Our Blog - "The Fence Post"

Lace Fencing - The Future Of Chain Link?

 

 

A new type of fencing has been introduced by the Demakersvan design studio in Holland. Called Lace Fence, it is a combination of chain link fabric and the art of lace making.

The design possibilities - from floral themes to contemporary patterns and designs - are infinite. With this opportunity to customize each job, every lace fence is unique. Chain link fencing, a basic functional fence, can become a decorative and attractive work of art.

Lace Fence can be woven from both 11 and 12-1/2 gauge wires, either galvanized or vinyl coated. The wire mesh is securely clamped to a tubular frame.

There are many different types of locations - both interior and exterior - where Lace Fence is currently in use, including but not limited to:

• barrier fences in parks and other public areas
  
• interior partitions in banks, restaurants, hotels and gyms
  
• railing safety mesh on stairways and decks
• decorative panels on the facades of commercial buildings
• safety fences on apartment buildings
• museum displays

What do you think about Lace Fencing?

Do you think it is attractive?

Is it more appropriate for use in a public setting rather than around a residence?

 

Photograph of Lace Fence at The Design Center at Philadelphia University is used by permission. See this blog article to see more pictures of this unique fencing. 

Industrial Wire Cloth - Heavy Gauge Woven Hardware Cloth

 

 

There are many different specifications of hardware cloth available with heavier gauges and different mesh sizes. They are often called industrial wire cloth and can be difficult to find and purchase. In addition to regular steel, these specialized meshes can be made with any kind of metal that can be drawn into wire including stainless steel, brass, bronze, aluminum and copper.

Square mesh industrial wire cloth specifications are usually expressed as openings per inch. For example 4 mesh means that there are four openings per inch - the mesh measures 1/4"x1/4". The mesh sizes available range from 1 mesh (1") down to 100 mesh (100 openings per inch). Wire diameters used in these products ranges from .331 inch ( gauge) down to .003 inch ( gauge).

Finer meshes from 120 down to 500 openings per inch are also available. The wire diameters used are .0037 ( gauge) to .001 ( gauge). These specifications are often called filter cloth or fine mesh wire cloth.

Due to the variety of choices of gauge, wire type and mesh opening size, some specifications require a minimum quantity and must be made to order.

Industrial wire cloth meshes are usually woven. The woven styles are the same as those described in our blog article about standard hardware cloth galvanized wire mesh.

Do you have any projects requiring industrial wire cloth?

Welded & Woven Wire Mesh For Pet & Animal Containment

Are you planning to get some animals that will need cages or pens?

Do you already have animals and need to upgrade, enlarge or improve their containment?

From hamsters to horses, birds to buffalo - there is a welded or woven wire mesh fencing available to do the job right.

For small animals, there are galvanized before, galvanized after and vinyl coated meshes available.

• Cages for canaries, for example, can be made using light weight galvanized after weave 1/2" hex netting.
• For larger birds, welded meshes such as 1/2"x1", 1"x1", 1"x2" and 1/2"x3" can be used to make cages.
• Chicken, turkeys and game birds require larger pens. Galvanized after weave and vinyl coated hex netting works well for the sides. You can use welded wire meshes for ground wire. The extra galvanizing and vinyl coating extends the life of the wire.
• Cages for rabbits, hamsters and the like can be made using 1/2"x1"and 1"x2" welded meshes. Galvanized after weld products, when used, will last longest.

Larger animals require stronger meshes made from heavier gauge wire. Opening size of the mesh can be larger.

• Dogs - smaller dogs can be contained with 16 gauge 2"x2" woven or 2"x3" welded wire mesh. For large dogs, 2"x4" mesh works well. This is available in woven 12.5 gauge and welded 14, 12.5 and 11 gauge galvanized before, galvanized after and vinyl coated.
• Horse corrals can be made with 12.5 gauge flexible woven horse fence in a 2"x4" or diamond mesh pattern.
• Secure enclosures for sheep and goats can be made using 12.5 gauge 4"x4" woven mesh.
• For ostrich & emu pens use 12.5 gauge 2"x4" woven mesh.
• Use field fence for cow pastures. There are different choices of 1047 style available.
• Extra tall (up to 10') woven fences are excellent for deer and wildlife containment or exclusion.

Whatever size and type of animal you have, there is welded or woven wire fencing mesh that will keep them safe and secure.

Care to share your own experiences?

Worm Fence - What Is It?

