How Fall Leaves May Damage Your Fence And Gate

 In Blog, Tips and tricks

Leaves are beautiful and amazing to look at. They are also fun to play in during fall. However, allowing them to pile up in your yard will only cause various problems. The leaves can damage your wooden fences and gates in unexpected ways.  Here is a look at some ways in which fall leaves impact fences and how you prevent this damage from occurring ahead of time. 

Different Ways Dry Fall Leaves May Damage Fences and Gates

There are various ways in which the leaves can cause damage to these outdoor structures, such as:

  • Fall leaves are natures miracle grow for a beautiful spring garden

    Water Retention- Water usually evaporates from fence posts quickly because the fencing is exposed to air. Piles of leaves at the bottom of your fencing will block air from getting to your fence, and they will hold onto water that would have otherwise fallen to the ground.

  • Dirt- Leaves on the fence edges will cause water to constantly splash up whenever it rains. This leaves lines of dirt along the bottom of your fences, similar to how it does on your vehicle when driving through the rain. When you take care of the leaves, you won’t have to worry about the dirt.
  • Insects- Insects are drawn to leaf piles because the foliage holds water. Bugs may also use these leaf piles to hide and will bury into your fencing. By ensuring that leaves are away from your fences, you can prevent the bugs from making a home in them.                                                                                                                              
  • Poor Drainage- Water should ideally flow away from your home’s structure along a predetermined path, guided by the guttering and the slope of the land. If you have a significant number of leaves in the yard, the water can easily go off course. It can create puddles in the areas you don’t want any water accumulating, like around your fence line or foundation.

How to Protect Fences and Gates from Fall Leaves

The solution here is pretty simple. Once leaves start piling up in your yard, you should rake them, bag them, and throw them away. You could also use a leaf vacuum to collect and grind the leaves. If you’re going to rake your leaves, don’t just put them in piles.

Those piles of leaves will blow around again, which means you will continue to have issues around your fences and gates. Eliminating leaves from your yard and garden spaces at least once each week, will help prevent damage to these features. It’s a good idea to contact experts that can help with fence maintenance as they will have worked with different fence types and products.

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