How to Protect Wooden Fence in Freezing Weather?

Snow fencing is hard work! Winter is harsh and can be brutal to fragile things like your wood fence. Serious attention needs to be paid on fencing freezing weathers as well to your aluminum fences as well. To secure your wood fence from freezing winter some tiny but effective ways can make a difference.

Few ideas and a little of bit effort can be fruitful to maintain your fence. No hard work is recommended rather a broom and a shovel, as tools, will be sufficient to do that work.

Your target is not to get rid of winter instead, but to get along with it.

heavy duty snow fence

7 Smart ways to Handle Snow in your Wooden fence

  1. Tree branches near the wooden fence need to be trimmed.
  2. Apply weatherproof coating for longevity.
  3. To paint using sprayer or roller or brushes can be your primary tools to paint, in this, there is no golden rule to apply for painting.
  4. Clear the pile of snow from near fence
  5. Wait till snowing stops
  6. Be proactive, not reactive
  7. Choose a smart snow thrower
  8. Put up a Temporary Fencing

Tree Branches Near the Wooden Fence Need to be Trimmed

Few circumstances can be drawn, such as; dry tree brunches that may pose serious damage to your fence. Since you don’t know when it might crackdown and damage your fence out of nowhere.

Besides, dewdrops on fence from Tree branches can cause damage to your wooden fence slowly but surely.

Consequences are rotten fence or cracked fence or warped fence which I believe you absolutely won’t love to see. In this condition, preventive steps are better than reactive on harsh weather. Before posing this question, you know where your fence is.

 

Clear the Pile of Snow Sway From the Fence to Protect the Wood

protect fence from freezing weather

Few questions may pop up in our mind, for how long I should be doing this? Do I need to this cleaning part daily? Or can waiting for the snow fall to stop causing damage to your fence? Those questions may seem silly, but these are questions where people want to know the exact answer.

This means you don’t need to clear the fence on a daily basis. Actually, there is no specific answer to these questions since it is pretty related with conditions. If the snowfall is pretty heavy, wait for it to stop and then go for it to brush it subject to the snowfall is not wet.

 

Wait Till Snowing Stops To Paint Fence During Freezing Cold Weather

The answer is, you can wait until the snowfall stops to be precise. Otherwise, there is no point of clearing the snow away from the fence. However, waiting for long can submerge your fence occasionally.

Furthermore, the plow driver can push more pile of snow with your fence, ended up with way too worse condition.

In connection to the previous context, it can be said, if you find the snowfall happens every day and weather stays out of + degree than you can wait until the winter comes to an end if you find it too much hard work.

 

Drag The Pile of Snow a Little Away From Fence Post

how to protect fence from snow

Moreover, pay close attention, while clearing piles of snow, no pile or stake of snow can be pushed or dragged toward or against the fence. instead, make sure you pile them away from the fence at the middle of the yard. thus, it won’t weaken the post eventually.

Overall, the idea is nothing but to isolate your fence from the pile of snow.

This is applicable regardless of any type of fence. The fence should be submerged by snow as this may cause serious damage not only wooden fence but also to aluminum fences.

 

Avoid Accidents by Putting a Different Color 

wood snow fence with colors

Last but not the least; people consider having white fence looks good in compared to other fences. Actually, putting different colors to your fence sometimes can be life-saving.

Having white fence would lose its visibility from remote to detect. However, you know where your fence is, but not others. So having a visible fence can reduce the number of mishaps.

 

Be proactive to save your wooden fence

how to protect wooden fence from cold weather

In advance to the cold weather, prepare with few steps to ensure your fence’s longevity. Inspect to find the weak spots, try to find the cracks and soft areas prone to imminent damage can help you to overcome the harsh cold attack during the weather.

By repairing the broken parts, adding support to weak spots, pinning more screws to give more strength to the fence and filling holes with wood filler.

Besides, checking the invasion of tiny insects or termites prior to winter is an imperative task to do. Their presence can create crack or a tiny line of split within the wood.  It is wise and highly recommended to replace those parts of a wooden fence to stop infecting rest wooden panels.

 

Give a colorful look to your fence

Besides, black colored fence on the hand can cause difficulty to detect at pitch dark night. Idea is to keep your fence colorful during the winter to detect it for yourself as well as for others by using different coating or painting on the top of your fence.

On the other hand, you don’t need to change the color of your fence on every season, just putting some highlighted or visible color on the type of fence can help you as well as your neighborhood to detect it from distance avoiding further accidents.

