In Ottawa, the extreme winter conditions put a remarkable amount of stress on our fences, especially those made of wood. Natural wood typically requires the most maintenance because it runs a higher risk of being damaged. During fall and winter months it is important to keep debris, especially leaves, off of your wood fence. Wet leaves and debris can cause your fence to warp and rot through the winter. You’ll be surprised by the amount of gunk, dust, mildew and other debris that can be coated on your fence. If you have a pressure washer, use it to spray clean the the debris. Short of that, good old fashioned elbow grease along with a sponge and some soapy water should do the trick. Waterproofing your wood fence can also help keep it in excellent condition for when spring comes around.

Consider painting or staining your fence. When selecting your paint or stainer, look for UV resistant types that will help protect your fence from the sun’s harmful rays. If you decide to paint your fence, a best practice is to prime your wood beforehand. A good primer can add years to your fence’s lifespan, saving you money and increasing the value of your home. After you’ve applied your primer, allow it to dry completely before applying your paint. When painting, we suggest you use a brush or a roller to apply the paint as opposed to spraying, which can be difficult to apply consistently. Start by painting the top of your fence and work your way down. Use a piece of cardboard at the base of your fence so that you can quickly paint the bottom without worrying about painting your grass or mixing mud into your paint.

Vinyl / PVC fencing

Vinyl fencing requires the least amount of maintenance of all the fencing materials. Vinyl is very durable and never needs to be sanded or repainted. The best thing you can do to maintain your vinyl fence this fall is to rinse it with soap and water when you notice that it’s covered with dirt and debris. Routine maintenance will not only help keep your vinyl fence looking great, but it will also help make it last longer. Due to weather related reasons, such as freezing and thawing, vinyl fence post caps can become loose. To keep the beauty of your fence up use plastic fencing glue to secure the caps back in place.

Iron fencing

Iron fencing also requires little to no maintenance. However, it can be susceptible to rust from regular moisture deposits without the lack of proper coating. You can fight the usual culprits of rust (Rain, morning dew and snow fall) by covering your iron fence with a clean coat of rust-resistant paint. Along with rust, wrought iron fence is susceptible to dents, deep scratches and chips. To ward off the scratches and chips of the surface of the fence, you need to use rust-resistant finish every year, just to maintain the beauty of the wrought iron fences. When it comes to deep scratches, bending and dents, above method of protection won’t work. We suggest not hanging heavy fall decorations on them and, as always, keep your fence free of leaves and debris.

To make sure your iron fences keep look looking new for years, you can give it a thorough washing with soapy and warm water, at least twice a year. Oil the joints, latches and springs of the fences and then follow up with a wax. Use formulated paint to cover small holes and scratches. Don’t forget to sand away all the scratches with steel wool before painting and allow each layer of paint to get dry before applying another layer, this way you can less the chances of dripping and flaking of the paint.

Chain link fencing

While chain link fence is known for its durability and ability to withstand the elements better than other types of fencing, without proper coating it can easily become vulnerable to rust from moisture. Rain, morning dew, and snow are the usual factors that cause rust. With proper coating of rust-resistant finish, you can easily fight them off. During the fall and winter, leaves and other yard debris can become lodged in your chain link fence, which can cause rust. It is helpful to use a leaf blower to keep leaves out of the links in your fencing. Dirt and grass from the ground accumulating on the fence are major reasons why you would need to clean your chain link fence from time to time. You can give your fence a good washing with soapy water between seasons in order to keep it looking new. Start with a wax and then oil the fence’s springs, latches, and joints, etc. with mineral oil. You can use steel wool to sand away light scratches. While painting, it is important that you let layers dry between one another, or else you will risk dripping and flaking.

Loose nails can become the cause of a bigger damage into your fence if not taken care of on time. Make sure that there are no loose nails on your chain link fence. Tighten all loose screws and bolts. Pay close attention to gate hardware as it gets the most use. If there’s a gate in your chain link fence, make sure that its hinges are rust free. Regularly apply oil on the hinges to keep it rust free. If you don’t do that, opening and closing the gate could become difficult as the hinges start to rust.

The post Winter Fence Maintenance – Wood, PVC, Iron and Chain link first appeared on Capital Deck and Fence.

Most people think of landscaping tasks, but deck maintenance is equally as important. Investing just a small amount of time before the worst of weather hits can make all the difference in how your deck will look and perform as the temperature rises.

Western Red Cedar decks are loved for their unmatched beauty and many homeowners with wood decks are familiar with the regular maintenance needed to keep wood decks looking their best. Even decks made of Western Red Cedar, one of the best performing wood species for outdoor applications, need occasional maintenance to keep them in top shape. Regular deck “spring cleaning” enables a wood deck to last for years, even decades.

To make your spring deck maintenance easier, the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association (WRCLA) recommends these simple tasks right now. 

REMOVE DIRT AND DEBRIS

Sweep away all leaves, pine needles and branches from your deck. If you have a large quantity of leaves, you might consider cutting back the trees and bushes that drop the foliage.

Eliminate all debris from between deck boards. Dirt and leaves can build up, causing standing water or other moisture to stay on top of the deck rather than drain through. Proper ventilation is crucial to avoiding moisture build up.

ELIMINATE MILDEW

Mildew should be removed from a deck soon after it appears. Allowing it to grow untreated, even in the winter, can lead to additional deck damage. There are a number of commercial products that can be purchased at any home center or retail lumberyard. And there are some simple solutions that can be made from common household cleaners. The WRCLA suggests killing and removing mildew with a simple solution made from items you have in your home right now.

Using a common garden sprayer, combine 3 quarts of water, 1 quart of oxygen bleach—Oxyclean and Ajax Oxygen Bleach are two of the most popular brands—and 1/4 cup of ammonia-free liquid dishwasher detergent within the spray canister. Apply the solution liberally to the deck surface and allow the mixture to set for about 10-15 minutes. The bleach will kill the mildew and the dishwasher detergent helps emulsify the mildew to aid in its removal. Liquid dishwasher detergent works better than regular dish or laundry detergent because it will not foam.

After allowing the solution to set, simply rinse the surface clean. For tougher mildew stains, apply the solution with a soft bristle brush.

POTS AND PLANTERS

Setting planters and pots directly on a deck’s surface may cause staining. Since there are drain holes in the base of potted plants, moisture that runs off never has a chance to evaporate between the deck and the planter. Consider removing planters from your wood deck or moving them around on a regular basis to decrease the effects.

To create space between the deck and planters, place planters onto 2″ x 2″ cedar. Cedar has natural compounds that form a resistance to deterioration, rot and decay—it is these same compounds that give cedar it’s unique fragrance—and the extra space created by the cedar will allow moisture to evaporate. Adding cedar stand-offs underneath other large objects like storage boxes, benches and umbrella stands can also go a long way to promoting a healthy deck.

USING YOUR DECK DURING THE WINTER

If you are going to be using your deck regularly during the winter for using the hot tub, barbecuing, and even sitting around an outdoor fireplace, chimnea or open fire pit, here are some simple tips to safeguard against doing harm to your deck.

If your deck will be covered with snow and you are going to be shoveling it off, run the shovel lengthwise on the deck boards. Shoveling cross-wise can scratch or cut in to the deck. A plastic shovel will also be more forgiving than metal on both the finish and wood. And if possible, avoid salt or other ice melters. They may discolor or damage some deck finishes.

PLANNING FOR THE SPRING

With some initial maintenance and repairs already taken care of, you will have more time to tackle other projects once the weather improves. Maybe this is the year to consider adding a trellis, pergola or other outdoor structure. Spark your ideas by visiting your local home center or retail lumberyard, or visit the many resources available online.

The post Prepare your deck for winter first appeared on Capital Deck and Fence.

