Wood vs Vinyl vs Aluminum Fence: Which One Fits Your Yard?

Wood

A wood fence is the one most people picture: posts in the ground, two or three rails, and pickets nailed or screwed to the rails. It gives the most looks for the money. You can have full privacy at 6 feet, a shadowbox that looks the same from both sides, a low picket fence at the street, or a split rail along a long lot line.

Around here the pickets are most often pressure-treated pine, sometimes cedar. Treated pine costs less and takes stain well. Cedar costs more, holds its shape better and resists rot and bugs on its own. Either way, the posts should be treated pine rated for ground contact, because the post is the part that stands in the wet clay.

The trade is upkeep. A wood fence that is sealed or stained every few years keeps its color and lasts. One that is left bare turns gray, the boards cup, and the bottom edges soak up water. Posts fail first whatever the boards look like, which is why how long a wood fence lasts here is mostly a story about the posts.

Vinyl

A vinyl fence is hollow PVC posts, rails and pickets that lock together. It comes in white and tan most often, in privacy, semi-private and picket styles. It never needs paint or stain. Rain and a soft brush are the whole upkeep plan.

It costs more than treated pine up front and it only looks like vinyl: you cannot stain it a wood color later. It can get dirty on the north side, which washes off, and a hard hit from a mower or a falling limb can crack a picket, which is replaced as a part. The posts are set in concrete like wood posts, often with a metal or wood stiffener inside, and they do not rot.

Vinyl is the common answer when a homeowner wants privacy and never wants to stain a fence again, and the HOA allows white or tan.

Aluminum

An aluminum fence is open pickets in a frame of rails, most often black, in panels that attach to aluminum posts. It is the fence you see at the front of a house, around a pool, or along the edge of a yard with a view that the owner does not want to lose.

It never rusts and never needs paint. It is light, so it goes in fast and it handles a slope well: the panels rack to follow the ground. The trade is that it gives no privacy and no sound block. A dog sees everything through it, and so do the neighbors.

Pool yards are where aluminum is most common, because the open pickets keep the view of the water. A pool barrier has its own rules on height, gaps and gates that close and latch on their own, and those rules differ by town and county, so check yours first. For a frameless glass pool fence, our sister company Carolina Glass Railing installs those.

Four questions that decide

• Do you need privacy? Yes: wood or vinyl, at 6 feet. No: aluminum, or a low wood picket fence.
• Will you stain a fence every few years? Yes, or you like the look of gray wood: wood. No: vinyl or aluminum.
• What does the HOA allow? Many HOAs name the styles and colors they accept, and some allow only aluminum toward the street or only a set height. Read the covenants before you fall in love with a style. Our HOA guide covers what the form asks for.
• What is the fence for? A big dog or a busy road: privacy. A pool: whatever your town's barrier rules allow, often aluminum. A front yard or a view: aluminum or a short picket fence. A long lot line on a big lot: wood rail or aluminum, because privacy over a long run costs a lot of boards.

Mixing is normal. Many yards here have 6 foot wood or vinyl privacy on the sides and the back, and 4 foot aluminum across a view or toward the street. The HOA drawing just has to show both.

How each one is repaired

Whatever the material, a repair starts at the posts. A post that leans is replaced and set in new concrete, and the panels or boards go back on. From there the three differ.

• Wood is repaired piece by piece: one post, one rail, a few pickets. New boards are lighter for a few months and then weather to match.
• Vinyl is repaired by part: a cracked picket, a rail, a post cap, a whole post. The parts must match the maker's profile, so a close-up photo of a rail end helps us find the right one.
• Aluminum is repaired by panel and post. A bent panel is replaced as a section; a leaning post is reset.

A repair visit on any of the three is $225 to $600, installed, plus tax, confirmed after the final measure. If you are deciding between fixing an old wood fence and starting over, read repair or replace.