Learn the fundamentals of wood fences
Wood fences remain a staple throughout the world. Initially popular due to the abundance of lumber (and the lighter weight compared to stone and iron), it remains popular due to its organic beauty. A well-constructed, well-maintained wood fence even has the potential to raise your home’s value.
Important Wood Fence Questions to Ask
- What is dimensional lumber? Dimensional lumber is a wood fiber cut into specific sizes based on a pre-defined or standardized size. The most common sizes consist of 2x4s and 4x4s. This lumber is resized to remove wane, as it is typically harvested from the tree’s outer rings.
- What is wane? Wane is the presence of bark or wood fiber along the edge of a piece of lumber. This is determined by and will vary based on the lumber grade as described in the Southern Pine.
- What is rough sawn? Untreated wood cut into planks is described as rough sawn wood. Although a typically stronger cut of wood, it carries significantly more extra moisture because it has not been kiln dried. This is preferred due to its matching characteristics with pickets.
- What is S4S? When wood is finished on all four sides, this is what’s called S4S lumber. Dimensional and S4S lumber are labeled accordingly by nominal size. This is done on the rough board before it is planed smooth.
- What is GRN? Lumber that is fresh cut is labeled either air dried (AD) or surface-green(S-GRN). This is what’s known as GRN lumber. This wood has a high moisture count of 19%. This keeps it fairly inexpensive while allowing it to move and shrink unpredictably during the process of drying.
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What is board feet? The United States and Canada use the board feet method of measurement for determining the volume of lumber. Here is the calculation method for board feet.
- Take a rectangular piece of lumber
- Measure the length of it in feet, rounding to the nearest decimal place
- Measure the width in inches
- Measure the thickness in inches
- Multiply all three numbers together and divide by 12
- Why is cedar fencing so popular? As little as 40 years ago, cedar fence wood boards were rich in dark red, brown and orange hues. The cedar boards had a strong, almost pungent smell to them. This brought back memories of playing in your grandmother’s cedar closet. Cedar fence boards back then derived from old growth trees. Trees that were as large as Volkswagen cars. These boards mostly comprised of heartwood with a few outer sapwood rings. Today’s cedar fencing cannot hold up to the reputation of the older wood in regards to its longevity in exterior applications and the lifespan of the new cedar wood is considerably shorter.
- What is Incense Cedar? This type of wood is the most durable and decay-resistant of the native American woods, commonly found in southern Oregon, California, and western Nevada. Incense cedar is non-resinous, light brown or light reddish-brown heartwood, with a fine and uniform texture. The odor is the spiciest of all the cedars. It has an exceptional resistance to decay and a high durability against weather. Next to its high resistance to decay is its volumetric shrinkage. When dried from the green state down to 12 to 15 percent moisture content is with the 3.8%, which importantly is within the range of 3.4 to 6.6%.
- What is the fuss about Fir? For over a decade White Fir has been successfully used for wood fencing. While expensive, Western Red Cedar is the premiere choice for wood fencing. For a considerably less cost you can select White Fir and it will last 8 plus years. The quality is exceptional. The color of the pickets is generally blonde in color as this type of board is usually harvested from old growth.