On 03/23/2014 06:55 PM, micky wrote:
I noticed that somone around here has a 6' wood stockade fence.

A few years after it was erected, the pickets had shrunk widthwise so
that there is a crack between every two pickets and one can see into his
yard.

Does this mean the fence builder used wood that had not aged
sufficiently when the pickets were cut?

What woods are commonly used to make pickets? Pine? Would pine
show sap? This wood doesn't have any sap or dried sap.

Around here, pickets are made from cedar. I have a neighbor who made
his fence without permanently affixing the pickets to the rail, by
sandwiching the tops and bottoms of pickets between two pieces of wood
(think of a tongue and groove).

He installed it this way with the pickets touching, and after they
shrunk, he pulled them together and then nailed them in place. No cracks.

Jon