Vinyl Fencing, Wood Fencing, And Hidden Costs

A couple summers ago, we compared vinyl fencing to wood fencing. If you’ve been doing your homework about this (which I certainly hope you have!), you’ll know that these sorts of articles almost always focus on pricing. Vinyl fences cost more upfront, but upkeep is virtually free afterwards. Wood fences are cheaper initially, but they require regular maintenance. They also don’t last as long as vinyl fences.

What I’m going to do here is delve into some of the intangibles of wood and vinyl fencing comparisons. Specifically, I’m going to focus on:

  • Upfront Cost
  • Durability
  • Maintenance

Upfront Cost

Wood is cheaper than vinyl. Period.

If the initial cost is what you’re looking at, you’re better off going with a wood fence. Good wood will always be cheaper than good vinyl. There’s just more stuff involved in the process of creating vinyl. Size the wood right, get some nails, a hammer, a good color of paint, a paintbrush, and you’re good to go.

Vinyl fencing, well, it’s not as simple. If you know what you’re doing, you can put it together yourself. Personally, I recommend leaving it to the professionals.

Durability

I’m going to delve into the costs of this more below when I talk about maintaining fences, but I’ll talk about it a bit here to keep that section from getting too big.

Wood is decaying from the moment its tree is chopped down. There’s no getting around that. It makes for a solid fence, but it doesn’t change the fact that your gorgeous wood fence is getting smaller and smaller each year. Maintenance can certainly help — new coats of paint, apply clear preservatives, etc. If you take care of it, you can reasonably expect your fence to last a good 10, 15 years.

A good vinyl fence will last 15-20 years without any trouble (barring anything serious catastrophe, like a car crashing through it or that a once-in-a-lifetime storm blowing through town). They’re generally pretty sturdy and reliable, being made out of plastic. Sure, keep them around long enough and they’ll wear away eventually. Anything will.

Maintenance

The problem most of us have in making big purchases is accounting for the hidden costs. What are those? With cars, there’s the car insurance (which you have to have by law), oil changes, air filters, tire rotations, etc. And that’s just the stuff you need to keep the car running. If you want it to look decent, you’ve got car washes, vacuuming, scrubbing down the interior, and detailing to deal with. Even if you do it all yourself to save money, that’s still a lot of time you’re going to spend doing all that. Either way, you’ve got some costs with every purchase that go beyond the sticker price.

The same applies to fencing. Doesn’t matter if it’s vinyl, wood, or some other material. There will be hidden costs.

When it comes to wood fences, I have a question for you: ever heard of termites? Nasty little buggers that have a big sweet tooth for wood? I hope you have, because they’re gunning for that brand new wood fence you just installed around your dream house.

Now, I’m not saying this to dump on wood fences. I’ve had wood fences in the past and loved them. They give a great look to any house. But they’re not indestructible. Wood fences are dead trees. It’s all downhill from here when it comes to holding together. If you want to hang on to that nice wood fence, you better take some precautions.

Like all good precautions you can get with major purchases, they’re going to cost you. Namely, termite treatments. That’s the magic the experts work to keep your fence bug-free. It’ll probably run you a good couple hundred dollars, depending on what your options are in your area.

Again, I’m not saying wood fences are a bad idea. They have a lot of advantages you can’t necessarily quantify. And depending on the area you live in, a wood fence is the better option to go with, in spite of the cost.

But when it comes to maintenance, vinyl fencing does have wood beat. The most serious you’ll have to get about cleaning a vinyl fence means involving a good hose, soap, and a sponge. Stuff just cleans off easier on plastic than it does off wood.

Tally up the cost of termite treatments every other year, repainting the wood every three years or so, and after five-ish years you’re looking at hidden costs that just keep stacking up. Bryant Fence out in Tennessee put together a nice spreadsheet to demonstrate the numbers. I highly recommend taking a look to get a good idea about the money you’re looking at putting out over the years for wood fencing maintenance. It adds up.

I’d also take a look at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to get some more information about termites in Utah. There isn’t quite as much to fear from them out here, since the cold winters slows them down.

Call us at today at 801-768-4794 or request a quote here for your all your fencing needs.