In the past year alone, Krauss-Maffei Corp. “Usually with that kind of growth, you’d expect the product to be cheaper than the alternative, but PVC fences are more expensive,” says Michael Riese, product manager at Lawrence McCoy in Worcester, Mass. “The only limiting factor may be the shortage of PVC,” adds the president of this two-year-old start-up, which operates PVC fence-profile plants in Florida and Texas. Ranch fence needs to be robust enough to keep horses in. Wood-flour-filled polyolefins and PVC have already gained acceptance in non-structural profiles for decking and in metal-reinforced railings. “The larger market of wood fences is billion a year, so there’s still a lot of replacement potential out there,” says the sales director of one big vinyl fence company. Even a 10-15% price increase early this year hasn’t dampened sales, he notes.

And any fence in Dade County, Fla. But otherwise, fence requirements are mostly aesthetic, which has helped PVC profiles to become a mainstream product in just a few years. Vernon, Ind. of Kansas American Tooling, McPherson, Kan. Acoustical fence must meet stringent performance tests. They offer PVC as a high-end choice to customers. At the high end, residential fence sells for 30% to 300% more than wood, depending on the complexity of the fence system.” “Ranch,” or post and rail, is the commodity end of the PVC market, and is the most price-competitive with wood fencing. “Fences are at critical mass now, where a lot of processors are doing well and expanding rapidly,” says Harlan Doering, v. “There is clearly a shift to maintenance-free building products. From a standing start in the early 1980s, PVC fence sales grew to about 0 million last year, industry sources say.

“But people are not in love with scraping and painting their fences, either, and they’re willing to pay more not to have to do it. It’s not that people love a product that looks plastic,” Riese explains. While demand for all types of fencing typically grows 5-7% a year, the PVC sector has been surging ahead by 20-30% annually, and this year’s growth could hit 50%, according to David Lawrence of Outdoor Advantage in Snohomish, Wash., a distributor of vinyl, wood, and aluminum fences. They are eyeing fences as their next potential market. But even in this sector, all the new extrusion capacity flooding the market is starting to depress profit margins, notes William Zell, sales and marketing manager at Westech Fence in Mt.

They have the advantage of the look and feel of natural woodgrain, which plain PVC fencing can only imitate with streaks of pigment., must stand up to 120-mph hurricanes. There are a few notable exceptions. The explosive growth of PVC fences, even at a price premium to wood, isn’t lost on the makers of wood-composite decks and rails. China fireplace baby gate Manufacturers As occurred in PVC siding and windows a decade ago, fence profiles are now seeing explosive growth and rapid plant expansions, including conversions of entire plants from pipe, siding, and other construction profiles. Pool fences and deck rails have to withstand specified lateral loadings., a maker of dies and calibrators for fence profiles., says it has delivered 16 conical twin-screw extrusion lines to three PVC fence processors, all of which are running dual strands for maximum output., Florence, Ky.p. In fact, some PVC fence makers say they can undersell wood in some cases. What triggered this year’s explosive growth is sudden, broad customer acceptance of PVC fences, especially among smaller contractors and buildings-supply houses. Unlike windows and siding, fence makers such as temporary fence,wire mesh,fence manufacturers,steel fence post,wire fence,portable fence face few hurdles in the form of building codes or ASTM standards. Forty-six percent of the current PVC fence market is in residential fencing, 36% in ranch (post and rail), 12% in encapsulated-metal railings, 4% in decking, and 2% in lawn and garden