Texas State Fence Co. BLOG

Carrollton Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) provides information that you can use to help select the best wood fencing for your home.

Wood Fence: Form vs Function

It can be overwhelming trying to select which of the many options avaialbe you should select when considering a fence. There are many alternative materials and styles to choose from and the selection you make can affect the current cost of the installation and the properties value for the long term. Your basic consideration comes down to two choices, from which all other options spring:

1. Form – style, etc.
2. Function – purpose, etc.

With careful consideration you can create a happy conjunction of form and function, but it is not always easy to achieve. Consider chain-ling fences, and other metal fence types. They usually make a superior quality security fence, but the visual appeal is limited. A residential property should carefully consider placing a chain link fence on the property as that sends a signal that the security of the property is a concern for the owner and a prospective buyer would tend to be concerned.   Imagine what signal you would be sending to a prospective buyer if you had a chain link fence with a razor wire coil on top.  Such a fence would be appropriate as a barrier to a commercial installation where valuable materials are stored but not for a residential setting.

Types of Wood Fences

Here is a basic list of the types of wood fences which would be appropriate for a residential setting:

1. Split Rail – provides a very rural or ranch-like ambience to a property
2. Picket Fences – appropriate for smaller properties, typically used in the front yard.
3. Stockade Fences – whether rounded, squared, or pointed tops these are common in suburban areas.
4. Board-on-Board Fences – generally are more sturdy that stockade fences and have a more luxurious look to them.

Wood Fence Functional Consideration

Wood fences are usually very pleasing to the eye but may not always be the best choice depdneing on the homeowners needs. If you need to control animals, such as dogs, then split rail or picket fencing may not be a very good choice.  However, there are solutions for animal control that can be employed along with decorative split rail or picket fencing.  One of those solutions is the wireless dog fence that consists of buried cables that emit a shock to a dog collar. Electric wires are also useful for some animals such as deer.

But wood fences are an excellent choice for privacy fencing, whether it be in terms of noise barriers or, more commonly, visual barriers. Wood fences (along with their vinyl copy-cats) provide some of the most attractive fencing options available when your chief concern is creating a backyard sanctuary.

The stockade style offers an example of a wood fence design that can afford a solid visual barrier between your yard and your neighbor’s, resulting in almost total privacy. While masonry work such as brick can do the same, it costs significantly more than does a wood fence.

Others prefer a compromise on privacy, choosing wood fences with a certain amount of airiness to them, to avoid fencing out the outer world altogether. Tall picket fencing, for example, can afford partial privacy, as can lattice fencing.

A popular alternative to these privacy fencing options is a hybrid wood fence design: i.e., a solid barrier for the bottom three-quarters of the fencing, with lattice on top to inject an element of airiness and decoration.

As noted above, one factor in choosing between the different types of wood fences is their potential for compatibility with one’s landscape design. Solid wood fences can provide compelling backdrops for plantings, while the airier wood fence designs (e.g., split-rail and picket-style wood fences) can serve either as foregrounds or backgrounds for planting beds. Examples of how wood fences (as well as fencing composed of other materials) can work in harmony with other landscaping elements to create interest in a landscape design can be found in my photo gallery of fence pictures.

Carrollton Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) installs new fencing, repairs and maintains existing fencing, and designs integrated fencing systems for both residential and commercial clients in the Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Plano, Carrollton, Coppell areas of North Texas. As one of the largest and most established fence companies in Dallas, Texas State Fence offers a full range of fence services, products and options. For more information please call 972-898-1307.

Plano Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) offers some simply consideration for privacy fencing which may include both wood or vinyl fencing and landscape elements.

Living in today’s crowded suburban environment often means that our outside living area, the back yard, is so close to neighbors that we desire to have a little added privacy. Fencing can be a valuable part of your landscape, can actually add value to your property, and can have the added benefit of being both aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.

The first thing to consider when thinking about privacy fencing is whether to use traditional fencing or to use landscape elements such as trees and shrubs. Privacy fencing is usually some sort of wood fence that offers a visual screen such as a board-on-board fence or a stockade style fence. Depending on the particulars of your yard configuration it may not be necessary to install a fence along the entire lot line to achieve your goals.

