The History of Fence Restoration

A fence is a structure that, generally outdoors, encloses an area and is usually made from posts that are linked by boards, rope, rails or netting. In not having a stable base for its entire length, a fence varies from a wall.

Servitudes are legitimate land-use structures resulting from private agreements. Most of England's land was planted in common fields under the feudal system, where peasants were given strips of arable land that were used to meet the needs of the local village or manor. By the sixteenth century, population growth and prosperity created incentives for landowners to make more productive use of their land, dispossessing the peasantry. To optimize the productivity of the available land and contain livestock, common fields were aggregated and enclosed by large and enterprising farmers, either by agreement with each other or by lease from the landlord. Fences also redefined the means by which land is used, contributing to the current law of servitude.

In the United States, the early settlers claimed land by simply fencing it in. Later, as the American government established, the government technically owned unsettled land and created land ownership registry systems typically making raw land available for low prices or free, if the owner improved the property, including the building of fences. Nevertheless the remaining large stretches of unsettled land were mostly used as a commons, or "open range" in the American West as habitat destruction grew due to overgrazing and a catastrophe of the common situation occurred, common areas started to be allocated to private landowners by mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and the Desert Land Act and fenced in or if left in public hands, leased in.

Staining History

Staining is one of the most common ways to renovate and embellish wooden fences, but that's not all – this method may be the best thing you'll do for your fence in the long run, since it has many advantages over traditional painting. The most noticeable reasons are that it's not going to chip, it's going to last longer, it's going to take less time and it's going to be better covered when it comes to bad weather. Without going through too many specifics, let's look at the brief history of fence staining.

Fences have always been an important part of any home, and their various designs have revealed the artistic taste of the host, but it was during the Victorian period that the popularity of the wooden fences grew. However, before the mass development of the required chemicals, fence staining could not be implemented. General chemical manufacturing boomed after the Industrial Revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, but the broader use of fence stain did not begin until the last century, when it steadily replaced traditional painting as the most widely used form of preserving wood fences.

Wood stain typically includes colorants that are suspended or dissolved in a solvent (which is usually referred to as a "vehicle" because it is not necessarily a true solvent when it is suspended). Colorants or pigments are typically used as dyes, and the vehicle is in most cases, alcohol, water, a finishing agent (such as varnish or polyurethane) or a petroleum distillate. Stains that predominantly contain dye are referred to as translucent, and those that mainly consist of pigment are opaque or solid.

he variations in the ingredients decide the type of wood that will be dyed – the color of the dyes will be more sensitive and finely grained woods (like maple) because they have pores that are too small for pigments. As a result, pigment colorants can usually produce a certain amount of binder, which helps to fasten the wood quickly (one of the most common ones is linseed oil).

Modern commercial processing has made it possible for pigments and dyes to be present in most of today's stains, in various proportions to each other, depending on the color effect that we want to achieve. In addition, the time a certain stain is left on the wood will decide the depth of coloration – the longer the exposure, the darker the color, in most cases. It is also important to remember that different types of stain can have different effects on the wood. Transparent stains appear to highlight the grain of wood (precisely because they are transparent), whereas those we call solid can effectively hide it (being similar to regular paint). The depth of color with pigment stains depends almost entirely on the density of the wood. Wood with larger pores, such as oak, will often provide more depth.

As for the more recent history of fence staining, there are also several inventions, one of the most common of which is gel staining. This late-20th-century discovery is a high-viscosity, non-flowing liquid that allows the application control to be much better especially when the wood lies vertically) without the danger of wasting the stain by spilling most of it as is usually the case with conventional stains. However this property limits its penetrating potential as it is thixotropic.

Do You Need a Fence Contractor You Can Trust?

Why pay more when you can restore? That's our motto and the way we approach every project. Fresh Coat Restoration specializes in new deck builds, new fence builds, deck repairs, fence repairs, arbor restoration, fence restoration, deck restoration, pressure washing and sealing/staining. If it's in your backyard chances are we specialize in it! When you call FCR you will be working with a licensed, insured, honest and reliable contractor with years of experience and thousands of satisfied customers. We are the top Fencing contractor in the Vine Hill neighborhood of Martinez, California, serving the fencing installation and restoration needs of homeowners throughout Contra Costa, Solano and Alameda Counties. Contact us today to start your project!

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