strong type of fence constructed with a thick wooden post. Individual slats of wood, known as boards, are then normally nailed to the rail. Week in, and week out, our fence builders are building close board fencing across the United Kingdom.
Wooden Trellis
Many homeowners want to increase the height of their fence, but do not have solid wood, perhaps they plan on growing climbing plants which weave between the wooden trellis. Many people, therefore, ask to add a wooden trellis to the top of their fence.
Concrete, steel, and wooden posts
When you call a local fencing company to repair your fence, you might automatically think that the only option on the table is wooden posts. This is usually the cheapest option, but concrete and metal posts are also available. Some homeowners tell us that they don’t want a concrete post because sometimes they consider a concrete post to be a fence post, that is typically used to construct commercial fencing.
This is true. Concrete posts are often used to construct many commercial fences because they are long-lasting and relatively inexpensive.
However, there are some innovative metal posts suited to certain types of fence panels. These posts allow the bolts to be tightened to the fence panel, allowing a very secure fixing to the fence panel.
So rather than automatically opting for, say, pressure-treated timber posts, consider whether you wish to opt for metal posts?
What exactly is hit-and-miss fencing?
Here in Britain, the winds can accelerate up to very high speeds. Therefore, some gardens are subject to massively powerful gusts of wind. This is why it’s worth having a good chat with your fencing contractor, perhaps over some digestive biscuits and a cup of tea?
You might want to explain to them that certain parts of the garden does sometimes experience very high gusts of winds, and they should be able to recommend different types of fencing whereby the wind could pass through, and through some of the gaps between the wooden boards. Therefore, the hit-and-miss fence will have slight gap spacings, just wide enough so that you can fit your hand through the gaps.
This allows the air to flow through the fence and helps to mitigate some of the strains and stresses experienced on the fence during particularly high gusts of winds.
Of course, the wind can still damage the hit-and-miss fence; however, it built right, a hit and miss fence can be sturdy and robust and, therefore, help some of the wind to pass through it.
Kiln dried
You might want to talk with your timber supplier about whether the wood is “kiln-dried” and what type of wood preservative has been added to the wood if any?
The last thing you want to do is spend, say, best part of a week building a fence, then find that there’s not enough wood preservative added to the wood to protect it from the weather.
UC3 TIMBER
This is a timber which has been specially treated in the factory, making it suitable for use outside in your garden, so therefore, make sure you use this type of timber when building your garden fence.
Again, this is another type of timber treatment, that is used on the timber to make it last longer when it is used outside.
