Wood Fence Designs: Split Rail Fence

Use A Split Fail Fence For Your Field

A split rail fence is one of the most common wood fence designs and is generally used for agricultural purposes, although on occasion it is used as decorative garden fencing. It is generally use in the countryside and it is the most suitable wood fence for horse fencing, farms and fields and possibly, the garden fence of country houses. It is seldom used in towns. The most common of this type of wood fence design uses timber logs ‘split’ lengthwise to form ‘rails’, hence the name split rail fence. Although you still need to know how to build a wood fence it has a simplicity of design and ease of assembly, needing only a handful of elementary tools.

The rails are stacked on top of each other, either straight or in zigzag fashion, this is called a worm fence, and vertical fence posts are used to secure them. Because of this, split rail fences are also known as ‘post and rail fences’. The suppliers offer separate end posts, corner posts and line posts with holes made halfway, two holes on adjoining sides and through single hole respectively. Most split rail fences have two horizontal rails, though some suppliers offer three or four if that is what the customer wants.

Wood Fence Designs

It is not too difficult to build. Wood fence posts are put vertically into holes in the ground and either tamped firmly in or sometimes fixed with  concrete. The fence posts are made from specially treated wood to help preserve them and to discourage attack from termites and other insects and molds. They can be weather proofed for use in areas prone to high rainfall and moisture.

The holes in the vertical posts are predrilled by the fence companies  before being supplied and if you are good at building wood fences you can either do the fence installation yourself or ask a professional to do it for you. The fencing supplies personnel might offer installation as an option. This type of wood fence conventionally does not use nails, although some people prefer to use them and it is particularly suitable for hard and rocky terrain.

However, this wood fence design is expensive as it uses a lot of wood.  The most common timber used in the construction of the split rail fence is American chestnut or chestnut blight, but cedar is growing in popularity.

Wood Fence Designs

Choose The Right Wood Fence Design For Your Property

There are many different wood fence designs and some are more appropriate fence styles for a particular type of house than others, so if you are going to be building a fence it is worth taking a bit of time to choose the right wood fencing for your property. For example a simple picket fence is the best sort of garden fence for a cottage sitting within a cottage garden, while a split rail fence made of red cedar wood goes well with a country style house.

For many people privacy fence designs are probably what they really want when they first think of fence styles and fence installation, and a stockade fence might be the answer. Think carefully though, as privacy fence prices are quite high and it is not a particularly neighbor friendly fence design. If that were to become an issue, a garden trellis fence or lattice fence could be better. These wood fence designs allow for sunlight to favor both sides, conversations to take place and they provide a good backdrop to sympathetic planting.

Wood Fence Designs

It will undoubtedly be a sensible move to learn a bit about wood fence designs when you are planning on building a wood fence on your property; indeed, you might actually want to learn how to build a fence. There are very many different types of fence designs and as well as learning about the different fence styles, you might want to familiarise yourself with fence installation as well. You can then either build the fence yourself or at least be in a position to keep an educated eye on whichever of the  fence companies is doing it for you.

Within this broad base there are many variations and there are a number of things to keep in mind when building a wood fence. You should choose the correct fence styles for the building  and the surroundings; ideally too, they should be the right types of fences for the landscape, utilise the right sort of fencing materials and they should fulfil the function that you require of a fence. You might want to have wood gates to match.

Privacy is often one of the main reasons for putting up a wood fence and this can often cause disagreements between yourself and your next door neighbor. Your garden fence should be built at a height that is reasonable, both for your needs and for what other interested parties would consider acceptable. If it is too low, then neither side will get any benefit from privacy fencing, if it is too high it could be considered to be unfriendly. Fencing materials should be carefully considered when you are deciding how to build a fence and should be in keeping with their surroundings.

In order to avoid conflict pre fence installation discussions concerning which wood fence designs you might choose are essential to maintaining good relations.