Wood Privacy Fence · Kitchener

Wood Privacy Fence Installation in Kitchener

A board fence is mostly posts. The boards are what you look at and the posts are what decides whether you are happy with it in five years, which is why most of the money and nearly all of the care goes below ground.

A wood privacy fence in Kitchener can legally go to 2.44 metres — 8 feet — in a rear or interior side yard, and most people build 6 feet because that is what the neighbours have and what the material comes in. Either is fine. What is not fine is carrying that height around into the front yard, where the limit drops to 0.91 metres, or into a corner visibility triangle, where it drops to the same. That is the single most common by-law problem on a residential fence here, and it is entirely avoidable by looking at the lot before ordering.

What decides how long it lasts

• Post depth. Posts have to sit below the depth frost reaches, because clay that freezes lifts whatever it can grab. The Ontario Building Code sets footings below frost penetration and the City's building division is who confirms the depth for your lot. A post set shallow in Doon South clay will heave, and no amount of good lumber above ground fixes that.
• What the post sits in. Concrete, compacted gravel, or concrete with a gravel base for drainage — there is a real argument for each depending on the soil. What does not work is concrete poured in a hole that holds water around the post like a bucket, which is what happens in clay when nobody thinks about where the water goes.
• Spacing and rails. Wider post spacing saves money on the quote and costs it back in sag. Three rails instead of two on a 6-foot fence is a small material cost and it is the difference between boards that stay flat and boards that cup and twist away from the rail.
• The bottom of the fence. Boards sitting on soil wick water and rot from the bottom up. A gap, or a rot board that can be replaced on its own later, is worth the small loss of privacy.

Pressure-treated or cedar

Pressure-treated spruce is the default here and there is nothing wrong with it: it is the cheaper material, it takes stain, and treated posts in particular are the sensible choice in wet clay. Cedar costs more, weathers to grey more evenly, stays straighter, and smells like the thing people are imagining when they say they want a cedar fence. A common middle path is treated posts with cedar boards and rails, which puts the rot-resistant material where the water is and the good-looking material where you see it.

On the older lots

Through Forest Heights, Stanley Park, Mount Hope and the streets around Victoria Park the constraint is usually trees rather than clay. Mature roots mean a post hole sometimes has to move, and moving a post changes the spacing of the whole run, which is a design decision rather than an on-the-day improvisation. Cutting a significant root to save a straight line is a bad trade: the tree is worth more than the fence and removing larger trees on private property can need City permission anyway. The fence gets planned around what is there.

Frequently asked questions

Serving Kitchener and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.