coating fences

Hi - wondered if anyone had any opinions/experience re. coating fences. Is the calpanol spray stuff (re creepy laughing man advert) a better roated than old fashioned painting the stuff on? Also what about plants in border right next to fence - I suppose just a bit of plastic sheeting over them to protect them..

 

Hi crouchend, yes I wondered about the spray on stuff, that 'creepy, laughing man' makes it look so easy but with plants all around as well as those growing on the fence I guess it wouldn't be so easy. Sorry I can't offer any advice but I'd also be interested to see any comments made.

 

Hi Crouchend. I looked into this about three years ago, when I put up a new fence. I went to the local DIY stores and asked what would preserve the fence, as the tins were most unhelpful. All the staff did was just read the writing on the tins back to me. So I e-mailed Cuprinol (which is or was part of ICI. I used to work in the research department in ICI - but different division). I got a very helpful e-mail back, which I have since lost.

Essentially the cheapest water based coatings do nothing. It is just paint, which makes it look nice. As they do nothing, they do not affect plants. The more expensive water based ones have oils in which help repell rainwater, but still do very little. At the other end the most expensive ones are solvent based, which will protect the wood for up to 5 years, and a cheaper one for about 2 years. To protect the wood they must have nasty chemicals in, and consequently are likely to affect plants.

Having said this, a wooden fence is most likely to rot where the uprights are in contact with the damp soil, and there is nothing you can do about this. The panels themselves will get wet with rain, but then dry out again. In my experience, this is not a major source of rot.

As far as application is concerned, spraying is far quicker and more convenient. It is important to do it when the wood is dry as it will absord the coating. If you are using a cheap water based paint it does not matter if you coat the plants. I think you need to read what the Cuporinol tin says. They are a technical company and tend to be fairly responsible. I have seen the advert, but not seen the tin. It should give some advice about plants. I suspect that the coating is not that harmful a chemical. I doubt that they would advocate spraying for their most expensive/powerful coating.

At the end of the day, spraying does make a fence look better, but I am not that sure it will last longer.

 

I saw someone in our village sraying on preservative onto a picket fence, and though it did the job quicker than using a brush, I couldn't help thinking that a lot of it must have gone to waste through the gaps in the fence.

In my old house our neighbour used to fill up one of those big pump action sprayers with creasote to do his larch lap fencing in the back garden.
Only problem being, where there were knot holes and gaps in the panels, quite a lot of the spray came through onto our rose bushes and flowers which didn't leave them looking very nice.
I don't think he even realised what he was doing, until we told him.
He was rather red faced and couldn't apologise enough.

Good job we were moving, or else we would have ended up with a garden full of dead plants.

Be warned!!

Kandy

 

Thankyou very much for all these replys. Have only just logged in after several days so really pleased for all the feedback. PeterS esp. thanks for the detail. Hopefully a spray on one maybe o.k. Its is mostly to make the fences look a bit less tired and was hoping it could keep the lichen off. Luckily our neighbour suggested it and she dosen't have a border on the side the fence is. Other side and back it seems to be more weeds than plants so should be o.k. Will check with neighbours first. Will read tins too and see what the promise is about the preservation too.

 

I am going to spray paint all 120ft of fencing with cuprinol spray paint, any ideas will this work with green mould on parts of the wood, most of the wood has lost its previous colour too.

 

The two fences I share (jointly owned) with one neighbour, (side of garden and drive divider) will be easy to cover when it needs doing as when I errected the back fence (on my own whilst they were away) is a six ft post and panel with concrete posts and a concrete base panel. The 5' by 6' wooden panels will (in theory) slide out as we've nothing fixed to them. All our climbers are on wires stretched between hooks drilled into the posts. (I got them to see the sense in that). It's then just a question of pinning a polythene dust sheet against a wall and using a garden pressure spray, spray both sides then put them back.

On the other side, all my stuff is on similar wires. But "'er next door" has let her stuff grow wild and there's probably a lot of it tied on to the panels with hooks and string. A couple of years ago a panel "went" as the wind caught a big ball of her climbing stuff which was tied to the panel and dragged it out in bits.
So we came to an agreement that she'd replace the panel and I'd put it in. I'm fighting a losing battle with a lot of her stuff growing through that fence. Eventually the whole fence (except the posts and base panel) will have to be replaced as other panels are being slowly "eaten" from the other side.

 

and waste into the air (pollution)

It was idiots like this that got creosote banned. It was used ever since it was discovered as a product of Gas industry (extracted from coal), with very little problem when brushed by skilled decorators. It's the phenolic content of creosote that protected the wood from rot and beetle attack for up to 20 years.

Vacuum/pressure pickling carried out by the Forestry Commission on stakes and posts, penetrated to approx. 40mm. I have seen fence stakes which had had the centre rotted away while the outside 40mm was still perfect, thus leaving a tube of wood.

Don't spray and pollute the air

 

I really loved the smell of creosote.
Nearest to it it was "Wright's Coal-Tar Soap!"