willshak wrote:
blue wrote:

In the process of putting up our cedar fence which we are staining
with Sikkens Cetol SRD in Teak. Our nice weather for staining is
running out really fast around here so I am staining like a maniac today.

The fence is 17 cedar 1x6's per 8 ft section, with 2 2x4's on edge at
the back (one at top, one near bottom). There is a cedar 2x4 laying
flat on top of the on edge 2x4 at the top. On the front of the fence
there will be a 1x4 cedar trim piece right underneath the 2x4 that is
laying flat, and a 1x6 cedar trim piece at the bottom. Since the space
between our boards is minimal, and thus the chance of seeing any
greyed cedar is slim, and that the "uglier" (although neither side of
this fence is ugly) side of the fence will be facing back alley and
neighbours, is it necessary to stain the backside of these trim boards?


Since the 'ugly' side is usually supposed to face the fence owner's
property, you would have to stain it
Facing the ugly side to your property may only be a courtesy in your
area, but it could be local code. You might want to check on that.
I do not mean the fence boards, we alreay stained those on both sides. I
mean the 1x6 and 1x4 trim pieces where the backside will be horizontally
against 17 1x6 cedar boards. On the "ugly" side of the fence there is 2
2x4's whereas on our side, there is the 1x4 and 1x6 trim board instead
(fence boards are between the 2x4's and the trim). There is no way
anyone would ever see the unstained part of the board, it is physically
impossible.

I am only concerned about the staining for the good of the cedar. The
fence was designed to look identical on both sides, with the exception
of the bad side of the fence boards facing one side. From either side,
it is a good looking fence. No code in our area saying which side of
fence boards need to face where and our the owner of the house next door
rents the house out and said he doesn't want to pay for any part of the
fence since he rents the house out, plans to for the rest of his life
and doesn't care if his tenants have a fence or not.

It is also important if your fence has a horizontal rail in the middle
of the pickets between posts. You don't want to give burglars, or other
neer-do-wells, a good foothold to climb the fence.

It doesn't.


Not staining them would save me alot of time not having to wait for
that side to dry before we put them up. We could just put up the trim
and I could stain the fronts and edges right up on the fence.

If there is an advantage to staining the backsides, I definately will.
If it is a waste of my time, then I'd rather not. Any opinions?

Thanks!