North Texas Real Estate Blog

We’ll leave the farm and ranch fence discussion for another article and concentrate tonight on choosing the right fence for Southlake real estate, Colleyville real estate, and Grapevine real estate, and the surrounding areas of North Texas real estate.

Living in busy neighborhoods, we tend to need a bit of privacy. And most of us don’t know very much about choosing and installing fences. That’s where the training and experience of professionals trumps the layman’s knowledge. Contracting a professionally designed and installed backyard haven, however, will still take some forethought on your part.

Professional installers will know which hardware to use for each individual building material to help your fence live a long life, but you will probably want some say so in the fencing material. Do you want to use wood such as cedar, cypress, treated pine, teak, redwood, or does a maintenance-free composite or IPE sound more practical. Other options are wrought iron, chain link, and security fencing. Ask your designer about the pros and cons of each material.

The newer wood-composite fencing products and systems from FiberTech Polymers, Inc. are available from Lowe’s Home Improvement. The material is made from 100 percent recycled plastic and wood fiber rerouted from landfills. The product is durable but looks and feels like wood. In fact, its rough-sawn texture and deep embossing give it the look of a Cedar or Redwood fence. But it won’t rot, split or attract insects, or fade. It never needs painting and costs no more than vinyl fencing-very clever technology.

Installation is another ball of wax. It looks so easy. Just poke some holes in the ground and plop the post inside and attach the fencing. Right? Not quite. Before installation, you must contact the Texas One Call Notification Center to determine the location of utility lines on your property. The utility company will come out and locate their lines to the meters and any lines that cross the property in easements. Then you must locate the sprinkler system lines, if you have an irrigation plan.

If you are an experienced builder and prefer to install your own fence and save some money, please work with an advisor to ensure that the project comes out as perfect as can be. There are definite reasons for various details of installation. Installers may run a treated pine board along the bottom of the fence to seal off dirt and critters from your yard and to prevent termites from eating your fence. Or they may use aluminum, stainless steel or polymer-coated fasteners because galvanized nails and fasteners combine with the high-zinc content of cedar and cause corrosion streaks then decay. Or they may dig three instead of two feet deep to sink posts into sandy soil.

Of course, you can also choose a living fence. In Arizona, the prickly pink ocotillo lined up in a row can keep out most living creatures. In Texas, a nice hedge of fig trees or a more traditional green scrub may offer a softer wall of privacy for your property after it has matured.