DIY Fence Repair: 10 Tips for Maintaining a Fence

A nice looking fence can add to the curb appeal of one's home. Likewise, a shoddy looking fence can detract from the exterior look of a house, and buyers may not be willing to bid as much. Luckily there are several tips for maintaining a fence and general fence repair that everyone can easily follow, even if one doesn't know anything about how to maintain a fence.

Yearly Fence Maintenance Tip: Check for Killer Bee, Hornets, and Wasps Nests
Fences can make a great place for bees to make their nests. Having a killer bee hive on your fence is a serious safety issue for you, your family, your pets, and your neighbors. Before any fence repair can be completed, one should remove any bee hives.

If a very small bee hive is on your fence, then one can easily remove it with gloves and put it into a garbage bag, securing the bag in a covered garbage can. If there is a large nest, consider calling professional help for your safety, and others.

Yearly Fence Maintenance Tip: Full Visual Inspection
After checking to make sure that they are safe from bees, the homeowner should continue fence maintenance with a proper check each part of the fence. Complete a visual inspection of both sides of your fence, and note any area where the fence is missing a piece, has a broken piece, is crooked, is leaning to a side, or needs any other fence repair.

Maintaining a Fence: Stains and Paint
One of the most important things one can do to maintain a fence is to stain or paint it. Stains will provide more protection and ease of fence maintenance because a stain can seep further into the wood itself than just painting can. Additionally, when one chooses to stain a fence, they will not have to deal with chipping paint, making fence repair easier in the future.

Tips for maintaining a fence: Apply Stains and Paint Evenly and in Good Weather
It is important for one to apply stains and paint evenly when they are maintaining a fence so that the final fence repair job looks uniform. One should also make sure that the temperature outside (in addition to the humidity) is compliant with the specifications on the back of the product. Most stains and paints will not take, or will look poorly if applied in extreme heat or cold.

Maintaining a Fence: Replacing Broken Pickets
If after one's visual inspection of their fence discovers any missing pickets, then there are a few different options that one may choose from. If one is lucky to have extra picket from when the fence was first made, use those. If the fence was purchased from a manufacturer, then one may be able to order replacement parts for their fence.

Fence Repair Tip: Home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowes may also carry replacement parts in stock, or have an order book to procure them from. Another fence repair option is to create replacement pickets from scratch.

Maintaining a Fence: Checking for Loose Nails
Several great tips for maintaining a fence include removal of any nails that are loose. One can either use a hammer to knock them back in place, or remove and replace them. This is a very important fence repair step to taken when maintaining a fence because it is a safety concern for small children and animals.

Yearly Tips for Maintaining a Fence: Oil the Hinges
Most fences will often have a gate for entry or exit. Due to the nature of being outside, the metal of the hinges is likely to rust over time. This will create a squeaky fence that becomes hard to open and close. A great fence repair tip to maintain a fence is to oil the hinges.

Fence Maintenance Tips: Making Sure the Latches Lock
While a fence serves to create a privacy barrier, it additionally helps to keep pets in a yard and pesky neighbors out. Unless the latch doesn't lock! Always make sure that the latches to your gate locks properly, and if it doesn't then replace it.

Yearly Fence Maintenance Tips: Removing Mold
Even those who do not know how to maintain a fence will be able to spot mold. Removing mold from a fence with cleaning products should be simple, especially if there was a decent stain or paint job done. If an insufficient job was done when the fence was stained or painted, then removing mold or mildew may prove to be more troublesome. If the wood has started to rot, then the proper fence maintenance tip would be to replace that part.

Maintaining a Fence: Apply Insecticide
Even experienced homeowners who think they know how to maintain a fence may forget to apply insecticide to the ground beneath the fence. Termites can destroy a fence, making fence repair impossible. It is easier to repair a fence than repairing your home after termites.

If termites decide to eat your fence for dinner then it will not be long until they come to your home for dessert. By laying down insecticide on the sides of your fence, it will also help keep termites and carpenter ants away from your yard all together.

Did you enjoy this article? You may like:
The Top Ten Futuristic Action Movies
10 Men's Health Tips for Proper Nutrition and Weight Loss
How to Consolidate Your Debt in Four Easy Steps
How Does a Car Insurance Company Calculate My Auto Insurance Premium?

Sources:
"How To Maintain the Integrity and Appearance of a Fence", ACME DIY.com. Retrieved January 31, 2010 from http://www.acmediy.com/fencing/fence-paint.php.
"How to maintain a wood Pravacy fencing", essortment.com. Retrieved January 31, 2010 from http://www.essortment.com/home/maintainwoodpr_tsbp.htm.
"How to Maintain a Wooden Fence", ehow.com. Retrieved January 31, 2010 from http://www.ehow.com/how_2063453_maintain-wooden-fence.html.