We bought some in 1998 from Home Depot. I hope what they sell these days is better. It wasn't very sturdy and it cracked in places. It would have been better if not so hollow. We ended up replacing it about 10 years later with fencing that looks like wrought iron, but isn't. (I think it's aluminum?) I especially like the look...it just sorta blends into the scenery better.

Did you put wood inside the posts?

Vinyl does not hold up in weather, rain-sun-snow etc. I would go with a chain link fence, and you can put somthing like slats so it is harder to see thru. Make sure it USA or Canadia made, because much of the material is coming from outside and is just not holding up.

I don't know about fencing, but I'll tell you what the story is about flooring and these big box stores. I bet it's the same. They buy poor quality products from China and other countries and they market it and display it in a way that it APPEARS to be the same quality as something you'd get from a regular store. It might look the same but it might be a tiny bit thinner or have less of a finish on it, etc. People buy it because it's cheaper. And truthfully, sometimes folks have no choice. Sometimes crappy flooring is better than no flooring. But that's the thing. None of these big box stores sell products that can compare quality wise. As far as warranties, they count on people losing their paperwork or moving to another home by the time it fails. If you go with them, keep all warranties. Better yet, go to a little guy and tell him the truth. Tell him Lowe's has a product you're considering--can he compete? We sometimes sell our flooring for wholesale just to get the installation. It's the way it is today. Good luck.

Yes, we put wood inside the POSTS, but not, of course, the individual pickets. The CAPS on the posts also broke easily. If you hit the pickets with a weed whacker, they're gonna break! It's unfortunate, because it looked nice at first. If you have young children, I'd say choose something else. (We didn't...ours were all grown.)

Hollysprings, if the numbers are exactly the same, that's true. But always remember to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. The big box stores will often nickle and dime the customer to death, adding on charges for things like measuring the job, glue, etc. You also have to be really stringent about making sure the flooring really is the same flooring. They sell a lot of products that are deceptively similar and you might not notice a different number. Sometimes it's the same product but the grade is lower. And of course, if you need it installed, you will get better service from the little guy who has his heart and soul in his shop.

The fencing from HD and Lowes is thinner than what many fence companies use (but not all). Recently was looking at some HD/Lowes fencing and you really do have to call the manufacturer to find out thickness, AND you have to ask the same questions of the fence companies. For example, one HD/Lowes style of 6' privacy fencing I was looking at (manufactured in the USA by Barrette) had 0.035" thick pickets, 0.065" rails and 0.135" thick posts, while the fence companies vinyl had 0.050" pickets, 0.080" rails and 0.150" thick posts. So as you can see there is a definite material difference. However just having thinner material doesn't mean HD/Lowes fence product isn't any good, just that it probably won't be as strong. But the real important question is how strong do you need, and would 0.035" pickets be strong enough? Answers to questions like this seem scarce on the internet, so all you find are fence companies saying they use thicker material that will be stronger, but again, maybe I don't care if what HD/Lowes has is already good enough, especially given the cost savings. Obviously we don't want pickets bowing and blowing off the rails b/c of a 30 mph wind gust, so they do need some strength. From what I've found reading reviews on HD/Lowes, is their fencing seems to hold up just fine, in fact one reviewer said their fence held up perfectly against hurricane Sandy this last year, and another reviewer in Arizona (where they have very high winds) also has had no issue with pickets blowing off in the wind. The other issue about vinyl falling apart after 5 or 10 years did used to be true, based on my internet searches, but apparently that was vinyl fencing made without UV inhibitors (TiO2) and impact modifiers, so it got brittle, flaked, turned yellow, fell down when hit by a weed whacker, etc, but no one (except maybe imported stuff) uses that anymore. The other big thing is to avoid any fencing that requires brackets to hold it together, make sure you buy the kind with holes in the posts for the rails, and make sure you get tongue and groove pickets with u-channels (some styles at HD/Lowes have both, but others don't, so review their listings very carefully). I guess my conclusion would be if you buy the right type of fence from HD/Lowes, you will probably do just fine and save quite a bit of money (though you don't want to have them do the install b/c they'll nail you on that)!

Here in New England, I've seen many vinyl fences caved in by winter's end due to accumulating snow load, typically along a street where the snow is repeatedly plowed up against the fence line. It appears that the individual slats or panels just pop out too easily under pressure. Seems to be a fundamental design flaw, but I couldn't say whether it is any worse with big-box store brands.

We installed a single vinyl privacy fence panel from Menards a couple of years ago and it got warped by our neighbor's grill. It turns out that the manufacturer is no longer making the panels. I would recommend buying extra panels of whatever you buy.

This post was edited by newbuyer2007 on Sat, May 25, 13 at 19:35