How to make a cedar fence last in North Texas: the first year and every year after

Build it right, finish it on time, keep the water off

A properly built and maintained Western Red Cedar fence typically lasts 15 to 20 years or more in North Texas. To get there, let new cedar cure for several weeks to a few months and then stain or seal it, restain every two to three years, keep sprinklers, soil and plants off the wood, and walk the fence once a year and after every major storm to catch loose posts and broken boards early. In my experience, a cedar fence that fails early usually fails for one of those reasons, not because cedar was the wrong choice.

We build cedar fences at Park Cities Fence & Deck, and we also repair and restain fences that other people built. The difference between a fence that looks good for years and one that is leaning and gray after a few seasons is rarely the wood. It is the posts, the water and the finish. This is the care plan I give homeowners when I walk a finished fence with them.

Longevity is decided the week it is built

Care can extend a fence's life, but it cannot fix how it was built. The posts carry the fence, so their size, spacing, depth and how they are set matter more than anything you will do later. Gate posts need to be heavier than line posts because they carry a swinging load. Fasteners should be rated for exterior use so they do not stain or let go.

One detail worth asking about is a gravel board, sometimes called a kick board or rot board: a horizontal board along the bottom of the fence that keeps the pickets off the ground. Our repair page notes that gravel boards help keep moisture and insects away from the wood. The bottom of the pickets is where moisture wicks up first, and a board that can be replaced on its own is far cheaper than a whole run of pickets with rotten ends.

Your first year with a new cedar fence

New cedar should not be stained the week it goes up. It needs to cure for several weeks to a few months so the stain can penetrate properly. During that time the wood may change color a little and dry slightly unevenly; that is normal. We either come back to stain it once it is ready or schedule it later through our power wash and restain service.

Use the first year to fix the things that will shorten the fence's life. Adjust or move sprinkler heads that hit the fence. Pull back mulch, soil and rock that sit against the pickets. Watch the gate through a change of seasons and note whether it starts to bind or drop. Keep your written estimate somewhere you can find it; the specific workmanship and material terms are reviewed on it, and you will want it if anything needs attention.

• Let the wood cure, then stain or seal it
• Aim sprinklers away from the fence
• Keep soil, mulch and rock below the bottom of the pickets
• Watch the gate for binding or sagging
• File the written estimate with your house records

Water does more damage than sun

Sun grays cedar and breaks down its finish, but water is what rots it. The worst offender in many yards is a sprinkler that hits the same posts and pickets every morning. That wood never dries, the finish fails first there, and the posts in that zone rot at the soil line years before the rest. Re-aiming or replacing a sprinkler head is the cheapest fence maintenance there is.

Soil and landscaping do the same thing more slowly. Flower beds built up against a fence, mulch piled on the pickets, vines and shrubs growing into the boards all hold moisture against the wood and keep air from drying it. Leave a gap between plants and the fence, keep beds below the bottom of the pickets, and do not let vines climb a wood privacy fence.

A restain schedule that fits our weather

The guidance we give on our own fences is to seal or stain every two to three years. Sections facing hard afternoon sun, and any part a sprinkler reaches, may need it sooner. The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association notes that clear finishes typically last only one or two years depending on exposure, and that pigmented stains protect against UV better than transparent ones, so the product you choose affects the schedule as much as the weather does.

Each restain should start with a proper cleaning. Our power wash and restain guidance is to wash wood at roughly 500 to 1,200 PSI with a wide fan tip, moving with the grain, because pressure above 2,000 PSI gouges the fibers. Then let the wood dry until water soaks in rather than beading before any stain goes on. My guide to when a fence or deck needs restaining walks through the signs and the full process.

The once-a-year walk

Pick a dry day each spring and walk the whole fence line with a screwdriver. It takes less time than mowing the yard, and it catches small problems while they are still small. Check:

• Every post: push near the top; any movement means a loose footing
• Post bases: press a screwdriver at the soil line; soft wood means rot
• Rails: firm at every post, fasteners tight, no sagging between posts
• Pickets: splits, cupping, loose nails or screws, missing boards
• Gravel boards and picket bottoms: soft or dark wood near the ground
• Finish: water test on a sunny section and a sprinkler-zone section
• Gate: swings freely, latches on its own, no dragging

Everyday habits that wear a fence out early

A fence is built to stand up and hold its panels, not to carry loads or take knocks. Weather is not the only thing that ages a fence in a Dallas backyard; ordinary household habits do too. None of them is dramatic on its own, but together they shorten the life of the wood and the posts.

The fix is mostly awareness. Hang heavy things on their own posts or structures, keep equipment and firewood a little away from the boards, and treat the gate as a door, not a climbing frame. If a dog has started digging along a run, deal with it early, because a hole at the base lets water sit against the post and the bottom of the pickets.

• Heavy planters, shelves or equipment hung on pickets and rails
• Firewood, lumber or yard waste stacked against the boards
• String trimmers chewing into posts and gravel boards
• Kids swinging on the gate, or dogs jumping and digging at the base
• Grills and fire pits placed close to the wood

After a storm, check before you forget

Spring storms with strong straight-line winds are hard on solid privacy fences, which catch wind like a sail. After a big storm, walk the fence within a few days. Look for posts that have moved, panels pulled away from posts, broken pickets and anything that fell on the fence. Take photos before anything is cleaned up or repaired.

If the damage is significant, it may be worth a call to your insurance agent before you pay for repairs, since coverage for fences depends on your policy and what caused the damage. A property and casualty agent such as Aaron Husman can explain how your policy treats it. On the repair side, our rule of thumb is that when about 20 percent or less of a fence is damaged, targeted repairs are usually the most cost-effective choice, and past about 30 percent, replacement is often the better value. My guide on repairing or replacing a leaning fence shows how to judge it.

Small repairs that add years

Most fences do not fail all at once. They fail one post, one picket and one hinge at a time, and each small failure loads the parts around it. A loose post that is reset promptly protects the rails and pickets on both sides. A split picket replaced now does not let water into the rail behind it. A gate that is re-hung before it starts dragging does not wrench its post out of plumb.

Replacing a picket or tightening a hinge is a homeowner job. Resetting a post means digging out the old footing and setting a new post in concrete, which calls for an 811 utility locate first and is usually better left to a fence builder. If your gate is the first thing showing its age, my guide to fixing a sagging gate explains what you can do yourself.

When we come back

We are happy to return to fences we built, and to fences someone else built, for repairs, restaining or a second opinion. I look at the posts, the wood and the finish, tell you plainly what it needs and what it does not, and you receive a free written estimate. When a power wash and restain is enough, that is what I recommend. When posts need resetting first, we do the repair and then stain the old and new wood together so they weather evenly.

We build, repair and restain wood, iron and masonry fences, gates, decks and pergolas for homeowners and commercial properties across the Dallas area, and I walk every finished job with the owner. If your fence is new, put the restain on your calendar now. If it is older, start with the screwdriver walk this weekend, then call us with what you find.

Questions people ask me