Firstly, different fences require different maintenance. This can depend on the fence location. If the fence you are proposing to install is in a shaded area or an area that does not see much sun, this could cause mould issues in the future, which may be unavoidable as you may have no option other than installing a fence in one of these locations. If you are in a position of having to install a fence in a wet or highly shaded area, we would suggest using a coating, fence paint or fence stain that has additional mould inhibitors in it. We would not recommend timber fencing in wetter than normal areas.
Fence Coatings
For fence paints and staining advice, you will need to discuss with your local paint supplier. Otherwise, the best advice from the BelAire Fencing team would recommend requesting a fence stain, fence paint or fence coating with a mould inhibiter. Fences spend their entire life in the weather and outside environment, meaning they must soak up dirt, dust, rain, leaves, bugs and everything else that gets thrown at them.
We often take calls from people that have fences that are either mouldy or gone rotten and have issues that have arisen from not being treated with the right finish or has not been installed using the correct fencing materials.
BelAire specializes in fences that need very little maintenance, but like many things, we fully recommend they are regularly cleaned and maintained in order to prevent short term deterioration. Choosing a BelAire fence allows you to trust your confidence in the fence never, rotting, twisting, warping, cracking or breaking down in any way or form. BelAire fencing uses no ingredients that will allow anything to breakdown. You will not find any form of timber in our fencing systems.
Wooden fencing is not what we would ever recommend, in the long term they cause issues with twisting, warping and possibly rotting of your fence.
Aluminium or BelAire fibre cement panels are the modern way to go, with minimal maintenance and you will never experience any form of rot, twisting or degrading when using these products.
If you do find you have to treat mould, we have found MOSSBOSS a very good mould remover. It won't remove the mould instantly, but it will remove it in time. Simply spray the fence mould remover on and leave it for the rain to wash away.
BelAire fencing team would always recommend installing a new fence with a concrete nib or concrete mowing strip. Not only this helps protect your fence from the mower or grass trimmer, but it will keep your fence straight and secure. Without a concrete mowing strip or concrete nib, you will potentially have the posts sagging in the softer earth areas. If you don't choose to install your fence with a nib, you may want to consider putting your fence posts in a little deeper to give extra stability.
If you are installing your fence into soft clay or sand, you need to consider installing the posts deeper. A standard depth would be ⅓ of the post to be in the ground, but in soft ground you may need to consider installing the post another 150 – 200mm deeper. You will also need to ensure to give a good amount of concrete under the post, minimum of 100mm and we recommend 200mm + into soft clay or sandy soils.
Glass Fencing Maintenance
Yes, glass fencing does need maintaining just like any type of fencing, but if maintained properly and regularly then the glass fencing system will sustain a lot better look for a lot longer than most fencing ranges. Frameless glass fencing has 2 main components, stainless steel hardware for support and the glass. If your glass fence has been installed around a saltwater swimming pool, then the fence will need more maintaining than a freshwater pool. The salt tends to stick to the stainless and glass surfaces which could lead to long term defects. To prevent any saltwater stains or calcium build up for any type of fencing, it would be best to hose down the fence to rinse off any possibly corroding chemicals, your pool fence will last and look better for longer.
We recommend giving the stainless-steel hardware and spigots a good clean about every 3 months, as for the glass, you would need to wash down as mentioned above, after every swim, but ideally you would want to give the glass a good clean once a month. If this seems too bigger job, you may want to consider using our EnduroShield coated glass, this will cut cleaning time of up to 90% making it a lot easier to clean. The EnduroShield coating is not self-cleaning, EnduroShield coated glass still needs cleaning just like any other glass, but the EnduroShield makes it a lot faster and simpler to clean, as it holds all the water and grime on the surface instead of the dirt settling in the pores of the glass surface. So, glass fencing does require little maintenance to keep your view cleanly undisturbed for longer.
Recommended Materials for Low Maintenance Fencing
If you ever think of installing a fence using materials that are prone to movement, like shrinkage, twisting, warping bowing, and rotting, then you will need to be prepared to have constant battles with keeping your fencing maintained. When the fence is first installed it will look nice and new, but within months in the New Zealand weather you will start to notice some of these changes happening. As a company BelAire Fencing will never use any timber products in our fencing ranges, we believe in manufacturing quality, meaning only using materials that will not twist, warp or rot. Some of the materials we use to manufacture our fencing are products have been used in the building industry for many years such as glass, corrosion protected steel, Aluminium, fibre cement and polystyrene.
Timber fencing, it doesn’t matter what treatment it has had you will experience failure in the timber, it will always move. Kiln dried timber is the best way to go if you are using timber, but because of the process it really does cost a lot and becomes very expensive to use. So here at BelAire, we have some great products that you will find very low maintenance and easy to use and install, it will be almost install and forget, just enjoy the new landscape.