| 1. What makes a Fence-All Wood Fence different? |
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Fence-All controls the woodworking process from the forest right through to the completed fence or deck. |
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Our careful wood selection process, internal grading systems, and in-house shop facilities allow us the opportunity to match different lumbers to different budgets. |
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Every piece of lumber is cut specifically to fit a Fence-All Wood Fence or Fence-All Wood Deck Design. |
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Milling to the proper size and proportion results in better looking, longer lasting fences and decks. |
| 2. What type of wood is best? |
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For 30 years Fence-All has offered Ottawa and Gatineau area homeowners choices that enhance their homes, yards and gardens. |
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Using only the best lumber helps us to make only the best fences and decks. |
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Western Red Cedar has been the Fence-All wood of choice since 1976. |
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Careful selection of the finest Western Red Cedar, professional milling, and practical designs make our Red Cedar Fences, Red Cedar Decks, and Cedar Accessories our most popular wood type year after year. |
| 3. Do you offer alternatives? |
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For those working on tighter budgets we also offer fencing in #2 grade cedar (this is often Northern White Cedar which is also rot resistant), Pressure Treated Lumber, or other White Woods (spruce or pine). |
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Decks are also available in Pressure Treated Lumber. |
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Some decisions may be practical - a fence around a pool - others, purely aesthetic. Whatever the particular reason, Fence-All has the widest variety of quality choices and options available anywhere in Eastern Ontario or West Quebec. |
| 4. Can you tell me more about Red Cedar versus White Cedar? |
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Mostly due to shipping costs, white cedar is a lower priced alternative for customers "in the east". |
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Western Red Cedar is a wonderful species, with a very straight grain. The wood is light weight (24 lbs per cu ft or 385 kg/cu m) and has little shrinkage. |
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Red Cedar has very high natural decay resistance and a characteristic odor that is famous around the world. |
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Eastern White Cedar is a close relative of Western red cedar, genetically speaking. However, the white cedar tree is much smaller and so the lumber is quite knotty, compared to the clearer lumber of red cedar. The wood is a lighter weight (21 lbs per cu ft or 335 kg/cu m) and so is weaker than red cedar by a considerable amount. The grain is straight; shrinkage is low; splitting is easy. Decay resistance is very high. |
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The specific gravity of White Cedar (SG) is 0.31, versus 0.47 for Red. Strength is 45,000 psi for White versus 61,000 for Red. |
| 5. Which type of Cedar is more rot resistant? |
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While the decay resistance of the heartwood is fairly equal (although some would argue that White Cedar works better in the east and Red Cedar in the West), the strength, including the ability to hold fasteners, of red cedar is superior to that of white cedar. |
| 6. Do you recommend staining? |
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Although Western Red Cedar will weather over time to a silver gray color that might be appealing from an architectural perspective, we believe that applying some kind of protective finish provides the best results both from an aesthetic and performance point of view. |
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Fence-All offers a complete staining service for all of our wood fences, decks, and outdoor wood products. |
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The primer coat minimizes wood bleeding and our double coat staining system, which can be completed in-house or on site, provides years of protection. |
| 7. Which is better in-shop or on-site staining? |
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Spraying before installation, helps to keep your yard and landscape clean and tidy, with no stain over-spray. It also allows for all of the lumber to be stained not just the parts that are visible on completion. |
| 8. Is staining the only maintenance required? |
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Even after applying an exterior finish to your Cedar, discoloration will occur over time. |
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Usually dirt and pollens in the air are the most common cause of discoloration and can easily be removed with a mild detergent using a brush. |
| 9. How long should I expect a cedar fence or deck to last? |
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The hallmark characteristic of Western Red Cedar, it's natural durability, has preserved examples of native culture that are more than 100 years old. |
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Western Red Cedar is one of the few wood species that are naturally at home in the outdoors. |
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Properly finished, Western Red Cedar can last for up to 20 years or more, even in harsh environments. |
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Its natural resistance to moisture, decay and insect damage make it the ideal choice for a surface that is exposed to sun, rain, heat and cold all year round. |
| 10. How long should I expect the cedar to continue to look good? |
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Western Red Cedar has twice the stability of most commonly available softwoods. |
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The stability is a result of its low density and shrinkage factors. It lies flat, stays straight, and holds fastenings tightly. |
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Cedar is easy to cut, form, glue and finish. |