Worm fence: a fence, zigzag in plan, made of rails resting across one another at an angle - Random House Dictionary.

This style of fencing is also known as Snake Fence, ZigZag Fence and Battlefield Fence - the latter term due to its presence on many Civil War battlefields. Worm Fence has been used in America since the 1600's. Easy to build, split wood rails are stacked on each other to create the fence. The ends of the rails alternate, creating the openings. For stability of the stacked rails, each section of fence is angled slightly from the previous one, giving the appearance of a worm or snake.

No vertical posts are required to build the fence. This both eliminates the need to dig post holes and makes the fence easy to install - a particular advantage in rocky terrain. Sometimes a pair of crossed posts would be used at the junction point of each section. This would allow the fence to be closer to a straight line.

With a plentiful supply of wood and ease of construction, it is easy to understand why worm fence was the most common type of fence used in America by the late 1800's. It is gaining popularity today for use as a rustic fence that will add to the appearance of a piece of property.

Between Fences

As part of their Museum on Main Street program, The Smithsonian has put together a traveling exhibit entitled Between Fences. As explained in the exhibit's publicity article:

"We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Thousands of types have been invented, millions of miles have been produced, and countless rivals have seized post, rail, panel, and wire to stake their claims. In 1871, the Department of Agriculture estimated the total value of fences in the United States at 1.7 billion, a sum almost equal to the national debt. Our past is defined by the cutting point of barbed steel and the staccato rhythm of the white picket. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape.

The United States as we know it could not have been settled and built without fences; they continue to be an integral part of the nation. Fences stand for security: we use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept. But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences."

Focusing on all regions of the United States, Between Fences subjects include all types of residential, agricultural and industrial fencing. Visitors can learn about historical and contemporary fences and how they have impacted the American landscape.

Has this exhibit come to your area yet?

Would you go to see it if/when it comes?

Learn more about the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street.

Hardware Cloth Woven Wire Mesh Styles

There are two types of woven wire hardware cloth: woven and crimped. Many of these styles are made as heavy meshes for very specialized uses, such as sifting screens.

In both woven and crimped meshes, the warp wires are those running the length of the roll. The wires running across the width are called shute wires.

Woven

• Plain Weave

  

   

• warp and shute wires pass over and under adjacent wires
• most plain weave is double crimped - warp and shute wires are crimped and locked into position

• Twilled Weave
• warp and shute wires pass over two and under two adjacent wires
• not as tight as plain weave - more pliable

• Plain Dutch Weave
• warp wires usually larger than shute wires
• closely spaced shute wires makes dense weave with wedge shaped openings

• Twilled Dutch Weave
• combination of Dutch and Twilled weaves

• Smooth Top Crimp
• crimps are on underside of mesh
• has a smooth flat surface on top 

Many of these meshes are made for industrial uses. They are very specialized and are not usually available in retail stores. See the blog article Industrial Wire Cloth - Heavy Gauge Woven Hardware Cloth for more information about these heavier wire cloth meshes.

Information taken in part from Edward J. Darby & Son, Inc. catalog.

How Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?

The phrase comes from Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall". On a spring day, Frost and his neighbor are walking along and repairing the stone wall that marked the boundary between their properties. Freezing and thawing of the ground during winter months dislodges stones from walls. Repair and replacement are a spring ritual. Frost is wondering if a fence is really necessary:

There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Frost asks: 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.'

Despite the sentiment of this familiar quotation, there is no guarantee that good fences make good neighbors. In Melbourne Australia, the leading cause of disputes between neighbors is caused by fences. Disputes can get out of hand and escalate into a grudge match. When a state or local government erects a fence, abutters and neighbors often take offense. Sometimes, as an act of protest or to prove a point, a property owner will put up a fence that aggravates and upsets people.

Things to consider when you are thinking about putting up fencing:

• Is a fence really necessary?
• What should the fence look like?
  
• Is it needed to fence something in?
• What impact will it have on abutters?
  
• Is it necessary to keep something out?
• What are the zoning or code requirements or limitations?
• Are there any identifiable issues that may cause problems in the future?

Have you ever experienced negative reactions to fencing you may have installed? How did you resolve them?

Is there something "that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down"?

Do you think good fences make good neighbors?

Hardware Cloth - Galvanized Welded & Woven Wire Mesh

Hardware cloth is available in many different styles. The most common standard specifications, available at most retail stores, are usually welded. As domestic production has declined, woven wire mesh hardware cloth has become difficult to find.

