Fence painting and fence spraying in Cambridge
Our decorators paint and stain garden fences of every common type: overlap and closeboard panels, featheredge, picket, slatted and hit-and-miss designs, along with the posts and gravel boards. Valter and Denes are among the decorators who paint sheds and fences for us.
This page goes into how a fence painting job is actually carried out. For sheds, gates and garden timber in general, see the main shed and fence painting page.
Spraying or brushing a fence: how we decide
Fence spray painting is quick on long, open runs. A sprayer gets paint into the gaps between overlap boards and the edges of featheredge, which a brush struggles to reach. We own a Graco cordless airless sprayer, which Graham demonstrates on our videos page.
Brushing is slower but has advantages. It pushes the finish into rough-sawn timber, it can be used right up against climbing plants, and there is no drift. Spraying also tends to use more product, because some of the mist never lands on the fence.
Often the answer is both. Panels are sprayed and then brushed over while wet, so the finish is worked into the grain, while posts, the tops of gravel boards and the edges near plants are done by brush.
Keeping overspray out of next door's garden
Spray mist is fine and carries further than people expect, even on a light breeze. It settles on cars on the drive, conservatory roofs, washing, garden furniture and plants, and paint specks on a car are much easier to prevent than remove.
So we look at the whole setting before choosing to spray. Cars parked nearby need moving or covering. Neighbours should know in advance, and their side of the fence is sheeted where the mist could reach. If the wind picks up, the sprayer goes away and brushes come out. On narrow side passages, or where a fence backs onto a parked street, brushing is usually the right call from the start.
- Cars moved or covered before any spraying
- Neighbours told, with their side sheeted where needed
- Plants tied back or wrapped
- Paving, walls and windows near the fence masked
- Spraying stopped if the breeze rises
New and treated fence timber
New pressure-treated panels and posts, often with a green tint, are frequently still damp from the treatment when they are put up. A coating applied too soon can fail to soak in or stay patchy. The usual advice is to wait until the timber has dried out, and to follow the fence paint maker's guidance on new treated wood. If your fence came with a manufacturer's guarantee, check its conditions before painting.
Dip-treated orange panels can usually be coated once dry and clean. Concrete posts and gravel boards don't take timber paint well; we can leave them, or paint them with a suitable masonry paint so the whole run matches.
Fence paint, fence staining and colour changes
Water-based fence paints made for spraying are thin and soak into rough-sawn panels. Fence staining on smooth, planed timber, such as modern slatted screens, is better brushed, so the colour goes on evenly along each board without runs.
Going darker is easy, and a dark colour over orange panels covers in one or two coats. Going lighter is harder, because a dark finish soaked into rough timber takes several coats to hide. A test patch on a section of your own fence shows how it will look before the whole run is done.
What decides the cost of fence painting
If the shed or summerhouse needs doing too, our shed painting page explains what that involves, and both can go on one quotation.
- Length and height of the fence
- One side or both, if the neighbour agrees
- Panel type: overlap and featheredge take longer than flat boards
- Spraying, brushing or both, and how much masking is needed
- Planting to tie back, and clear access along the fence
- Colour change and the number of coats
Booking your fence
Get in touch and Graham will visit, walk the fence line with you, and recommend spraying, brushing or a mix. You will then get a written quotation, usually by email. Algae-covered fences get the same anti-fungal treatment we used on a Cambridge house exterior before they are coated. We paint fences across the area, including Histon and Impington and Cherry Hinton. You don't pay until you're happy with the finished fence.
