Samples
"Save money - build it right!  Top quality is less expensive and always much easier:
Top quality lasts much longer so rebuilds get scheduled generations later;
  just forget about the headaches & repairs that come with every cheap job."   

Wood Fences and Gates Styles and Designs

In the five photo albums below you will find a very good variety of wood fence designs that I've built.  You'll also encounter a decent array of wood driveway, pedestrian, garden and fence gates that I've enjoyed creating and building.

Construction of wooden fences may appear simpler and easier than it actually is.  Please understand and be aware that while many people believe that "Anybody can build a fence",  there are really very few of us that take enough pride in our work and have a conscience to make sure it's structurally and visually as close to perfect as possible.  There are many things that I as the builder must make sure are right and correct.  I prefer to build 30 to 50 year fences, yes I'm serious.  They will last that long, as long as you follow your maintenance properly (please see my BLOG article on this very subject).  I say this because I have seen poor construction of privacy fences, inadequately engineered horizontal fences and back yard fences falling apart decades before they should. 

I remember a "fancy" cedar wood fence that a general contractor built as part of an extensive remodel and addition project of a very nice house in a fancy neighborhood.  The owner wanted this fence because she saw it immediately after construction in a magazine photo.  Neither of them knew the design was seriously flawed, but hey, it looked pretty in the magazine!  I was contacted and chosen to fix other mistakes this general contractor had made.  Just a few minor design changes and that fence would have been built right; except of course the insufficient and sub-standard interior fasteners (for the outdoor fence), and the inadequate concrete post foundations which were set to accelerate rot and infestation.  I wrote more about this one and others in my BLOG, please check it out.

Different woods have different properties.  Just as different metals melt, bend, flex, stretch and corrode differently; different woods act and perform differently.  Redwood holds its form better than cedar; as a result it's noted for its dimensional stability.  Both woods have good rot and infestation resistance but this is actually an incomplete statement.  The heartwood of redwood (which is the part that has the pink or darker color) is the only part of redwood that honestly possesses the rot and infestation resistance.  The white or light colored part of redwood which is from the outer portion of the tree has very little if any of this quality.  However both parts of redwood possess excellent dimensional stability as well as an excellent ability to withstand weather as the years and decades clock by.  This is why a redwood fence is so popular.  There are other factors, so much so that it's almost out of context.  I love building redwood fences, redwood a great wood.  It's probably perfect for 90% to 95% of wood fences.  A front yard fence or front porch/patio enclosure, when built with the right grade of redwood and properly stained, can appreciate property values on the entire block. 

Wood fencing is fun to build and comes in many forms.  Garden fences add to the tranquility of your garden, courtyard, front or back yard; and are a pleasure to build!  Wood privacy fencing is famous for improving relationships between neighbors!  When I'm building a new wood privacy fence I always see both sides smiling.  Sometimes both neighbors split the cost, sometimes they don't.  I just make sure to build it right: strong and beautiful so that it lasts.