Male1: Horses and long-horned cattle grazed the lands around in this Texas Hill Country home. They wandered freely around the pool and house area. So fencing a very large and hilly yard perimeter was a necessity for the homeowners. They’ve chosen ornamental steel fence that would accommodate the surrounding hills. Ray Olson of Ameristar Fence and explains a common misperception about iron fencing.
Ray: Traditionally people have called it rot iron fence, which was something went back to the 1800s that they noted the solid picket, solid rails, solid post. The cost of that is just extreme these days it would be $125, $200 a panel for a foot for the fencing. What has happened with 60s, 70s, and 80s we went with tubular steel. The recent technological increase is we’ve been able to do better metal and finishing with powder coating.
Male1: Standard steel finishes often rust and don’t hold up to the elements. This fence goes through a 7 step pretreated process of washes and rinses with various coatings including zinc phosphate to seal the metal. It’s similar to the kind of finish that’s put on a car. Each 5 foot tall, 8 foot long section of fence comes in a box. The local contractor can assemble this in the shop or the field. Here the panels are assembled in the field on a set of saw horses and a jig.
Ray: I’m going to put this pin through the holes in the pickets and what we’re doing there is we’re getting the rail spacing.
Male1: The rails are center-punched and have a double-walled system.
Ray: We’re going to put the rubber gromit’s were going to insert them in the rail. And what that will do is just it allows us to get a snag fit on the pickets when it slides to the rail.
Male1: The pickets have hole on each end and are put into the rail one by one. A little soupy water on the picket and it slides right through. The holes are then lined up in the middle of the rail. This allows a retaining rod to run through the rail and the picket. Next they bend the end of the rod in a 45 degree angle to keep it in place. This is very important if you’re planning on building the panels and then transporting them to the job site. You don’t bend the rod, it can’t slide back out. Because the pickets can pivot this system adjusts to a slope it can easily accommodate the surrounding hills and inclines.
Ray: Now one of the concerns that you would have with steel is that it actually rusting from the inside out. And when you have your panels coming into a post, you would weld them together and that will not be protected with the coating. And the airs where you could incur a problem. They did something smarter than that. They actually came up with a bracket system that you actually bolt our panels right onto our post. And the self tapping screw to put the bracket into the post and then the bolts, it also have the protective coating going each side on the panels to hold them in place were not going to have any rust in this area whatsoever.
Male1: Next the assembled panel is attached to the post. Both the hole in the bracket and the hole on the rail are oval-shaped so the post facing doesn’t have to be 100% accurate.
Ray: With your traditional welded panel, it would attach to the post and it wont rack it will go straight across and your going to have big gaps underneath pickets to the ground. Where as with Iggy’s panel, it will rack to the slope, your distance is between the pickets to the ground is equal. This yard has a pool so there’s certain codes that will come into play with the gate especially the fence. Your pickets need to be less than 4 inches apart. Ours is in 3s, 15s. 16s.Your rails need to be 45 inches from the top of the bottom rail to the top of the top rail. This doesn’t allow children to have a climb hold to climb over. The gate, that also have to have some self-closing hinges and some self-latching latch.
Male1: For the house railing around the backyard perimeter, the owners chose basic black.
Ray: We also have colors available in white, desert sand, as well as bronze. It all does get the epoxy-based coat.
Male1: Fencing was also used in the barn for windows, dividers and gates in the horse stocks. This country house now has a fence that conforms to the hills. The elegant ornamental fence combines the strength of steel with the maintenance-free rust-proof finish. And because it’s symmetrical, both sides of the fence are equally attracted. So this fence is neighbor-friendly. For more information on the Iggy’s fence by Ameristar Fencing visit ameristarfence.com.
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