Wood Or Synthetic Fences For Your Hardscaping
Designing the hardscaping that houses and frames your yard's landscaping can be hard. You need to choose landscaping design elements that are both stylish and functional. Choosing the right material for the fences in your hardscape can be a little confusing. Generally, you will see that there a lot of synthetic fence products that look like wood. Then, you have the option of choosing an actual wooden product. So, what do you go for? The product that looks like wood, but it is more expensive and easier to maintain. or real wood, even though it is it at durable? This article compares synthetic fencing products to real wood.
Wood is Better Looking
Wood is definitely a more attractive material to most homeowners. It is the traditional choice and one that is popular, if only because it has been used in fence construction for so many centuries. It is hard to argue against the style of wood. The mere fact that all of that synthetic fencing materials have photo wood textures shows how desirable the style is. Some people think that if they want to look of wood, they might as well just get the real thing. Furthermore, the actual maintenance required for a wooden fence is not all that labor intensive. That is, since a fence is outside, it is perfectly okay if it ages and wears down. It isn't a piece of finish cabinetry, so it doesn't need intense TLC. Some people even like the way that wood ages and looks more antiqued as it gets older.
The Perks of Synthetic Materials
On the other hand, it is also worth mentioning that synthetic materials actually look very authentic. Of course, there are cheaper-looking fences, which usually also have a cheaper price tag, that can look cheap. For instance, white vinyl fences are shiny, but they have a wood texture. Of course, this texture doesn't really make the vinyl look like wood, so it is sort of pointless. There are PVC and fiberglass materials that actually look very much like real wood. They aren't shiny, they have matte finishes, and they have 3-D wood grain textures. The best thing about these products isn't the fact that they almost look like real wood, but the fact that they require no maintenance at all. They are manufactured so they never need to be painted or refinished. Of course, the color can fade over the years, but this will be very minimal and hardly noticeable compared to the fading on a real wood fence.
In the end, you have to decide if you value the natural style of wood or the easy maintenance of synthetic fencing products.