At some point every fence makes you choose. Patch it again, or start over. The good news is you can usually tell which one is smart in about ten minutes of looking. Here is how to decide without guessing.
Repair or replace, how to decide
Whether to repair or replace a fence comes down to the posts, not the pretty part. Pickets and rails are cheap and easy to swap. Posts are the expensive, buried, load-bearing part. So the real question is how many posts are bad. A few bad posts in an otherwise solid fence is a repair. Bad posts up and down the whole run is a replacement. Start by counting.
Count the leaning and rotten posts
Walk the line and push on each post. A solid post barely moves. A bad one wobbles or leans. Then check the base, right at the ground, where posts rot first in our wet soil. If you can sink a screwdriver into the wood, that post is done. If one or two out of many are bad, reset them. If a third or more are soft or leaning, you are looking at a new fence.
Check the bottom rail and pickets
After the posts, look low. The bottom rail and the ends of the pickets sit closest to wet ground and moss, so they rot first. A little soft wood on a couple of boards is a normal fix. But if the bottom rail is crumbling along most of the fence, and the pickets are green and soft on the north side, the whole thing is near the end. New boards on dying posts is lipstick on a fence.
Age and how many sections
Add up the age and the spread. A wood fence in this climate does not last forever, and moss, rain, and damp shorten it. If the damage is in one or two sections, repair those and move on. If it is spread across most of the fence, or the fence is old and you are fixing something every year, replacement is cheaper over time. One big job beats five small ones that never quite hold.
When a repair is throwing money away
A repair is smart when the bones are good and the problem is small. It is a waste when you are propping up posts that will fail next winter anyway. A good crew tells you honestly, even when honest means replace less than you feared, or replace more. We give a free on-site look, count the bad posts with you, and only sell you the fence you actually need.
Common questions
We'll walk the line with you, push on the same posts you did, and count the bad ones out loud. If two posts need resetting, that's the quote you get, and if the whole run is done we'll say so plainly.
