Staining And Painting A Wooden Fence

Do you have a wood fence on your property? Or are you considering installing a wood fence? Wood is one of the most common fence materials, and there are some great reasons to choose it. One of the most important arguments for wood fencing is how easily it can be altered. Wood can be painted and/stained a bunch of times over the lifetime of your fence. So, you can always keep you fence style looking crisp and stylish. This is an advantage that is pretty much distinct to wood. Other materials can be painted, but the project is not as easy, and wood is the only material that can be stained. If you have a wood fence and you want to change the finish, what should you do? What are the key differences between painting and staining a wood fence?

Staining

The best thing about staining is that it showcases the wood. Wood stain does not hide the grains and texture of the wood, so you can enjoy the rich look of real wood. There are both clear and tinted stains. Clear stains will just highlight the existing color of the wood, while tints can bring out rich tones.

One of the most important things you need to remember before you stain your wood is that it has to be completely free of any existing paint or stain before you add a new product. This can involve a significant amount of sanding. In fact, sanding all of the old stain and paint off of your fence is going to be more demanding than actually applying the new stain.

Painting

When you paint wood, you can actually cover over the old paint or stain. You will still need to do some prep work to the wood before can be painted. But you don't need to meticulously sand off all of the old finish. This can definitely make the project faster and more affordable.

Since paint is thicker and solid, it can definitely hide the wood texture. Many people don't like this because they want to showcase the fact that they have an actual wood fence. In fact, if you just want a solid color, it might be more tactical to buy a material like vinyl.

It is really a matter of personal preference when it comes to painting and staining your wooden fence. The great thing is that, if you don't like the finish, you can always remove it and start from scratch.

For more information about painting or staining your fence, contact a local fence company


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