Picket fences are so very classic and, in tip-top condition, can be as pretty as a picture. They do require maintenance though, so if your picket fence is in need of some love, here are some hints on how to repair it yourself, as we did.
Ours was by no means a perfect repair but it’s bought another 3-4 years life to a fence that was on its last legs. It’s amazing how you can transform a fence that looks beyond hope with a bit of effort and minimal cost.
Preparing your Picket Fence
Prune or tie back any plants growing along the fence line. While they look gorgeous, wild roses and other creeping vines, if left unkept, can grow destructively through the paling gaps. Not only can they damage the posts by warping them, they also contain moisture – encouraging damp then rot. Best to trim back plants each season to allow for a fresh coat of paint if necessary and ‘breathing space’ to enable the wood to dry out. If you have a favourite plant that you can’t bear to prune back severely, tie a rope around its branches and tie it back. This gives you a chance to get behind it, repair any damaged wood and to paint freely.
It may sound severe, but water blasting is an excellent way to prepare for painting. Any rotten timbers will be quickly exposed and blown away, literally! Rotten wood will disintegrate quickly under a full pressure water hose. Waster blasting will generally remove moss, flaky paint and dirt.
A wire brush and paint scraper will remove the last of the loose paint.
Replacing Palings
Depending on the type of picket fence you have, finding replacement palings may be difficult. For an older house, some picket fence designs simply just aren’t available in the local hardware store. There is no standard picket fence design. The solution? Make your own of course.
Simply find wood of the same thickness, trace around an existing paling, cut with a jig-saw, then finish with a rub of sandpaper.
Painting
We used a regular exterior acrylic paint as a top coat, and a primer/undercoat for the bare wood (which was most of it)! Exposed wood will need priming, unless you have a self-priming paint.
If it’s a nice sunny day, your paint will dry quickly. Top tip: the paint on your brush will also dry so rinse out with water regularly to keep the paint flowing easily. With a generously loaded brush you may experience some paint dribbles – so be sure to check the other side of the paling to brush up any drips before they set in the sun.
Prior to the face-lift, our fence had been built some 20+ years earlier out of rimu offcuts, designed by hand. What a wonderful piece of art. I wonder how many home owners would go to the trouble to create their very own masterpiece like this now-days? It was a pleasure to have given it a new lease of life.
