There’s something special about cedar fencing. Combine its beautiful golden-brown hue with a tight grain and very few knots and you get a consistent and powerful material that’s been popular among American homeowners for decades.
The word “timeless” is the first that comes to mind for many people when describing cedar. Traditionalists love the material because it can provide a gorgeous rustic look (especially with the right paint) that’s ideal for the old-school feel. But modernists aren’t left out. Cedar’s tight grain and versatility mean it looks the part even surrounding the most up-to-date garden, making it perfect for the modern aesthetic that needs just a touch of nature.
Cedar wood is probably sounding pretty good for your fence right now. But it’s still a type of wood, and you may know from experience that wooden fences can experience issues like rot and warpage. Cedar, however, is different, which is why it’s so easy to choose this stunning wood for your fence:
According to home improvements expert Bob Vila, cedar naturally resists the decay and insect damage that comes hand-in-hand with most types of wood. It’s like cedar has an invisible suit of armor that keeps the weather (and the pests) at bay.
Every cedar fence Yutka makes is 100% Northern White Cedar. This lightweight wood offers exceptional decay resistance (as reported by the United States Department of Agriculture) and makes a beautiful addition to your home.
Many types of wood come with irregular grains and massive knots, which can stand out so much that they can be eyesores to people who prefer a more standardized look. Cedar has a tight grain, and its knots are infrequent and small enough to not be an aesthetic problem.
Off-the-shelf fence panels are all well and good, but there’s no variety to them. They won’t be great for your garden if you have specific issues, such as irregular land or a design idea in mind, that “standard” just doesn’t suit.
Yutka Fence builds every panel we use for our cedar fences by hand, which means we can guarantee quality and ensure that each panel is custom-built to suit your needs.
Yutka Fence doesn’t rely on other manufacturers for our cedar fence panels. We source all of the lumber ourselves so we can keep our commitment to only using 100% Northern White Cedar. And because we make the panels ourselves, too, we ensure that your fence is built for you rather than giving you a have a fence that simply “does the job.”
Now that you see why cedar is such a great choice for your fence, you may have another question: why work with Yutka Fence? The answer is a combination of experience and process.
When it comes to experience, Yutka has served Kenosha (and the surrounding communities) since 1968. We have over 57 years of experience and a superb track record that proves we deliver on our promises.
Then, there’s our process: The Happy Fence ExperienceTM.
That process offers exactly what it says in terms of a happy experience for our clients. It allows us to check that we’re a good fit for your needs and helps us to come up with little time-saving tricks and techniques to save you money. Our process keeps you informed of your fence’s progress every step of the way and ensures we follow up after installation to confirm that your fence gives you everything you need from it.
We use northern white cedar for most of our fences. It is a highly durable wood, which can be left untreated in many outdoor applications to weather naturally. If, for reasons of increased wood protection or aesthetics, a finish is desired, cedar’s freedom from pitch, resins, and its high degree of stability make it the best coniferous species for stains and oils. White cedar is also naturally splinter-free. It is the only wood that naturally weathers to a light silvery-gray color, while other woods turn a mottled dark gray or black.
One of cedar’s most valuable characteristics is its well-known high resistance to decay. This comes from the presence of naturally occurring fungicidal compounds in the wood called thujaplicins. This is what gives off its distinctive aroma and makes the wood highly unattractive to insects, moths, and other pests. Another extractive present in the wood, thujic acid, helps make cedar resistant to insect attacks.
Like all woods, cedar is hydroscopic and will absorb or discharge moisture to attain equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere. However, it has a very low shrinkage factor, and is superior to all other coniferous woods in dimensional stability and resistance to warping, twisting, and checking.
Evidence of cedar’s durability are the many cedar artifacts still in good condition today. Cedar is the preferred wood for nearly all purposes where attractive appearance or resistance to weather is important.
Both are similar in their natural resistance to decay, but there are some significant differences between the two woods that make white cedar a better choice for Yutka Fence. Red cedar is grown and milled on the west coast of the United States and must be transported long distances on trucks, adding cost to the product and impact to the environment. Since red cedar is not indigenous to this region, it is less likely to be resistant to the insects and weather conditions of the Midwest. White cedar is grown and milled in Wisconsin and Michigan, so it is being used in the same type of climate where it originated, and the transportation costs and related impact to the environment are reduced because of its proximity to an end user like Yutka Fence.
Red cedar mills are less flexible on available dimensions for their lumber, and most times the actual dimensions of their red cedar posts and boards will be smaller than posts and boards made of white cedar. A fence company that is using red cedar may tell you they are using a 4” x 4” post, but the actual measurement of the post is usually 3 ½” x 3 ½”. Yutka Fence uses white cedar posts that actually measure 4” x 4” or 4” x 6”. A 1” red cedar board is usually 1/2″ to 5/8” thick, whereas a white cedar board will usually measure 3/4″ to 1” thick. A 4” board made of red cedar usually measures only 3 ½” wide, and a 6” board made of red cedar usually measures only 5 ½” wide. In comparison, Yutka Fence purchases white cedar boards that truly measure 4” and 6” wide. We suggest that you specifically ask a fence company that uses red cedar or white cedar what the actual dimensions of their posts and boards are so that you can determine if they are rounding up the dimensions when they give you specifications on their wood materials. The dimensions of the wood will make a difference in the strength of your fence. In addition, a fence constructed with larger posts and wider boards looks more impressive and more beautiful than a fence of the same style made with narrow boards and smaller posts.
We recommend cedar, but we do offer a limited amount of economy grade treated products for those property owners who aren’t concerned with longevity. Treated wood comes with a one-year warranty. Treated wood is treated with a chemical to stabilize a species of wood that is not normally durable when exposed to weather. This chemical doesn’t uniformly or fully penetrate all the way through the wood. The penetrated and unpenetrated sections of the wood will react differently to the weather, causing warping, twisting, and cracking. Most treated wood is a species of fast-growing pine, usually containing 70% sapwood and only 30% heartwood. Sapwood is soft and susceptible to insect decay and rotting. Cedar, on the other hand, is closer to 75% heartwood and 25% sapwood.
Simply stated – treated wood doesn’t last as long as cedar, nor age as well as cedar.
Your fence was installed by a company or person who did not use the right nails for your fence. The stains you see are from corroding or rusting nails and fasteners. Yutka Fence uses stainless steel nails that are designed for wood fences and resist rusting. Cedar mills recommend the use of aluminum, stainless steel, aluminum-coated, or polymer-coated fasteners. When lower quality galvanized nails or fasteners are used in cedar, the acids in the wood react with the zinc and cause the corrosion streaks you see on your fence. At first, the only sign of fastener deterioration may be the streaks, but eventually the fastener will decay enough to lose its friction hold in the wood. There is no method to remove these stains, and the fence will begin to fall apart.
