What Is the Difference Between a Brace Band and a Tension Band?
If you buy chain link fence materials in North America, you’re going to get a fairly large bag of fittings with your posts and mesh. Some of those fittings are easy to figure out like dome caps and rail ends, because they only fit one type of pipe in your order.
Other items, however, can look very similar. If you’re looking at your bag of fittings and wondering what the difference is between a brace band and a tension band, you’re in the right place. Here’s what you need to know.
What Is a Brace Band?A brace band is a thin strip of metal that has been performed to fit around the outside of your fence posts (usually your tension posts.) It is used along with rail ends to attach top, mid, or bottom rails to tension posts and sometimes to attach wire or barbed wire. Usually, you will have one brace band for each horizontal rail, for each direction of the fence, per terminal post. If you are using brace bands to attach bottom wires or barbed wires, you will also need one extra brace band for each of those wires, again in each direction of strain. brace bands are slipped around your fence post and then bolted in place to attach them securely. Usually, this is done with carriage bolts, which should also be in your fence materials order. |
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What Is a Tension Band?North American chain link fence systems usually include a flat metal strip that is used at the end of each line of fence to fasten and tension the mesh. These tension bars are passed through the last vertical row of mesh openings adjacent to the post, but it still needs to be fastened in place. This is done by means of tension bands, which also slip around the fence post, but also catch the tension bar before being bolted in place. Usually, you will have one tension band per foot of fence height, and again, in each direction of fence line. So if you have a corner post, you would have twice the number of tension bands, and if you have a three-way intersection post, you would have three times the number of tension bands, and so on. |
How to Tell the Difference Between brace bands and Tension Bands
The easiest way to tell the difference between brace bands and tension bands is to look at the straight pieces that stick out from the round portion of the band. If they are centered and fairly short, you have a brace band. If they are off-center and longer, that’s a tension band.
If you have both kinds of these fittings in your chain link fence material order, you should have no trouble telling which one is which!
What Is the Same When Comparing Brace Bands and Tension Bands?
Brace bands and tension bands are both made from thin strips of steel, pre bent to the shape of the post they're going to be used on.
They both have pre-prepared holes for bolts, and they will both be supplied in the same finish as your fence. So if you have a galvanized chain link fence to install, you will get galvanized tension bands and brace bands, and if your fence is powder coated, you will have bands that are coated to match.