| 11. What about environmental concerns? |
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Wood is a completely natural building material that's 100% biodegradable. |
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Harvesting wood has been shown to be much less intrusive than the mining of raw materials for steel and concrete such as iron ore, coal and limestone. |
| 12. Is there somewhere I can go to find out more about Western Red Cedar? |
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The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association makes up to date product and environmental information available at www.wrcla.org |
| 13. Is Pressure Treated a more expensive, maintenance-free lumber? |
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Pressure Treated Lumber is a less expensive alternative to Cedar, or other wood types that are naturally good for outdoor projects. |
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Because most common wood species have little resistance to decay, some form of chemical preservative is necessary to protect the lumber
from rot and from attack of insects and fungi. |
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This chemical treatment does not stop dimensional changes in the wood which are caused by changes in the weather and humidity. |
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Customers purchasing Pressure Treated Lumber should expect to save money, but they should also expect to see increased levels of splitting, cracking, twisting and cupping. |
| 14. Do you recommend staining Pressure Treated Lumber? |
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Pressure Treated Lumber will weather over time to a silver gray color that might be appealing from an architectural perspective, but effective water repellants will retard the impact of moisture in the wood and, thereby, help reduce splitting, cracking and twisting that is common with these types of wood. |
| 15. Can you tell me more about the new type of Pressure Treating? |
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Alkaline Copper Quaternary Ammonium (ACQ) is a wood preservative - containing copper and quaternary ammonium compound (quat) as active ingredients - that protects against rot, decay and termite attack. It is the most common replacement to the old CCA method. Quat is a product commonly used in commercial disinfectants and cleaners. It acts as a co-biocide. Some copper does leach from ACQ-treated lumber, making it unsafe for garden or marine use. |
| 16. What about using non-treated lumbers, other than Cedar? |
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For those working on tighter budgets we also offer fencing in other, non-treated white woods. |
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Normally secured with Pressure Treated or Cedar posts, a spruce or pine fence panel can offer the same privacy as a treated fence with less cost and less impact on the environment when the old fence is being disposed of. |
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Customers should expect the same cracking and twisting that is associated with Pressure Treated Lumber. |
| 17. Do you recommend staining non-treated Lumbers? |
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Many people choose to not stain for environmental reasons, but effective water repellants will retard the impact of moisture on the wood. |
| 18. Does it matter if a wood fence touches the ground? |
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Wood that is touching the ground will rot at an accelerated rate and may cause the entire fence to heave with frost. |
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Wood fences are best installed at least 2" above ground level. |
| 19. Do wood fence posts have to be set in concrete? |
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Although there are times when an alternative might work better, the most cost effective method of installing wood fences tends to be to set them in concrete. |
| 20. Can I let vines grow on my new wood fence? |
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Never use Pressure Treated Lumber around edible products and contact with vines or plant life will encourage rot in untreated non-cedar wood types. |
| 21. Do post caps help to deter rot in wood fence posts? |
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The choice of cap and the height to cut off posts is purely an aesthetic choice. |
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Cut them at your preferred height and remember to consider the height of the post cap when doing so. |
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Posts rot at the ground level much faster than up at the top of the post. |
| 22. Why do knots sometimes fall out of the fence boards? |
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Knots and the surrounding wood have different densities. Since knots are more dense, they expand and contract less than the surrounding wood, loosening the bond. For customers concerned about this, we recommend our #1 Western Red Cedar, or Select Grade Cedar. The knots will be smaller and tighter. The cost is slightly more, but your fence will have a longer serviceable life. |
| 23. What causes black marks around the nails in a wood fence? |
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Black stains are caused by natural wood extracts interacting with the metal. Moist wood increases the likelihood of this interaction. To help avoid this Fence-All uses only hot-dipped galvanized spiral nails and fasteners. |
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For ACQ Pressure Treated Lumber, which leaches copper, special double galvanized fasteners are required. |
| 24. What do you recommend for helping the wood posts last longer? |
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Many homeowners try to plan ahead and ask if we have a solution for posts that will last longer. |
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Upgrading to steel posts was a somewhat popular option in the past but always had inherent problems (steel promotes rot in the wood). |
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Now we are able to offer PVC posts, with a lifetime warrantee against rot, that will fit almost any wood fence style. |
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