How to Make Stained Plastic Look White Again With Stuff I Have at Home

Utility with Mannerly Details

Similar so many quondam-house details, the lookout man argue has roots planted squarely in utility: Colonists built them to go along chickens in the thou and to protect the garden. Then, as they are wont to exercise, the carpenters came along and, armed with pattern books, started introducing new details to the wood parts.

What yous and I know as the picket is really a paling—a apartment board with a decorative or squared pinnacle that gets face up-nailed to horizontal rail between posts. So what's a sentry? That would be a 1½-inch squared stake with a pointed or round top that became popular during the Greek Revival period. Both were, and still are, homeowner favorites, and for good reason: They come in plenty different styles to suit whatsoever house, from formal to casual. Today, they're all called pickets.

When you get-go looking for a spotter fence, you'll observe that wood isn't the but choice. There are a growing number of low-maintenance options like vinyl, cellular PVC, metal, and composites. Only if information technology's a custom look you're later on, forest still offers the greatest number of scout shapes and styles, and it can be stained any color.

From shopping advice to design inspiration, here'south what you need to land the perfect picket fence.

Shown: a row of white pickets marks the front yard'south boundary while allowing views from the street and the porch.

Anatomy of a Picket Fence

Styles vary, merely all lookout man fences utilise the aforementioned basic parts to enclose a thou.

Picket Fence FAQs

What do they toll? Depending on style and species, 3½-foot-tall panels of woods pickets run $iii.twoscore to $fifty per linear foot, non including installation. Vinyl or aluminum versions cost $5 to $12.60.

Are they DIY-friendly? A skilled homeowner can install a fence on a flat lawn, but rent a pro to handle the job on sloped turf.

How much maintenance? Ii coats of a solid-colour stain should concluding 5 to 10 years. Gates should exist checked annually and adapted to keep them plumb in the opening.

How tall should they be? A fence iii to iv feet tall makes for a nice bulwark from the street. For fences enclosing a pool, code requires a minimum top of 4 feet.

Why White?

In early America, affluent colonists preserved their fences with flossy-white paint or whitewash, a mixture of lime and water, to match the home'south trim color, which through the Greek Revival menstruum usually meant white. Then, in the mid-1840s, Victorian homeowners, with access to a broader range of paint colors, began blanket fences in park-bench light-green or brown to blend in with the landscape. When the Colonial Revival manner arrived in the early 20th century, white came back into vogue on new suburban homes—and pickets became an icon.

Shown: The postwar Cape Cod helped make the white sentinel fence an American staple.

Pick a Material

Wood is warm, simply man-made is nearly maintenance-free.

Forest: A favorite choice, forest pickets are bachelor in everything from upkeep-friendly pressure level-treated pine to redwood. They tin be stained any color, volition demand periodic re-coating, and come in a variety of shapes.

CELLULAR PVC: This rot-resistant plastic looks like painted wood from a distance and can be milled to about whatsoever shape. The stock white color looks practiced as is—or it can be coated with an exterior paint.

VINYL: Hollow pickets attach to or become through rails for a lightweight fence that never needs painting. Vinyl'due south white color tries to mimic painted forest, but the material's glossy finish is unmistakable.

METAL: Square lengths of powder-coated aluminum or steel are capped by spear points. It's easy to clean with a hose and to repair scratches with a fresh coat of spray paint.

Blended: Like to low-maintenance decking, these pickets have a wood-look texture and usually come prefinished in a stained tone.

Shown: Human-made materials, like these cellular PVC pickets, are the best pick effectually plants; they aren't affected by sprinklers.

Buying Options

To DIY, observe options at home centers or lumberyards—or hire a pro to install a fence for you.

Prefab: Home centers stock posts and prefabricated woods panels from 3 to 4 anxiety high and 8 feet long. The sentry shapes are generally limited to versions of the traditional spear. Powder-coated metal panels tend to exist closer to vi feet high. Composite materials come in shorter, 6-foot-long panels, to keep weight downwards. Set the posts, then fasten panels in place.

MATERIAL OPTIONS: woods, metal, and composite

Set to assemble: With vinyl and some metal contend systems, the pickets and posts are hollow, and the parts come boxed in cartons. Track click into mortises in the posts, and the pickets snap into place.

MATERIAL OPTIONS: vinyl and metal

Pro-installed: Skip the digging, cement mixing, and measuring by having a pro erect the fence. It costs about 20 pct more than than buying the materials, but gives you the greatest number of picket styles and configurations.

MATERIAL OPTIONS: woods, cellular PVC, metal, vinyl, and composite

Shown: A quality wood lookout man fence, like this stained white-cedar version, uses mortised posts to make a secure connectedness to the rails.

Pickets with Style: Functional Spear

Pointed so information technology sheds water, this picket is similar to those institute at Colonial Williamsburg. In the early Virginia capital, the boards, made from rot-resistant wood like locust, cedar, and white oak, were oftentimes left unpainted.

Need picket inspiration? Fences: Accurate Details for Blueprint and Restoration, by Peter Joel Harrison (Wiley), features dozens of drawings of celebrated fence styles.

