Fence Repair Marin
Fence Repair Marin
Novato is the largest city in Marin by area, about twenty seven square miles, and the lots match. Fence runs here get long. A hundred and fifty feet of back line is normal, and at that length the gap between catching a problem early and replacing the whole thing is thousands of dollars.
The climate works on wood differently than it does closer to the Golden Gate. July highs here average right around eighty degrees, and Novato sits well outside the fog that keeps the southern end of the county damp all summer. So fences here tend to fail by checking, cupping and graying rather than rotting. Sun damage looks worse than it is on the face boards and better than it is at the posts, which is backwards from what most people assume. Out in Bel Marin Keys the picture changes again, because those lots back onto the lagoon and the hardware sits in brackish air year round.
We would rather reset six posts and swap a dozen boards than sell you two hundred feet of new fence you do not need yet. Call today for a free estimate on fence repair or deck installation in Novato.
Novato fences fail from the top down as much as from the ground up, and that is a sun problem rather than a rot problem. Ultraviolet light breaks down the surface fibers of the wood, which is what turns redwood grey, and once the surface has gone the boards start checking, meaning small splits running with the grain. A finish with pigment in it slows that considerably. Clear sealers look better on day one and do far less, because it is the pigment that blocks the light. Timing matters too. New wood needs to weather a little before it will take a finish properly, and the wrong time to do it is right after installation. On a long Novato back line, redoing the finish every few years is genuinely cheaper than replacing boards, and it is one of the few maintenance items on a fence that pays for itself. Down in San Rafael the fog cuts the sun load and the same fence lasts differently.
The material question matters more here than almost anywhere in the county, because a Novato deck bakes. Wood decking in this much sun greys, checks and needs refinishing on a cycle. Composite does not, which is why people ask about it, but composite gets substantially hotter underfoot in direct sun than wood does, and on a west-facing deck in August that is not a small thing. It also still needs a wood or steel frame underneath, so the framing maintenance does not go away. Out at Bel Marin Keys, where the lots back onto the lagoon, the hardware is the thing to spend money on regardless of decking choice, since brackish air works on fasteners faster than it works on either material. We will lay out what each one actually costs over ten years rather than just what it costs to install, and if what you have is sound underneath we will quote a deck repair before a rebuild.