Where Should You Use Stainless Steel Fence?
Usually, when you're talking about metal fence, you're talking about a galvanized steel fence. However, stainless steel is also used for fencing, and you can get most of the materials you would use for a galvanized fence for a stainless steel fence.
Here's a little more information about why stainless steel fence sometimes makes sense, and where you might want to consider using a stainless steel fence.
Why Use Stainless Steel Fence?
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron and chromium, often with varying amounts of nickel and other metals added into the mix.
This steel alloy is much more corrosion resistant than ordinary mild steel (under most circumstances) and is also stronger and better able to stand up to extreme temperature fluctuations.
Where Should You Consider Using Stainless Steel Fence?
If you are installing a fence anywhere near salt water, you might want to consider stainless steel fence. It is much better suited to this environment, and will take a lot longer to corrode in that environment.
Depending on the fence design, stainless steel fence can even be used in situations where there is direct exposure to salt water. That is a situation that would lead to catastrophic corrosion in a galvanized steel fence.
Sometimes, if you are using a galvanized and duplex coated fence system, you could use stainless steel only for certain elements like barbed wire or electric fence wires.
Where Should You Not Use Stainless Steel Fence?
Stainless steel fence stands up exceptionally well to sea water, but it does not fare well with chlorinated water.
So you should avoid using stainless steel fence near chlorinated water, such as around pools and similar.
It's also a good idea to find out what kind of chemicals are in the air in an industrial area. Some might increase the corrosion of stainless steel fence.
What's the Price Difference?
The price difference between galvanized steel fence and stainless steel fence pricing is large. You can expect to pay four to five times more for this kind of fencing.
Which is another good reason to make sure that you really need stainless steel, and why this type of fence is a lot less common.