Pickets with Style: Turned Greek Revival

This circular picket's eased top and bead, similar to those from the town of Tarboro, NC, would be right at home in forepart of a Greek Revival house.

Pickets with Style: Georgian Point

Made from cypress or locust, this picket surrounded George Washington'south tomb at Mount Vernon. A carpenter spent extra fourth dimension cut the bead detail.

Pickets with Style: Archetype Lookout

Pointed pickets like this were found at the Hopsewee Plantation house, a South Carolina estate built in 1740. The orderly appearance is similar to the balusters along its first- and second-floor porches.

Pickets with Style: Shapely Victorian

The Industrial Revolution gave homeowners access to machines capable of cutting intricate details. This elaborate picket, similar to ones seen in coastal Connecticut, looks like an interior baluster.

Blueprint Variations: Arched

Starting from a post, each lookout man gets slightly taller than the last, earlier cresting to the next post. The tall post finials get a focal betoken in a design that is often available in wood or vinyl.

Like to shown: 4-foot-tall chamfered spotter panel in natural redwood, $46 per linear foot; Arbor Fence Inc.

Note: All prices are for uninstalled panels.

Pattern Variations: Staggered

Arranging the pickets with alternating miters dresses up the bones boards.

Similar to shown: 3-pes-tall custom picket panel in natural white cedar, $10 per linear pes; Wayside Argue

Design Variations: Dual Pickets

Squared-off boards fix between spiked pickets soften the formal design and preserve garden views. The square pickets offer a safe place for birds to perch.

Similar to shown: 3-foot-tall custom lookout man panel in natural white cedar, $20 per linear pes; Wayside Debate

Design Variations: Irregular Heights

Alternating curt and long pickets help gear up this formal debate autonomously. The smooth, white terminate makes a pleasing contrast with the stone wall.

Similar to shown: 4-pes-alpine Westchester picket console in stained white cedar, $80 per linear human foot; Walpole Woodworkers

Design Variations: Scallop

Pickets that gently curve down betwixt posts create a sense of rhythm equally guests approach on a driveway.

Similar to shown: 5-human foot-tall scallop lookout man panel in natural red cedar, $72 per linear foot; Salem Fence

Design Variations: Capped

Pickets that end at a top rail have a make clean expect and a cottage feel. The diagonal bracing helps forestall the gate from racking merely likewise makes it easier to discover.

Similar to shown: 3½-foot-tall Hamilton picket panel in stained white cedar, $45 per linear foot; Colonial Contend Co.

Proper Post: Cap

Water sheds off the shallow beveled cap, while the bead-and-cove molding adds understated detail.

Similar to shown: Maine Ornamental post cap in red cedar, $13; Lowe's

Notation: All prices are for half dozen×6 posts.

Proper Post: Brawl

Topping gateposts, spheres define an archway and accommodate a Victorian-era house.

Similar to shown: JT33 finial and NC-2E post cap, in red cedar, $42; Isle Post Cap

Proper Mail: Fasten

A mesomorphic French Gothic–like spearhead on a field postal service mimics the shape of the nearby pickets.

Similar to shown: Custom finial in white cedar, $60; Hanson Woodturning

How to Add together Color: Staining vs. Painting

Stain and paint both protect wood from UV rays and moisture, but an exterior solid-color stain works better for a fence. A glaze of stain is near 2½ millimeters thick when applied and dries to almost half that. A coat of paint dries about twice as thick. Any moisture that gets beneath the coating will have an easier time escaping through stain, whereas water trapped under paint causes flaking. Look nigh 5 to x years from two coats of a solid-colour stain on a debate. And and so information technology will be easier than paint to re-coat—no scraping abroad former layers.

Shown: A gallon of solid-color stain (left) is thin enough to be practical with an airless sprayer and worked into all the nooks and crannies of a sentry fence.

Picket Partners: Hydrangea

This mophead'southward softball-size pink-to-purple blooms arch over the pickets in summer. Employ them against shorter pickets to make full in for added privacy.

Picket Partners: Marigold

This drought-resistant almanac flowers orange, yellow, white, or reddish. Plant a strip of marigolds along the outside of a fenced-in vegetable garden for a rush of color.

Picket Partners: Rose

Bring a cottage-garden vibe to the neighborhood with pink climbing roses tumbling over the argue in an alternating pattern with purple salvia.

Finishing Touches: Latch

An aluminum-alloy, iii-inch-diameter ring latch looks just similar twisted wrought iron—without the weight.

$42; Hoover Fence

Finishing Touches: Hinge

Arched gates break up a fence's horizontal lines, and this curved strap hinge looks like those hand-forged by a blacksmith.

$44; Hoover Fence

Finishing Touches: Closure

A colonial-style automated gate closer relies on a well-nigh 6-pound metal ball to pull the outswinging gate shut.

$59; Walpole Woodworkers

Thank you:

Peter Joel Harrison, author, designer and historian

Susan Schnare, Mountain Brook Consulting, Andover, NH

Sally Zimmerman, Historic New England

Rich O'Neil, Masterwork Painting & Restoration, Woburn, MA, 781-275-3050

FenceTown

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/fences/21018995/all-about-picket-fences