Fences
You can build them, tear them down, mend them or sit on them. But one thing you don’t have to do any more is paint them.
Composite timber is rapidly becoming the fencing material of choice for people who like the look of timber but don’t want the maintenance that goes with it.
After all, staining or painting a fence can be a time-consuming and expensive task. How expensive? How long is a piece of fence? It depends on the quality of the materials you choose, and whether it’s a slat fence that needs all the edges done – or if it’s your three-yearly maintenance touch up, how much preparation and how many coats you need to do – but $20 per square metre is not an unrealistic figure.
But with a composite like Futurewood’s EnviroSlat, for instance, you simply decide whether you want Mahogany, Slate Grey, Chocolate, Walnut or maybe Weatherstone, and that’s that.
The other driving force towards new age fencing materials is the increasing need to take the pressure off our forests. With something like Futurewood, made from recycled polyolefin (plastic from post industrial waste), rice husks and recycled hardwood, the environment is the winner all round.
Composite fencing materials have a number of other advantages too. Low water absorption avoids rotting. There are no knotholes or splinters. Sap runs and tannin leaching are a thing of the past. While resistance to termites and white ants is another major benefit of this most practical of fencing materials.
Installation is straight forward too. EnviroSlat is designed to span 900mm in a continuous run between fence posts, or 600mm span in a single run, for a low maintenance horizontal or vertical slat screen or fence. Boards are 70mm wide x 15mm thick and come in 5.4 metre lengths.
Satin black powder coated aluminium fence posts and a “U” channel provide the ideal framework for a horizontal fence. 50mm x 50mm or 65mm x 65mm posts each have a 2.5mm wall thickness for extra strength and come complete with a stabilising bar and knock on black cap. The 30mm x 16mm satin black powder coated “U” channel screws to the fence posts so the boards can be fixed inside the channel and screwed from the back.
Composite fencing materials are smart, cost effective and environmentally friendly. They’re the future of fencing.
