Why You Need a Kickboard for Your New Wood Fence
When it comes to a wooden privacy fence for your home, you are going to want a kickboard. Here are the reasons and the purpose of a kickboard.
First, a kickboard is the wooden board that goes along the ground, between the fence pickets and the ground. The “kickboard”, sometimes known as a “rot board,” is a piece of wood that’s placed on the bottom of a fence and is in contact with the ground. Kickboards are typically pressure-treated. That means they have chemical treatment to not rot or at least take a lot longer to rot.
Why extra protection from moisture? Being along the ground means that bottom 6 inches of wood gets the most moisture — from rain, from dew, from the sprinklers, etc.. So, if anything about your new wood privacy fence is likely to get messed up, it is that bottom portion. So with a kickboard / rot board — whether that is literal rot, or torn up from your dog trying to dig under them, it is that part. Given these facts, having the part of your fence that is most likely to get abused, moist, or damaged, be a few boards that are EASILY REPLACED, means you can just replace those few board, and not your many fence pickets. This extends the life of your fence and saves you money.
As a leading fence company in Dallas, TX (including Richardson and Plano, Texas surrounding areas) we’ve seen and done a LOT of fences! We know how popular they are and we have them on our own N Dallas homes. We’ve seen some done right and we’ve seen when someone tries to cut corners on their fence and it does all wrong. We’ve seen wood privacy fences damaged by high winds, storms, tornadoes, car crashes, and falling trees! We both install new fences, repair or upgrade existing ones, build new parts and gates into existing fences — anything you need as long as it is wooden!
Let us advise you on the privacy fence that works with you needs (for privacy of course, for protection/security, for beauty and property value, and for your budget too). When the kickboard is installed, in the photo you see a level off to the side, and that’s because it is important to prepare the ground under the board and make it level. Usually (as in the photo) the kickboard will TOUCH the ground, or be an inch or two above the ground. But we only recommend raising the board a bit off the ground when there are no dogs or pets on either side of that fence!
CONCLUSION: the kickboard on the fence is the part takes the most abuse — from everything from pets to lawnmowers, but especially from moisture. Given that the part closest to the ground either rots or wears out the soonest, it only makes good sense to make that part easily replaceable, without replacing your fence pickets. This extends the life of your fence and saves you money.
We hope you received value from this article. For quality privacy fence — either building new fence or repairing your existing one, we at www.DallasFenceService.com cover the N Dallas area (Dallas, Garland, Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Rockwall, etc.) with quality workmanship and take pride in our work). We invite you to fill out the FORM on our website to request the service you need. We are a small company by design — to give individualized attention and excellent service for those wanting the job done right at a fair price!
