Plained and Stained

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working on a long-delayed maintenance project: renewing the fence along the Viewing and Stroll Gardens.

Back in 2021, I decided to build a fence along both of these gardens, using a style similar to the fencing in the Zen Garden. At the time, however, I had not yet experienced the 2022 Zen Garden fence renewal project, a major undertaking during which I learned a great deal about how to avoid the mistakes I had made in my original fence design.

Here are the mistakes I made with the Viewing and Stroll Garden fences:

• using unnecessarily expensive, thicker cedar boards for the panels
• failing to use plastic post protectors to prevent rot at the base of the posts
• neglecting to add metal rail saddles
• applying only one coat of transparent cedar stain to the panels
• complying with local codes by removing the roofing structure from the first three panels instead of seeking a variance, which contributed to weathering on top of the unprotected panels
• failing to adjust the bottom height of the first four panels to accommodate the slope toward the back of the property, resulting in bottom rails with little or no gap between the rails and the ground

Some of these mistakes were the result of my desire to save money. Others were simply due to inexperience, as I had not yet encountered the problems associated with the long-term use of untreated cedar as a fencing material. I became much more knowledgeable during the 2022 restoration of the Zen Garden fence, but that project took place two years after I had completed the Viewing and Stroll Garden fence.

I now know that getting 10 years out of the cedar posts will be the best I can hope for. Now, five years after construction, the posts are already showing significant signs of decay, although they are still standing. 

The other components of the fencing seem to be holding up well, and I am hopeful that when the time comes to replace the posts and add the features necessary for long-term durability, I will be able to reuse most of the rails, roofing, and panels.

For now, I am moving forward with a mid-cycle facelift. The posts, rails, roofing, and panels will all be re-stained. I will also take the necessary steps to sand and fill the tops of the rails on the unroofed sections of the Viewing Garden fence before they are re-stained.

I was surprised by how long this renovation has been taking. I have had to work carefully to avoid crushing plants in the Viewing Garden beds, while access to the outside of the fence is impeded by the neighbor's preexisting PVC rail fence.

I have also had to trench out soil and mulch along the bottom edge of the fencing. Over time, the occasional addition of mulch has raised the beds, and as a result, the bottom rails along the Viewing Garden now rest directly in the soil. To avoid rot and carpenter ants, I need to create some air space beneath the rails.

I am certain that I will not be able to reuse these bottom rails indefinitely, but for now they are still in good shape. In the future, I will correct this problem by shortening the panel boards on these three panels by three or four inches. This will create a wider gap at the base and improve airflow. The gap will be barely noticeable from inside the garden because the extensive plantings along the beds will conceal it.

Trimming the bottoms of the panel boards will also allow me to cut away any rot that develops there, making it possible to reuse the boards for as long as their condition permits.

The panel boards have held up remarkably well. Although faded, they remain structurally sound. Removing the old stain and the weathered surface, however, proved much more challenging than I expected. At first, I used handheld power sanders, but it took between 10 and 15 minutes to fully sand a single three-foot board. After several days of making very little progress, I gave up and purchased a benchtop planer.

The machine was expensive and heavy, but it ultimately transformed the project. I was able to plane all 80 panel boards in only a couple of hours. The boards looked practically new, and after applying two coats of stain, they looked even better than they did when I first built the fence.

Overall, it has been a lot of work, but once again I have learned which steps to avoid—and which ones are worth taking—when building a fence. The design isn't perfect, but for a DIY project, it continues to hold up remarkably well and adds to the garden's appearance.

Next step: complete the same process for the adjacent Stroll Garden.