Top drawer featheredge

[cantaloup63]

I have seen these for sale somewhere and they involve the arris rails having featheredge timbers on both sides, so that both faces are equally as attractive to look at whilst been twice as strong

The question I have is about air circulation - surely the gap between the faces would be extremely prone to damp and stale air festering and thus reduce the longevity of such panels (regardless of them being pressure treated before construction anyway)?

Am I missing something obvious?

 

[imamartian]

I don't think you need to worry... featheredge isn't very accurate, so will hardly form an airtight seal !!.. but if you're not convinced, you could drill some discrete holes in it, and/or drainage holes if you felt the water might get in to the gap?

Also i wouldn't think the feather edge adds much strength to the fence... so IMO featheredge on two sides won't double the strength?!!

 

[mikej2005]

As above, the way these panels are normally constructed means that the cavity created by a double-faced panel won't be anywhere near air-tight and there will be plenty of gaps for any water to escape where each board meets a baton/rail and overlaps with the one next to it. A suitable top-cap would limit the amount of water getting in, too.

I do think the panels would be stronger though. Vertical feather-edge fence panels like I've been constructing recently (with 3 horizontal rails and a top-cap) are obviously held together with the FE boards so the more boards there are holding everything in place, surely the stronger the panel will be ? Saying that, if you use the right nails and do the job properly, one set of FE boards is easily adequate for a strong panel.

There are actually two things that would concern me more about these double-faced panels then the potential water issue and they are (1) the extra weight an extra set of boards would add (a normal 5ft or 6ft high panel is pretty heavy to lift 6ft off the ground in order to slot them inbetween concrete posts !) and (2) would they still fit in the grooves of a typical intermediate concrete post with the extra width (it might be a tight fit, which would make dropping the panels in harder) ?