In Atwater
Fence repaint, weathered timber to charcoal in Atwater
A back-yard boundary fence in Atwater, taken from bare weathered timber to a solid charcoal finish — posts, rails and boards, both sides of every panel.
What we started with
The fence had gone the way untreated timber goes in the Valley: silvered grey all over, with lighter replacement boards and repair patches that had never been brought in to match. From the lawn it read as several different fences.
What we did
The timber was cleaned down and the whole run taken to one charcoal, boards, rails and posts together, so the replacement sections stopped standing out from the original ones.
Bare timber is thirstier than it looks
A fence that has been left to weather is not a blank surface. Silvered grey timber is a layer of degraded wood fibre, and paint put straight over it bonds to that loose layer rather than to the board underneath. Getting a finish that lasts on a fence like this is mostly about what happens before the colour goes on.
The other thing bare timber does is drink. A first coat on a dry, weathered fence disappears into it, which is why a fence takes more material than the same area of stucco and why coverage on the first pass is a poor guide to how it will finish.
Making mismatched boards disappear
This fence had been patched over the years — the lighter boards and the differently-weathered sections in the first photograph. Those absorb differently from the older timber around them, so under a thin coat they carry on showing through as a paler patch. Bringing them level is the difference between a fence that reads as one fence and one that reads as a repair history.
Fences in Atwater
A boundary fence gets weather on both faces and no roof over it, which makes it the shortest-lived painted surface on most properties. It is also the one people notice from the yard every day. Doing it at the same time as the house means the same colour, the same materials and one visit rather than two.
Want yours to look like this?
Free estimate, and you can send a photo instead of booking a visit.