Fenciful Thinking
Posted: Mon 14 January, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, House Work 6 Comments »One of the jobs for this year is going to be the painting of all our garden fence, sheds, compost bins etc. As part of that process, we decided we needed to know how many fence panels and so on we’ve got, so I went out and counted them over the weekend.
Oh dear.
It turns out we’ve got no less than 97 (Yes, ninety-fucking-seven) fence panels to paint. Plus the posts in between them, of course. Then there’s four compost bins, two sheds, a normal gate and a five-bar gate, and (possibly) the chicken coop.
All told, we’ve worked out it’s not going to be far short of 100 litres of creosote/preservative/whatever.
Sounds like an excuse to get a spray paint gadget mate!
Apparently (based on reviews from people who’ve used them) the coverage isn’t as good as with a brush, and is actually pretty patchy. Plus the cans for the sprayer are more expensive than normal – and when it comes to 20 tines of the stuff, that extra could be expensive…
We did a volunteering day a couple of years ago that involved painting fence posts and rails that were presented to us as raw untreated wood. We used some paint from B&Q that claimed to be sufficient to weather-proof with just one coat. We got a lot of fence done in a day, including actually building it, although there was a dozen or more of us.
those spray paint thingys arnt very good, me and my dad used one once and its a bit of a pain in the arse to use, but if you want a hand with the fencing let us know
You need a commercial sprayer for that much, not just one of the piddly ones they sell to lazy people in the DIY sheds (then you can use the normal huge tins of preservative). Is there any way you can plant a (native species) hedge outside of your fence? Much more sustainable in the longer term. 4 or 5 years and you can remove the fence totally.
I’d leave the chicken coop until it’s warmer – this weather it won’t be fully dry before they need to use it. And I’m sure you will, but do check that whatever you use is OK for livestock – lots of things aren’t.
nice idea blue witch but it has 2 serious flaws. If we have 100 fence panels then that is the equivilent of thetford forest and we have a dog which will get through in record time.