The most readily available types of hardware cloth, available in 50' and 100' rolls are:

• 19 gauge with 1/2"x1/2" openings
• also called 2x2 or 2 mesh - two squares to the inch
• available in 24", 36" and 48" widths
• 23 gauge with 1/4"x1/4' openings
• sometimes referred to as 4x4 or 4 mesh - four squares to the inch
• available in 24", 36" and 48" widths
  

Less common styles are more difficult to find at the retail level:

• 21 gauge with 3/8"x3/8" openings
• sometimes called 3x3 or 3 mesh - three squares to the inch
• available in 24", 36" and 48" widths
  
• 27 gauge with 1/8"x1/8" openings
• also referred to as 8x8 or 8 mesh - eight squares to the inch
• available in 24", 36" and 48" widths
  

In general, as the opening size of the mesh decreases, so too does the gauge or thickness of the wire used decrease.

Hardware cloth welded wire meshes can be used for many different applications, including:

• aviaries
  
• window guards
• screen door reinforcement
• exclusion screens for nuisance wildlife
• small animal cages
• shrub and tree protection
• sieves and strainers
  
• stucco mesh
• ferro-cement boats
• sculptures and other structures

Can you think of other possible uses for hardware cloth?

Have you used hardware cloth for an interesting or unusual project?

Wire Mesh & Fencing For Holiday Projects

Want to do some projects before the holidays?

What kind of fence or mesh should you use?

Cages - for rabbits and other small animals

• 16 gauge, 1/2"x1" mesh - use Galvanized After Weld (GAW) for the bottom of cages
• 14 gauge, 1"x2" mesh - use Galvanized Before Weld (GBW) for the top and sides of cages.

Holiday Decorations

• Hexagonal mesh netting, also known as poultry fence
  
• Flexible - easy to work with and cut into shapes
• Galvanized - 1/2", 1" and 2" meshes
  
• Black vinyl coated - 1" mesh
• Small mesh hardware cloth
• 1/2"x1/2" and 1/4"x1/4" meshes
• galvanized and vinyl coated

Deer Exclusion Barriers

• Protect your shrubs and plantings
• Heavy duty protection with woven galvanized deer and wildlife fence - height up to 10'
• Black vinyl coated 1" hexagonal netting blends into background - up to 7' height
• Unobtrusive, 7-1/2' light weight black extruded plastic 2"x1-3/4" mesh deer fencing

Bird Cages

• Galvanized and vinyl coated wire mesh
• 1/2" hexagonal mesh
• Galvanized After Weave (GAW)
• Excellent cage mesh for canaries and other small birds
  
• 48"x25', 50' and 150' rolls

Dog Kennel Flooring

• 1-1/2"x1-1/2" mesh
  
• Heavy 12.5 gauge GAW core wire
• Thick black or green PVC coating
• 36" and 48"x25' rolls are available (green only)

J Clip Pliers and Clips

• Excellent tool and fastener for building cages and other projects
• Connects and secures pieces of mesh

These items can be used year round as well.

Can you think of additional items?

Are there more uses for the products listed here?

What Is A Drift Fence?

According to Wikipedia "drift fences were used in the Texas Panhandle from 1882 to 1887 to control cattle drift, the winter migration of livestock to warmer territory." In an effort to prevent cattle in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas from crossing into the state during blizzards, Texas ranchers built a barbed wire drift fence that stretched for 200 miles with a gate every three miles.

The drift fence prevented cattle from migrating to better grazing land during the heavy snows of the 1886-87 winter. Most froze to death along the fence. It was removed in 1890 after passage of a law prohibiting fencing of public property.

Drift fences are still in use today but the application has changed. The long continuous barriers are one of the most effective techniques to sample wildlife species in a particular area to learn such things as population density. Reptiles and amphibians, insects and small mammals are often the subjects studied. When the animals come upon the fence, they move along looking for an opening. Many can be captured in a single night, when many species are most active and hard to observe.

Different materials are used to make the fences. They can be strategically placed in areas with different ecosystems where wildlife movement is most active. Depending on the location, metal flashing or silt fence might be used. Various types of traps, such as pitfall and funnel, are used along the fence to capture subjects. Hundreds can be collected in a single night.

Drift fence is an example of a type of fence that retains the original name while its application has changed over the years. Can you think of other examples?