How to maintain and repair picket fence around your home

A personal property always needs to be secured from the intruders by fencing around it. Therefore, every residential building is seen to be surrounded by strong fences that also help in marking the boundary of each property, separating it from the neighboring properties. Most of the modern homes are surrounded by the wooden picket fences, which are strong enough to last for years. But the house owners need to take care of these fences, by checking their condition from time to time. The wooden fences may often need careful maintenance and if worn out at any place, immediate repair of that spot is essential, for preventing any further damages.

Picket Fences

Regular Maintenance Tips for the Well-being of the Picket Fences:

• The wooden fences should be painted thoroughly, to prevent fast weathering from the rough weather conditions. But in due course of time, this painting often comes out from places of the fences, which should be repainted as soon as possible, to save the wood from cracking or any other damage. The painting should be done by taking a load of paints on the brush at a time and cover the fences totally with paints. It is generally advised to paint the fences on a bright sunny day, so that it can be dried naturally, by the heat of the sunlight.

• In case of repainting, first of all, the peeling off of the painted parts should be scraped off completely, exposing the wooden surfaces of the fences, so that the new paint can be put on effectively. Then a coat of latex primer is applied with a wide brush. Finally, to maintain the uniformity in the picket fences of the house, it is coated with the latex paint of the same color as the existing one.

• But sometimes, a few pickets of the fences may become loose with the course of time; which are needed to be reattached firmly, with screwdrivers or hammers. In case of more damaged ones, the house owner can simply buy a few ready made pickets from any local hardware store and attach these factory-manufactured products, by taking out the damaged ones first. Then these new pickets need to be painted with the same color, as the rest of the fences.

• It is better to check minutely the whole fencing at least once a month, to detect any problem on its pickets and to avoid any major repair in future. Moreover, a well maintained fencing not only helps in increasing the beauty of the house but also its property value as well.

Picket Fences

• The lower parts of the pickets are more likely to be damaged, due to the close contact with the soil. So these parts should be diligently cleaned, to see whether the wooden pickets are in fine condition. It is better to wash away regularly all the soil and dirt with help of a hose pipe, to find the picket fences in absolutely clean condition. Some people also mix cleaning agents in the water of the hose pipe, for getting more brightened fences.

• If any part of the wood, sticks out in the pickets, it is better to make that part smooth again, by rubbing the surface with a sander, after clipping out the stuck out wooden strips.

• Though lots of houses keep gardens in their courtyard, it is better to grow the plants and the grasses, in a distance away from the fences; so that the chemicals of the fertilizers may not harm the wood of these pickets.