Our Blog - "The Fence Post"

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?