Wood is a great material for a myriad of products, but not for a fence. With consistent weather and pest exposure, wood fences often succumb to a number of factors that decrease the overall value of your fence and property. You’ll find that with a wood fence, weather and pest exposure can cause:
- Rotting
• Warping
• Splintering
• Staining
• Integrity loss
Many of these issues are caused by wind, sun exposure, freezing temperatures and snow, as the heating and cooling often breaks down the wood fibers and the overall integrity of the fence. This results in panel shrinking, meaning an overall loss of security and privacy. And because wood is composed of organic materials, wood fences often become food for termites, wood ants and other pests.
These issues mean wood fences must be repaired and replaced more frequently, which translates to more wasted materials and new materials to supplement replacing the old. This inevitably reflects on the wood industry, which participates in logging and other practices detrimental to the environment.
Emerald Skyline Corporation is proud to offer Trex Fencing to commercial building and property owners. If you’re interested in installing Trex Fencing at your commercial property, please email us at [email protected]. Please also read through some of the most commonly asked questions about why Trex Fencing is superior to wood:
WHY IS TREX® FENCING BETTER THAN WOOD?
Trex Fencing offers superior durability and performance that you can’t get from wood. Trex Fencing resists termites, won’t rot, warp, or splinter and never needs staining or painting. What’s more, Trex Fencing is made from 95% recycled materials (reclaimed wood as well as recycled plastic), making it an environmentally-friendly choice you can feel pleased about.
IF TREX® FENCING IS MADE FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS, WHY IS IT MORE EXPENSIVE THAN WOOD?
While most of the raw materials used in making Trex® Fencing are recycled, these materials are carefully processed to ensure the highest level of quality and performance. The end result is fencing that performs better than wood, actually lowering your cost over time through less maintenance.
WHAT IS THE LIFETIME VALUE OF TREX FENCING?
With wood fences, maintenance costs add up over time. Although Trex® Fencing costs more initially, you’ll never have to sand, stain or paint your Trex Fencing. Over the life of your fence, those reduced maintenance costs add up to a greater value than wood – not to mention the value of all the time you get to spend enjoying your fence rather than working on it.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STOCKADE COMPOSITE FENCES AND INNOVATIVE HIGH-PERFORMANCE TREX FENCING?
Understanding the differences between a stockade composite fence and an innovative high-performance Trex® fence is an important factor in distinguishing the benefits of Trex.
Stockade Composite Fences (Dog-Eared). These traditional types of fences use backer rails and pickets screwed or nailed to the rails. Fasteners are visible on these types of fences. True privacy is hard to obtain because the expansion of the material at higher temperatures requires the pickets to be gapped during installation. The gap becomes even more pronounced when the temperatures drop and the material contracts. A board-on-board (overlapping picket) design could be used but that creates additional expense and still won’t fully close gaps if the boards warp. Because backer rails are usually exposed on one side of the fence, determining which side will face the neighbors could lead to difficult conversations. The typical recommendation for stockade-style fences is to install them on 6′ post centers which adds costs for posts and causes extra time and expense for labor. Stockade composite fences are usually not tested or backed with product engineering.
Innovative High-Performance Trex® Fencing. The innovative design of Trex® Fencing includes a board-on-board appearance with top and bottom fascia rails, capped with an attractive shadow-line. The fence’s innovation isn’t just about appearance — it is easy for do-it-yourselfers or professionals to install. The form and function of the components were also carefully considered during development. For example, the brackets allow fasteners to be hidden and the interlocking picket system not only provides complete privacy, it eliminates warping and strengthens the fence. Trex® Fencing is installed on 8’ post centers reducing additional product cost and extra time for labor.
BEYOND USING RECYCLED MATERIALS, WHAT OTHER ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY PRACTICES DOES TREX® EMPLOY?
The Trex environmentally-friendly manufacturing process recycles factory refuse/runoff back into the manufacturing line. Within the manufacturing plants, the trailers that carry product run on vegetable-based oil hydraulics. Trex is a member of the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) and Trex products contribute to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) points.