Might Interest you: Top 7 Snow Joe Snow Blowers

Applying a waterproof coating

 

There is a nice way of inspecting the water resistance capacity of your wooden fence. Apply a few drops of water to check whether it absorbs or not. If it absorbs, it is  high time to apply paint or water-resistant coating before the arrival of winter.

This is how; the durability of a wooden fence can be made sure at least for one more year subject to your action on this. Waterproof coatings or waterproof paints not only protect your wooden fence from cold weather but also from the heat of the sun.  Thus, applying waterproof stains or color can make a big difference on your wooden fence to prepare for winter. 

 

FAQ On Snow Fencing

Snow fencing 1

Can vinyl fence stand freezing cold?

Answer is no and yes at the same time. Though vinyl fence doesn’t rot like wood but it can rot and bend or sometimes can crack because of long freezing cold weather.

Sometimes, shoveling the stacked snow from the fence or brooms can be a good tool to kick away piled up snows.

What happens to the aluminum fence during a freezing cold?

Now you know any wooden fence can face the damaging impact of freezing weather subject to the longevity of winter and frequency of rain with snowing. Unlike a wooden fence or Vinyl fence, an aluminum fence doesn’t encounter the severe damaging effect. Instead, these fences can loose its grip from ground and may become shaky at the same time.

 

How to discover the weak spot while snow fencing?

Therefore, after a few days of snowfall, a lazy walk around the fence and sometimes shaking with one hand randomly can help you to discover any weak spot of your fence. Hence, rather being reactive, before the winter, by putting cement footings this imminent issue can be cornered.

Above mentioned cement footing has to be completed before bitting cold winter. As per suggestions from experts, it is recommended to do it within 25-degree Celcius, otherwise, this cement footing won’t be possible to create. Besides, it is imperative to keep your cement footings out of debris and dust.

 

How you should install the Fence panel?

Winter fencing

So the solution is, the fence post has to be dug under the ground well. The standard depth, as per expert suggestions, of putting the post beneath the ground is 35-36 inch. however, it is plausible to make this change even if the post is installed, but it has to be done slowly by not disturbing the rest of the posts. 

Can your paint protect your fence for freezing cold?

Another hazardous consequence can happen with your expensive applied paints. If the paint was not used for as per the compatibility of cold weather it may result in breaking down.

Besides, wet cold weather can cause your wooden fence to rot and mildew. This means, having paint may protect your wood from heat and humid weather but not for freezing weather.

Nevertheless, it saves your wood but to some extent and for some time. It is suggested by experts to screen your with a cursory look and put your finger with a gentle push to check it’s sturdiness and strength of standing upright. It applies for only an wooden fence.

 How to paint during cold weather?

Paints become thicker during cold, I mean freezing cold, ends up the immense difficulty to paint your fence. This happens because of the presence of different alkyd and oil-based paints mixed with paint.

On the other hand, water-based paints or “latex” paint loses it’s originality to paint, obviously here water is to blame. Thus, paint ends up with difficulty to work with.

How to paint on freezing cold weather?

Therefore, it is better you do this in a vacuum place. Experts call it the process of creating a bubble for snow fencing. So, apparently, freezing weather can’t cause any negative impact on paint’s quality.

Secondly, adding additives can make your function smoother. This means, adding chemical additives will assist you to paint smoothly. But, chemical material should be mixed proportionally and with proper measurement. This freezing-resistant chemicals works wonder and bring convenience to your work.

Will paint freeze while buying it during freezing weather?

Yes, while buying paints, it may freeze and thaw during harsh cold weather. Especially, acrylic paints which are mainly water-based paints.

Even if you get the paint intact, you need to keep the paint in a temperature where it would remain for long time to sustain the paints quality while applying. painting wood fence in winter can be difficult if we dont know few tiny aspects of preserving it.

Unlike water-based paints, Oil-based paints freeze below zero temperature.

How to Solve Snow fencing issue?

The solution is, while ordering any acrylic paint during winter, order it using a temperature-controlled truck. It may cost a bit more than regular delivery but it worth spending money on it instead of wasting money to get the damaged product.

 

Conclusion

To Conclude, ensuring the durability of a fence is not all about choosing the right wood, but also taking the right plan to care.  The worst-case scenario could result in spending thousands of dollars. Hence, we need to know how to face harsh winter to protect your beloved fence and equip yourself for snow fencing.

 

 

pic credit:

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