Repairing Insect Damage To A Wood Fence

One of the attractions of a wood fence is that it's made from a beautiful, natural material. However, the downside of using a natural material is that sometimes natural processes like rot or insect damage may happen to the wood. Once your wood fence has sustained an insect-related injury, it's time to go into damage control mode.

You don't need to panic, but you'll want to carefully identify the types of insects involved, then get rid of them and proceed with fence repairs. Here are a few of the types of repair processes that may be needed to solve an insect-damaged wood fence.

Patch any holes

Some insects only create relatively small holes to repair. For instance, native bees such as carpenter bees may drill holes in a wood fence to use as their nests. These holes can be detrimental to the fence, but they're not too large. So you may be able to simply patch the hole up with caulk in the fall. This patch will keep out any additional water, reducing the amount of compounded damage that could occur.

Replace structurally damaged components

Many insects can create more severe damage than carpenter bees do. This is one reason why you'll need to identify the insects in question as part of the repair planning process. If you identify termites, for example, you'll suspect that some of your fence is now structurally unsound and will need to have some components replaced in order to be completely repaired.

Once you've identified the parts of the fence that are structurally damaged, you'll be able to schedule repairs. Your local fence contractors can help you find matching wood components and replace any fence posts and other fence parts that need to go.

Re-paint or refinish the fence

Re-painting is an important step in repairing fences with mild to moderate insect damage. For instance, if your fence had an invasion of carpenter bees, you'll need to repaint to cover up the holes that the bees made once you've finished plugging them with putty. The fresh layer of paint can also help to deter future carpenter bees so you'll have fewer repairs to make next year.

These are just a few of the steps you'll need to take to get things back to normal once you've discovered insects inside your fence. If you're unsure how to identify the insects, how to assess the level of damage they've done, or how much of your fence to replace, talk to your fence repair contractors for more information.