Vinyl versus Wood Fence for Best Return on Investment for Living in the House Only 4 Years?
Question:I asked chain link versus wood privacy and people seemed almost 100% in favor of wood privacy vs chain link for return on investment. Here's the thing...We're only going to be living in the house for 4 years until I finish vet school, so we need to be able the sell house ASAP but I don't want to invest a bunch of money in a vinyl fence if it's not going to a better ROI than wood privacy. What is the better return on investment (NOT which would you personally prefer in your yard): wood privacy or vinyl fence?
Answers:
The wood fence is a better choice for two reasons: Vinyl fences are more expensive than wood fences because they are petroleum products and petroleum is not cheap these days. The second reason wood is better is again because vinyl is a petroleum product. It is made of PVC, one of the most carcinogenic and toxic products known to man - the people who make it get ill, the people who live downwind of the PVC factories get ill, and there are global conflict issues involved as well. Vinyl takes way more energy to make, contains dioxins and chemicals, and will offgas into the air for years after it is installed. If you get a nice painted wood fence, it will probably look as nice to a potential buyer as a vinyl fence, plus you wont runt he risk of deterring a buyer who is aware of PVC issues.
The vinyl fences offered now days look great (most look just like wood) and will increase the return on your home. They have the benefit of never rotting, don't need painting, don't fade and almost never need replacement and most potential buyers will recognize that.
Oh- this aspect is magnified if your property experiences extremes of heat or moisture.
If the only concern you have is "ROI", why install ANY type of fencing?? And, since I'm on a roll, let me turn things around and ask "Which would YOU prefer in your yard?" This is your home you're talking about.sometimes, rather than worrying about things like "ROI" it's nice to have things in YOUR home simply because that's what you prefer, no other reason.
For the time being and without knowing what the new owner would like, how about just a invisible fence. Fairly inexpensive and serves the purpose. In the long run, vinyl will be the better investment.
I learned something new due to Katrina. Neither wood, steel or vinyl fences fared well. At least with the vinyl fences, you could collect all of the pieces from the neighbors, and just set new posts.
The only fences to survive consistently were chain link. Now, I realize that you are unlikely to experience a hurricane. I just thought you might want to reconsider chain link. For privacy, slats can be woven into the links. Any color you want.
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