In the past we have listed some helpful tips and tricks:

• The Ultimate Backyard Fencing Guide
• How to plan for a fence installation – THE CORRECT WAY
• How to Prepare Your Yard for Fence Installation

However we never went over what could go wrong! Today we shall change that fact! Below we list 6 common but costly fencing mistakes!

1. Wrong Kind of Fence for your Home

This is the big one. Choosing the wrong kind of fence is one of the worst fencing mistakes you can make. If your garden fence doesn’t keep large pests out. It is useless. If your dog can escape his fence. It is useless. There are a lot of choices so how do you choose the right one? We dedicated a complete post on this issue: Choose the Right Fence for Your Home. You also might find How to Choose the CORRECT Paint or Stain for your Fence helpful!

2. Unsecured Anchor/Corner Posts

Corner posts are very important to the integrity of a fence. They bear a lot of the pressure, especially when constructing the fence. If you don’t secure them to the ground and support them with braces or other anchors you will slowly see you fence start to cave in. Or your posts might even snap under pressure. And no one wants that. Make sure your corner posts and your gate posts are deeply secured in the ground and properly braced.

3. Underground Utilities

The other day the city was putting up new guard rails on our road. Sometime that morning our internet went out. Then later that day we went out to do some errands and came to the work crew digging every single guard rail post by hand. And lots of new flags dotting the area showing where cable lines were running under the ground. Those guys looked thrilled to be using a manual post hole digger instead of their fancy post drilling machine. So make some calls before you plan your fence. Make sure you won’t be cutting off your neighborhood’s utilities. Make sure you know where your own septic system is. Because that is one fencing mistake you just don’t want to deal with.

4. Wrong Location

So let’s say you’ve spent all your free time fencing in whatever it is you are fencing. You’ve dug in posts. You’ve stretched wire. You’ve cemented in your gate posts and hung the gates. You are super proud of all your hard work. Then you start using the area that is now fenced in and you realized just how inconvenient your gates are. Maybe they are smack dab in the exact area where water and mud gather after storms. Maybe you want to walk you tiller from your shed to the newly fenced in garden and you have to go WAY around to get there. Maybe you didn’t quite plan all scenarios and you now you can’t fit a tractor in through the gate to deliver hay or bush hog or whatever. Before you start any fencing project make sure you have thought out exactly where you need your gates, what they will be used for, and if everything will work as they are supposed to. Because once those gate posts are secured and the fencing stretched…you really don’t want to move your gate. It’s not impossible to do, but it’ll cost you a lot of time and money and cause a headache or two.

5. Incorrectly Spaced Posts

Now let’s say you are crunching numbers for your new fence, and you figure you will save a few bucks by spacing the posts just a little farther then they ought to be spaced. This might work okay for a non-working fence. But let me tell you, if you’ve got an animal inside that pasture, they will be sure to find those weak points in the fence. You don’t want to spend your free time fixing a fence you just put up because the goat knocked it down again. And you don’t want to spend the money to insert new posts to help strengthen the wire. So if your fence needs posts every 8 feet, then put them every 8 feet.

6. Property Lines?

Didi you know that in some places, if a fence is placed on a property line incorrectly and no one contests it, after awhile (years)  that fence becomes the new property line? So if you don’t pay attention you could mistakenly give part of your land away to your neighbor. On the flip side, do you want to take your fence down and move it over a few feet when you neighbor complains that you just fenced in part of his yard? Or even worse, you could get a fine for accidentally fencing in public or government owned property. If you are at all unsure as to where your property line is, then call a surveyor. It’ll cost less in the long run.

So there you have it, 6 Fencing Mistakes That Cost You Time and Money. Whether you are planning a fencing project in the future or mid-job, hopefully you can skip making these mistakes and have a strong, well-made fence that will last a life time!

The post Common Costly Fencing Mistakes first appeared on Capital Deck and Fence.

Lights

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bring lights to your backyard in the creative ways below.

1. Mason Jar Lights

2. String-light

Warmth

1. Blanket

2. Firepit

Life

Bring out the life of winter.

The post Winter Backyard Decor Inspiration first appeared on Capital Deck and Fence.