Take it slow and steady, painting a wooden fence can be easy and fun!
With spring in the air, folks throughout the Mid-Atlantic are eager to get outside and get started on some home improvement projects to spruce up their homes before the warmer seasons. You’ll want to spend more time outside as the weather gets progressively nicer, and you’ll want to do so in an outdoor living space that is bright, clean, and lively. Looking for a fun and easy way to move toward that goal? Let’s learn about painting a wooden fence.
Prepping Your Wooden Fence to Paint or Stain
Depending on how up-to-date you are on your fence maintenance plan, your fence may be looking a little worn down. Paint will adhere best to a clean surface, so the first step should be giving it a solid wash-down, as we outlined in a recent blog post about spring cleaning for your fence. Check out that post for tips on washing your wood fence. If there’s an old coat of paint that you’re freshening up, scraping/chipping the old paint away or stripping it with store-bought solutions rather than painting over it will give it a cleaner and smoother finish. Be sure to check for damage while you’re doing this to know whether you’re better off replacing your fence.
Choosing Paint vs. Stain
Either staining or painting a wooden fence will reach your goal of beautifying your yard and protecting your wood fence from moisture. Choosing to stain your fence will give you a rich, natural look, and will require less maintenance down the road, but the product itself will likely cost you more than a bucket of paint. On the other hand, painting a wooden fence offers an entirely different look and is cheaper to apply, but you’ll spend more time keeping it looking perfectly clean and touching up scratches and such.
Prepping Yourself to Stain or Paint a Wooden Fence
Make a plan of attack and do some quick thinking before you just jump outside and slap some paint on your fence. First, make sure you have enough supplies, especially if you’re enlisting the help of friends or children. Another good idea is to lay a tarp or piece of cardboard underneath or right up against your fence, so that potential paint or stain drips don’t mess up your grass. (This is obviously optional, depending on how much you care about the perfection of your grass.) Finally, check the forecast. Rain will obviously dampen the situation, but too much heat and humidity can negatively affect the way the paint or stain adheres to the wood surface.
The Actual Painting Part
This is the fun part! Get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, turn on some tunes, enjoy conversation with friends, and paint away! A lot of the tough part of painting a wood fence is in preparation. As far as the painting process goes, you just want to be sure that you’re applying your coats in manageable sections and at even thicknesses. We recommend five or so boards at a time so that you can evenly coat all parts of each board without running into problems from dried paint when you go to tackle the other side. Start at the top of the post and work downward, so you don’t have drips running into already smoothed areas. You may need a smaller brush to get at the surface area in between boards. For a slightly more detailed breakdown and additional tips and tricks, check out this tutorial on DoItYourself.com!
Painting a Wooden Fence from Hercules Fences
At Hercules Fence, we specialize in the installation and maintenance of several fence styles throughout the Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina areas. Residential fencing provides a welcoming appearance to complement your home. Our sales team can offer you many selections to choose from to accommodate your privacy, semi-privacy, and decorative needs, and our professionals use only the highest quality materials to install your fence at a price that is reasonable and affordable. We also specialize in commercial fencing to keep your business safe and secure while also looking professional and welcoming.
To get started with your residential fence for your home, call us today at 1-800-883-3623. You can also visit our contact page to find a full list of our locations and phone numbers.
