I finally checked out that fence row of mangled pickets near the old railroad tracks in Tulsa

Drove past it on a delivery last week and counted 14 boards twisted like pretzels from what had to be a windstorm, so I stopped to snap photos for my own build ideas, has anyone else ever seen a fence fail in such a weird pattern and tried to figure out the physics of it?

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1 Comment

martinez.paul5h ago

That twisted pattern is pretty specific, it usually means the wind hit a weak spot in the wood, like a knot or a crack that was already there. I've fixed a few fences that looked exactly like that after big storms, and the fix is always to brace the whole section, not just replace the broken boards. You gotta check if the posts are still solid too, because if the rails twisted, the posts probably shifted a bit in the ground. Take a level to the top rail and see if it's still straight, if it's bowed at all then you're fighting a bigger issue. For the rebuild, I'd use thicker pickets and leave a small gap between them so the wind can pass through instead of pushing the whole panel like a sail.