Garden Fence Tips

Tending to a garden is a relaxing hobby that allows you to get out and enjoy nature. A lot of gardeners take great pride in their plants and are always looking for tips to grow them stronger, bigger and better. Most of them do not give a second thought about the type of garden fence that they use though. If you want to have a successful garden, you have to make sure that your garden fence design meets your needs. Here are a few garden fence tips to think about before enclosing your garden:

  • Will your garden need protection? If you are in a high traffic area or have a lot of wild animals around then you should invest in a garden fence with some security. You will want it to fence garden 1 Garden Fence Tipsbe at least chest high and you should look into metal or wooden fence designs. Many of those can be built with barbs and points that make it impossible for anything to squeeze through and get to your plants.
  • Do you just want to add to the gardens beauty? If so, you can choose an aesthetic fence from a variety of materials. The most popular are the wooden trellis design because it is beautiful when used to support clinging flowers and ivy.
  • How much upkeep will you do on your garden fence? If you just want to put up a fence and forget about it then you should be shopping for vinyl fencing. Many people use them for a garden fence design that needs very little upkeep but still looks aesthetically pleasing. They are available in many colors and styles to choose from.

A wooden garden fence is always a great fallback position because it can be used in all three situations with some modification.

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Checklist for Fence Installation

iStock 000010571627XSmall 300x199 Checklist for Fence InstallationA solid fence can do a lot for your home. It can act as a boundary marker, keep your pets in the yard and keep the neighbor kids out. A fence can also add to the aesthetic appeal of your house so you need to make sure that the fence style matches the architecture of your home. There are a lot of important steps that you should follow when building a fence so here is a checklist to help you remember:

  1. Mark the boundaries of your fence using stakes and string. It will help to see where the fence is will be and it will identify any problems in the lay of the land.
  2. Call someone to come out and mark the utility lines. It would be a horrible way to start your project if you cut your cable line while you were digging a post hole.
  3. Make sure that you have all of the equipment and the materials that you will need on hand. Nothing extends the building time of a project like constantly having to run back to town for a tool or piece of lumber.
  4. When you have actually started building the fence, pay extra attention to the posts. They are the most important part of the fence and provide much of its strength. For a standard fence you will want to dig a hole that is 12 inches across and about two feet deep. Also, make sure that the hole is wider at the bottom than at the top. If you don’t then water will get down into the hole and it will freeze in the winter. Over time that will push the post up out of the ground.
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Chain Link Fence Design and Materials

Everyone has heard of chain link fence materials as it is the most common types of fencing in use today outside of wood.  It is also called hurricane fencing; cyclone fencing and wire netting. This is due to the design of the interwoven steel wires connected to the interspersed metal posts.  The quality of chain link is based on the gauge of the wire and the zinc content. The chain link material that forms the fabric comes in different wire thickness or “gauge”. The higher the gauge is, the smaller the wire will be. The most common gauges in use for chain link fabric are:

  • 6 gauge
  • 9 gauge
  • 11 gauge
  • 11.5 gauge
  • 12 gauge
  • 12.5 gauge

chain link ball field 208x300 Chain Link Fence Design and MaterialsThe chain link material fabric is formed by interweaving wire spirals together into a zig zag pattern. The distance between two parallel strands of wire is referred to as the “mesh size”. The most common mesh sizes are 2 and 2 ¼. Although, smaller mesh sizes are available when fencing with more security is needed.  The way that either end of the pattern is finished is referred to as the “Selvage” By industry standards that means that a fence smaller than 72 inches has one end in finished in closed loops and the other end of the fence is finished in barbs, similar to barbed wire. The barbed side is sometimes used as the side closest to the ground to give the fence more traction and stability.

Chain link fabric is coated with zinc using one of two processes. The first is GAW or galvanized after weaving. This means the wire is woven into fabric and the fabric is drawn through a molten pot of zinc. This process leaves the heaviest concentrations of zinc on the fabric. The alternative method is GBW or galvanized before weaving, where the wire is pulled through the molten zinc before it is woven into the chain link fabric. This method leaves a little over half the zinc on the fabric as the other method.

The tubular metal framework that holds the chain link fabric in place consists of 3 components:

  • Terminal post – These are the thickest posts and are sunk into concrete. They are used for the gate, corner and end posts.
  • Line post – These posts are smaller in diameter than the terminal posts and are interposed between the terminal posts to give the fence rigidity. They are also sunk into concrete
  • Top rail – These posts are passed through the terminal posts and through fittings on the line posts to form a framework for the chain link fabric to hang from

The quality of that framework is based off of the thickness of the steel and the zinc coating. There are two ways to coat the tubular metal framework in zinc:

    1. The hot dip process – Coils of steal are cut to proper width and then they are bent into tubes and the seams are welded. The pipe is then submersed in a pot of molten zinc which coats the pipe inside and out to help prevent corrosion.
    2. Flow coat galvanizing – Coils of steal are cut to proper width and then they are bent into tubes and the seams are welded. Then the pipes are passed through a line vat of molten zinc which coats the outside of the pipe. A clear coating is applied over the zinc for additional protection and the interior of the pipe is coated in a zinc rich paint.

Both processes meet the quality standard of the industry.

The last component of the chain link fencing is the fittings. They are made for the terminal posts, line posts and gates. The fittings are manufactured from aluminum or galvanized steel for residential purposes and are especially important for the gates. Since the gate sees regular use, the fittings must be secure or the gate can start to sag over time

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