Now’s the Time to Plan Your Fence for 2009

You may think that the best time to think about putting up a fence or maintaining the fence you have are the months between March and November. I would argue that now, December through February is the optimum time to plan a fence as well as to look and access the damage your fence incurs during the harshest time of the year.

Planning is always easiest when there is the least things to get in the way. Winter provides you a natural clearing process in order to take a good look at the space you want to enclose. You can also see where there are going to be issues for placing posts such as tree roots or obstacles that might get in the way like a shed.

Depending on your region, it’s probably too cold to do any real fence work, but what about getting down your trusty tape measure and filling in a sketch with the details you need. Then you can begin looking for the kinds of fencing options for your job, and figure out if pre-made panels or building from scratch makes more sense.

You will want to consider the materials available for fencing in your part of the country. Remember that not all types of wood are suitable in all climates, due to issues with water or insects. Your local library, the internet, as well as various books and magazines all offer good advice as you conduct your research.

If your price point is such that you cannot afford a higher grade wood fence and you have to go with a lesser wood product, there are a couple of options that will help with the overall life of the fence. One is to treat the wood with a sealer, which may or may not be feasible. If it’s a very large fence, this might be more work than you care to do.

Protecting your fence should also be a prime consideration, and fence post caps present an excellent and beautiful way of doing just that. In addition to being decorative, post caps protect the ends of posts from water and insect damage. Glue is recommended for installation, so it’s best to do this on a warmer, pretty day.

This is a great time of the year to go out and inspect your fence and deck posts for damage. If you see swelling and or splitting of any kind then you know water or insects may have gotten into the posts. One of the harshest things that happen to these posts is a rain that has seeped into the wood then freezes and thaws. Every time the water inside the pots freezes it expands and causes the wood to be pushed out from the inside. Can you say split?

Though wood is definitely still the most preferred type of fence there are other options as well that include metal fencing such as wrought iron or aluminum and vinyl fencing. Though metal tend to be made up of open slats, the vinyl more closely resembles what you can get in a wood fence whether that be a picket or privacy fence. Whatever you choose to use, now is the time to make plans for the coming year.