Landscape elements such as trees, shrubs, earthen berms, and other naturally occurring elements may be integrated into a traditional wood fence construction plan to create truly unique environments. It is not a question of needing to ‘hide’ from prying eyes, but more a matter of providing a level of personal comfort that is in keeping with the needs of your family and within the bounds of the local zoning or home owner association rules. Always check HOA rules before embarking on a construction project such as a privacy fence.

Building a privacy fence out of wood or vinyl or masonry can provide nearly instant privacy and has the added benefit of being nearly maintenance free. Additionally you do not have to wait for plants to grow into their mature size, nor do you have to maintain them, water them, trim them, nor treat them for insects, etc.

Building a privacy fence primarily out of landscape elements such as trees, shrubs and earthen berms is considered by some to be more environmentally soothing but comes with a cost of maintenance over the years, along with the issue of growing the plants to maturity. Do you spend the extra money for larger plants now to give the immediate screening benefit or do you save money now at the cost of waiting for a longer period for the plants to grow together and provide the screening you want.  One solution is to integrate both traditional ‘hard’ fencing elements with ‘soft’ landscape elements.

Plano Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) installs new fencing, repairs and maintains existing fencing, and designs integrated fencing systems for both residential and commercial clients in the Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Plano, Carrollton, Coppell areas of North Texas. As one of the largest and most established fence companies in Dallas, Texas State Fence offers a full range of fence services, products and options. For more information please call 972-898-1307.

Dallas Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) recommends that any home with a swimming pool install four sided barrier fencing.

Accidental drowning was the third leading cause of death for children between the age of one and four years in the United States during 1997.  Studies have shown that nearly half of all swimming pool drowning events occur in the child’s home pool. Pool Perimeter fencing not only makes sound sense but most states and or cities have enacted laws that require that homes with pools have perimeter fencing to protect children from accidental drowning.

Irreversible brain damage can occur within as short as four to six minutes and survival without impairment is unusual if submersion occurs for greater than five minutes. Property line fencing is only intended to prevent children in the neighborhood from gaining access to the pool area in the back yard. Isolation fencing at or near the pool’s edge is designed to prevent accidental submersion from children that are in the back yard. It only takes a couple of seconds for a child to slip out of sight in into the pool.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has developed standards for pool barriers that have served as a foundation for many State and City barrier codes.  These standards and other pool safety recommendations are available online at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/chdrown.html.  One study estimated that a four-sided barrier fence can reduce drowning events for children under 13 years old by as much as 75 percent as compared to homes with no fencing or only partial fencing.

Dallas Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) installs new fencing, repairs and maintains existing fencing, and designs integrated fencing systems for both residential and commercial clients in the Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Plano, Carrollton, Coppell areas of North Texas. As one of the largest and most established fence companies in Dallas, Texas State Fence offers a full range of fence services, products and options. For more information please call 972-898-1307.

Plano Fence Company (Texas State Fence Company) offers a wide selection of materials when you consider building a fence.

Materials We Use
 
Posts

• Galvanized 2-3/8″ steel
• WAPO brackets with 1.5″ lag screws
• Post set approximately 30″-36″ deep in concrete
• Post set approximately 6′ apart
• Concrete mixed before it is placed into the hole
• (Wood posts available, but not recommended because wood posts eventually split, warp, twist, and rot.)

Pickets

• *Premium grade, or clear upon request.
• **Clear is available at an additional cost.
• Available in 1″x 6″ flat top or dog ear.
• *Premium is defined as the best quality of wood available in the industry at any given time. Texas State Fence Co. uses more than one supplier to insure the wood we install is premium.
• **Clear wood is currently unavailable in 8′ pickets.

Nails

• 1-7/8″ screw shank
• For maximum strength, six nails for each picket on 6′ tall fences
• For maximum strength, eight nails for each picket on 8′ tall fences

Rails

• 2″ x 4″ Cedar Rails

Side-by-side

• Provides privacy and security, but wood shrinks, leaving cracks. Some visibility through fence.
• 1-7/8″ screw shank nails 

Plano fence company (Texas State Fence Company) also serves the cities of Carrollton, Farmers Brancy, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Coppell, Lewisville, Grapevine, Flower Mound, and Southlake. Be sure to visit our Website and our BLOG.