Materials

These are the pickets we’re using. Just over ¾ of an inch. I’ve been told by our supplier that we should be able to get them through the rest of the season, we’ll see. You seldom see boards this thick from commercial fence suppliers. Just doesn’t happen. Usually fence pickets are just under 9/16 of an inch thick. Thick enough so the supplier doesn’t have to say half inch but a long long way from three quarters. The wood feels different handling, more substantial. Wood from that unamed big box building supply is barely over a half inch and truth be told I haven’t seen Western Red Cedar pickets there lately. It’s another inferior cedar often called incense cedar.

Update, only available on 4" wide pickets for 6' high fence, the wider pickets were discontinued, we'll see how long it lasts.

Update on update, 9/20/07 now we are having problems on the 4” pickets as well. I’m buying fancy7/8 inch thick pickets to full fill the current contract. It’s either that or delay until the first of the month. Because this source isn’t dependable I’ll probably offer them only “as available”. I do think I’ll start offering the fancy 7/8 inch at a higher price. I like the low moisture content and the small amount of shrinkage.

Still waiting for a price decrease due to the fall off in new construction. Instead cedar and steel went up again in the beginning of the month. One of my suppliers has begun laying off administrative staff already, lets hope they remain in business. There are only two large suppliers of fence cedar in Denver, competition is good.

Notice the colour? Brown. This wood is brown, red, and tan, just like the name of the species, Western Red Cedar. The white pickets of a good grade from commercial fence supplies are also usually western red, just not fully matured, so they haven’t yet turned the colour the species is named for. Of course there is also that other white wood imported from China which is also some kind of cedar that gives of an almost medicinal smell. I’m not sure what variety that kind is.

These pickets are called good two face, meaning both sides are culled for appearance. They aren’t one side good as in exterior trim lumber. When there are knots they are usually larger than in trim lumber. Trim lumber usually goes by the designation “select tight knot”, fence wood is “standard or better” often suppliers call their wood #1, #2 or #3. The numbers are just hype as far as I’m concerned and have little relation to the official grades designated by the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association. The really good wood, the clear grade and quarter sawn, is also made from the older trees. The knots are bigger in older trees but they are also fewer. The trees that you get select tight knot from will never give you clear boards, too many knots. As in a lot of things I go for the brand name, and stick with a consistently good brand.






Creag here is sitting on a pile of 2x4x10s that I’m stacking to be stored, behind him is a bunk of 4x4s still in the wrapper. Notice the wood is coloured brown, tan, and red. This is wood from mature trees in Canada. Currently Home Depot has very white coloured posts, subject to twisting and warping and having very little natural resistance to rot. Which would you choose?

We tend to buy our wood by the bunk, that way we control how dry or wet it is. We like wood to dry out slowly and to avoid split and warped timbers. We store our wood inside out of the sun and keep it covered. For the past couple years we’ve been buying Weyerhaeuser and their product called CedarOne. It seems to be of a consistent good quality.


Starting in rear left to right
Stainless Steel Ring Shank Nails
Galvanized Ring Shanks
Three inch galvy ring shanks
Lags (lag screws or lag bolts)
Two inch galvy finish nails
Galvanized brads
Then in front
Coated 1 5/8 screws
Carriage Bolts
Three inch coated screws
Hex drive four inch screws.


What’s up with the nails
The nails on the left are called coil nails. A couple of years ago we switched to coil nails because they were a better fastener. Before that we had always used screws for the pickets. With the screws we started by using what are called yellow gold screws, the most common wood screw. We upgraded to an electroplate galvanized screw which though more resistant to rust also reacted with cedar and left a stain, and finally to the high grade coated screw. They are the tan ones in front.
All screws had their drawbacks and advantages. I liked the fact that they go in slow. Guys putting up pickets had a chance to think a little bit while they were working. When someone slows down to look at what they are doing they do a better job. They were reversible, you can always unscrew one. They were strong.
We had one problem with the screws. They tended to split the pickets, the coated screw we finally settled on was wide. In order to hold the coating the screw had to be made of a softer metal, and therefore thicker.
The coil nails are only for pickets. They are a special nail designed specifically for cedar and redwood. The ends are blunted so that when they enter the wood they don’t cut into the fibres but rather split it. Similar to the way a sewing needle for silk is blunted. The nails are slim, they don’t split the wood, considerably slimmer than the nails shot from those all purpose nail guns. The ring shanks are tiny ridges around the nail that keep it from pulling out.
We’ve also noticed that the nails don’t leave as noticeable a hole in the wood as they are countersunk. They set just below or at the surface giving the wood a smooth look and also the head is smaller than a regular wood screw. Screws still have their place, particularly where they can be pre drilled, carefully driven, and filled with wood putty, as in specialty gates from the shop.
Next to the coil nails are a clip of stick nails. In this case three and a half inch ring shank galvies. These are a big bad nail. Sink one in your hand by mistake and you’ll wake up right away. We use these only on face nailing dimensional lumber. Like when putting up rails on a generic cedar privacy.
More often for rails, because we do a lot of toe nailing we use the three inch wood screws. They are the dark brown ones. The screws have better resistance to pull out and when placed they tend to pull the wood together for a tight joint. A careful look at the joints on our mid range to up market fences, and you can see the joints are tight, no sloppiness. A tightly made fence adds to the strength and the overall look of being uniform and well made.