Deck and Fence Contractor Toronto

Most cedar used in Toronto is known as Western Red Cedar. It is a slow growing softwood, that has a natural ability to resist decay in the wild. Modern cedar however is farmed and is not from old growth forest. The part of the tree that is most resistant to decay is the heartwood, which has a reddish pink hue, hence the name. The heartwood is the slowest part of the tree to form and in farmed trees, is almost non-existent.

If you go to any hardware store to look at their Western Red Cedar, you will find it is primarily a blonde color, which denotes that this lumber is from the faster growing sapwood. This sapwood has virtually no resistance to decay. If you want to build a cedar fence, you should consider using pressure treated wood for the posts as they are most at risk for rot. Untreated Western Red Cedar sapwood will only last about 8-12 years in the ground, and about 12 years for deck boards.

Ipe (pronounced ee-pay) is extremely slow growing and is one of the hardest woods known to man. Generally you have to pre-drill holes to put screws in it and it dulls saw blades quite rapidly. It is so dense that it does not float in water. It can last around 40 years, as due to its extreme hardness, it takes a long time for fungal and bacterial action to break it down.

To keep its aesthetic appeal, it needs to be oiled every couple of years otherwise it starts to look a bit ratty. Personally, however, I wont work with it. Its dust is toxic. It is often illegally harvested, and is becoming endangered. On top of that I just don’t think its a good idea to cut down 200 year old trees in the amazon, and ship them across the globe; for a deck that will probably get ripped up in 20 years anyway- but maybe that’s just me.

From time to time people will tell me about a fence they, or their friend, cousin, or brother in law built 30, 40 or 50 years ago without cementing the posts in place. And that that fence is still standing perfectly straight to this day. While it may be in good shape through the eyes of they who built it, when I have looked at these jobs, they look crooked as a dogs hind leg to me.

There seems to be a myth that pervades some people’s minds that concrete eats away the posts. Intuitively this makes some sense, as anyone who has touched wet cement will have seen the caustic effect it can have. But its not true, the concrete actually inhibits bacterial activity, and I have the pictures to prove it. There is a new expanding foam product that can be used and it does a reasonable job. It is a bit more expensive than cement and the posts are a little more wobbly even after it sets as there is a little bit of give in the foam. This could be a feature rather than a bug however, as that bit of flexibility could give the fence a better chance of withstanding wind and reversing vehicles. Typically we use concrete, but we are happy to use the foam if you prefer.

That is the million dollar question. It truly varies considerably, but after having done replaced literally thousands of posts I can say that it takes an average of an hour and a half per fence post. We use rapid setting cement, which sets in about 15 minutes so we can be in and out as quickly as possible. It also means that if you have a pool, we don’t have to leave the fence down overnight.

When building a deck, we most certainly do as it would violate building codes not to. We don’t use them on fences though as this is not what they are designed for. Bringing the concrete above grade will not make your fence last any longer- it will just look ugly.