NaturalSelection-- if only my DH was a welder! I looked at buying “raw” pipe but we don’t have the skill set to turn it into posts and rails if you will. I’ve had so many folks stop and ask us who did our fencing, and where we sourced the materials that clearly we did something right! I love the clean look of pipe fencing and it is safe. However, we had to have perimeter fencing that kept our dogs in, so attached no climb to all 5 acres of it. Back when we were much younger and sweat equity was all we had to put into our place!
no maintenance required for Open Range
Thanks mht!!! I will have to check them out. They were not available when I put up the later fencing about 5 years ago. I could only find an old website and the old distributors said they were out of business. If they are as good as the posts I got 20 years ago I would be very happy!!!
We have pipe fence posts, with extra-heavily galvanized tee line posts, which still looks new, after well over 20 years as our perimeter fencing. The pipe posts are easily painted every several years (last year was the third time, counting when originally set). These were new when installed, not used oilfield material.
There’s been zero maintenance, other than the couple paint jobs.
I have plastic lumber in my barn and it is %100 maintenance free. It is colour fast, indestructible by horse, rot or insect and still looks the same as the day it was installed. The colour is right through the product, you never have to paint it or worry about it wearing off.
There is an important distinction between plastic lumber and composite, plastic lumber contains no wood product at all.
I wish I had done all of my fencing with the plastic lumber but felt it was cost prohibitive at the time. Now, looking at my wood posts and top rails I definitely wish I had used it. It is at least 3x the cost of wood, but with the amount of wood rails I’ve replaced, plus how junky the rest looks it would have been totally worth it. I have diamond mesh on wood posts with wood round top rails. I recently built several new shelters with metal framing and plastic lumber sides, I will never use wood again on my farm if I can help it.
I got the lumber in my barn from Allied plastic lumber in California. I recently sourced some closer to me, the quality is not as good as the stuff from allied but saved huge on shipping. The stuff close to me only comes in grey, as they are not a single source plastic, whereas the stuff from allied is single stream and they have a huge selection of colour and finish choices.
Creosote
it’s terrible for the environment, and nasty to put up, but those things last for decades.
it’s very popular around here, and creosote split rail fencing commonly lasts 30 years.
the creosote board fences aren’t quite as enduring, because the boards are thinner and prone to the warping that impacts all board fencing. We have some split rail cross/interior fencing that is 25+ years old and going strong. That uses full round posts. We have our perimeter fenced in creosote half rounds, no climb wire, with a top board. Much of it is 20yo. Other than occasional broken posts or rails, no maintenance required. The dark brown/almost black color will fade though, as it weathers.
Clanter- I do love your totally off the wall posts. Free range, indeed. Ha ha. Way to answer the question with a useless solution. :lol:
