Fence paint - red or not?

Red cedar is not actually red, it is a form of orange. Now, where else in your home or wardrobe of clothes would you be willing to feature orange so largely? But people seem to feel it's fine in large quantities in the garden. Would you paint your lounge strong orange/terracotta then match it with a green carpet or suite and accents of pink, purple, red and yellow? Thought not. But that's what happens in gardens all the time.

My neighbour has just put up a large expanse of new fencing just opposite my kitchen window. It was eye-wateringly orange at first but mercifully it seems to have been sprayed with something to take it down a few shades.

 

This describes my fences fairly accurately. Oh dear. In fact, part of the neighbour's fence is actually falling down but it's not really visible from my garden so it hasn't been a problem. I guess she should sort it but she's a medical student so I can't see it happening.

I thought the fence paint was mainly decorative - does it have much of a preservative action? I wouldn't want to use those strong chemical preservative paints.

The other thing about red cedar is that my house is terracotta brick so it would create an overwhelming orange effect.

Did I mention I wasn't very keen on red cedar?

 

I couldn't get any sense from either the tins or the staff at DIY shops about the protection given by fence paint.

So I sent an e-mail to (what was) ICI paints division that made some of them. I explained that I used to work in the research labs in another part of ICI - hoping that they would take my enquiry more seriously.

As a result I got a very nice long and helpful e-mail back. The gist was that all the cheap colours are just that - cheap colours. They have no protective properties at all. It was mainly the solvent based ones that had protective chemicals in them. And there was more than one level of protection. The most expensive (at that time about £20 for a small tin) would protect for up to 5 years, cheaper solvent based ones would protect for less. Water base - no protection at all.

Having said that I suspect that its the posts that go first - under the soil.

 

I used a golden oak colour "own brand" bought from Wicks on the summer house and fence on one side of the garden with forest green on the other side. The golden oak fence is new but I don't think that the older green fence has long to go before it falls apart and needs replacing. . . .