Woodway is large, wooded lots and a town of 1,384 people. The canopy is the landscape. Lawns live in the gaps between old trees, the soil stays shaded and cool, and privacy is the reason people bought the property. Shade, drip, and moss rot rails faster. Air has to reach the wood. A fence tight to the soil under a cedar is compost in a few years.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 1,384
A fence that stays a fence under trees
We keep the bottom clear, we do not attach the fence to the tree, and we do not cut a major root to straighten a line. The line can jog. A tree that grows into a board will win, so we leave room.
Moss on cedar is cosmetic. Rot at the post is not. We set the post right and we tell you a wash every couple of years extends the boards. We are not selling a fence that never weathers.
The ground in Woodway
We are not opening these lots to the street. Pruning is about structure, light, and keeping limbs off the house, done so the screen of trees stays. Under that canopy the lawn is the hard part: moss, thin grass, and roots at the surface. Aeration helps the pockets that get some sun. The deep shade wants a different floor — bark, ferns, and the understory that is already trying to grow — not another season of seed that germinates and dies.
Hardscape, when it belongs, is a terrace or a quiet patio in a clearing, built for wet shade so it does not turn green and slick. Bark on the beds keeps the mud down and the edges readable from the house. The work should look like it was always in the trees, because it is.
How we do the work
A fence in this county fails at the post. Wood rots where it meets wet soil, and a post set in a soft hole leans when the clay shifts. We set posts deep, we crown the concrete or the rock so water does not pool on the wood, and we keep the bottom of a board fence off the ground so it is not wicking mud.
Cedar for the boards, pressure-treated or steel where it touches the soil. We do not bury untreated lumber. Gates are built as gates, with a brace, not as a short panel that sags by August.
What we look at first
- The property line, before we dig
- Slope, and whether the fence should step or rack
- Who keeps the good side, and where the gates need to swing
- Sprinklers and the neighbor’s grade
Gates
A diagonal brace in the right direction, hinges that can carry the weight, and a latch you can open with one hand. The gate post is bigger or deeper than the line posts. A sagging gate is a build problem, and it shows up fast.
How long cedar lasts
A well-set cedar fence in this rain is often in the fifteen to twenty year range, longer if the bottom stays dry and you stain it before it goes gray and split. The posts outlive a careless bottom board. We build so you can replace boards later without replacing the line.
Stepped or racked
Stepped panels on a real slope, so the boards stay plumb and the gaps stay even. Racking a flat panel down a hill twists the frame. We pick the method from the grade, not from a photo.
More from this crew
- Fence installation across Snohomish County
- Retaining walls in Woodway
- Gravel installation in Woodway
- Hardscaping in Woodway
- Landscaping in Woodway
- Fence installation in Edmonds
- Fence installation in Mukilteo
Sources for the climate and the water
- USDA plant hardiness map for choosing plants that can take a Snohomish County winter.
- EPA WaterSense on watering less once a lawn or a new planting is established.
- EPA Soak Up the Rain on keeping roof and yard water from becoming someone else’s problem.
