Fence Installation in Gresham, OR
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On a cold, clear night in January, the wind in Gresham often comes from the east, and it does not gust so much as lean. It has come down the Columbia River Gorge, the only near-sea-level passage through the Cascades, and research on it is specific about where it hits hardest: easterly winds are stronger and more frequent at lowland stations near the Gorge's western end than at other lowland stations west of the Cascades. Gresham is among the closest cities to that end. At Crown Point, inside the mouth of the Gorge, the same research expects a 55-knot easterly about once every two years. A solid 6-foot cedar fence running north to south across a Gresham backyard is, on a night like that, a sail.
What an east wind does to a fence
A privacy fence is a wall with no roof holding it down. Wind hitting it face-on pushes the panel, the panel pushes the posts, and the posts push against the ground at the point where they enter it, the same point where posts rot. Wind adds a second load at the point rot already works on, and on a solid fence the load rises with every square foot of board facing it.
How much of that load a Gresham fence sees depends on its orientation, its solidity and its exposure.
Orientation
An easterly wind pushes hardest on a fence that runs north to south, because that fence faces it squarely. A run that goes east to west is edge-on and sees far less. Most lots have runs in both directions, and the north-south runs are the ones the design has to care about.
Solidity
A board-on-board fence is solid; wind has nowhere to go but through the posts. A shadowbox fence, with its gaps, lets some air through and cuts the load on the same posts. On a Gresham run facing east, it is a structural choice as much as a style choice.
Exposure
A fence in the lee of the house sees less than a fence on the east side of the lot that meets the wind first, and a fence along the eastern edge of an eastern Gresham subdivision, with open ground beyond it, sees the most.
Designing the runs that face the wind
VResh builds every Gresham fence to the post-setting standard on the main fence page. On the north-south runs of an exposed lot, VResh proposes design changes run by run, and the estimate shows which runs carry them.
Closer post spacing on the exposed runs, so more posts share the same length of board.
A third rail on a 6-foot solid fence, so the boards are fastened across more of their length and the panel works as one piece.
A gapped style where privacy allows it: shadowbox on the exposed runs, board-on-board where the house or a hedge already breaks the wind.
None of this makes a fence windproof. It makes a fence designed for the direction it faces, which is a different object from a fence designed for a catalog photo.
What stands east of the fence
A fence is sheltered by whatever breaks the wind before it arrives, and on a Gresham lot that is usually the house, a neighbor's house, a garage, or a hedge. A run with a two-story house 40 feet east of it is in a different situation from the same run with a field east of it, and the design treats them differently. Where a homeowner is planting anyway, an arborvitae or laurel hedge on the east side of a north-south run takes a share of the load off the fence for the rest of its life, and VResh will say where a hedge would do the best. Where nothing can be planted, the run is built as an exposed run.
The lot, walked with a compass
The estimate visit walks the lot lines and notes, for each run, which way it faces and what stands east of it. A north-south line along an alley or beside open ground faces the wind squarely. A run tucked behind a two-story neighbor to the east may hardly see it. Those readings set the design before a board is chosen, and where there was an old fence, where its posts failed is read too.
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Fence questions from Gresham, OR
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Build it before the wind season
Gorge east winds are a cold-season event. A Gresham fence built in late spring or summer has a full season to settle before the first January easterly leans on it. Call or text (503) 272-6436.