Wood Fences
Budget Fence N Deck offers a variety of custom wood privacy fences. Pickets come in 6 foot or 8 foot heights. We can however, for example build a 4 foot fence or even a 10 foot fence if that is what you desire. A 4 foot fence would be a 8 foot picket cut to 4 foot lenghts. The 10 foot fence would be a 8 foot picket with a 2 foot retaining wall. The retaining wall being made out of pressure treated lumber, railroad ties or concrete.
We stick build all of our fences. We do not use panels. There are issues with the way the panels line up to the posts and gates, etc and also how it follows the ground. Its just not a good looking fence.
Our most basic fence is a 6 foot side by side dogeared 3.5" wide spruce picket fence with 2x3 rails and landscape timber posts. You can upgrade from there to a fence with trim, metal posts, kickboard and stain. The spruce or whitewood fences have a typical lifespand of approximately 10 years, but with stain and metal posts they can last much longer.
We also carry a 5.5 inch spruce picket that already comes prestained. The price is about that of the basic dogeared fence. I think for the money it looks a little better too.
The next step for some companies is to use pressure-treated pine. We will not build that fence as it warps extremely fast and does not make for long lasting fence. We built them in the past and just had too many complaints.
On occassion a chinese fir or chinese cedar picket is available for use. These pickets sell out fast. This is an economical picket, however it does not have as good a reputation as the western red cedar picket.
Our basic western red cedar fence would be a 4" cedar picket. We use a number 2 or better. Number 3 lumber is just too knotty, has wane or holes that are not good quality. I suggest using a 2x4 treated rail along with the picket or even a 2x3 cedar rail. You can have this fence dogeared, with trim, metal posts and stained. For the price it doesnt make sense to use wood posts.
The 6" or 8' wrc picket fence comes in side by side or board on board styles. You can get it raw or prestained. Personally I like the prestained medium brown semitransparent stain from Ready Seal. It has a very natural look to it and it allows you to see all of the wood grain. There are some other brands out there that look just as well, however in the Dallas area it is the most popular for lumber yards to carry. This fence can be dog eared, flat top, with trim, double trim, a cap, kickboard or rotboard, corbels and accent trim.
A retaining wall will help you keep the dirt contained in your yard and also helps to level the top of the fence where the ground is sloped such as a in a driveway. Another method to keep your fence level on top is to add step downs. If you dont care for this look you can always follow the slope of the ground.
I dont want to forget the horizontal fence. This is a basically using the same materials and rather than having the pickets vertical, they are installed horizontally.
If you have a fence idea or would like to talk with us about a having a basic or custom fence built, give us a call and we would be glad to help you.