My experience with vinyl fence is that it looks great for about 6 months. Then it starts to turn green and you have to pressure wash it every year. However, I'm in New England where humidity and rain are frequent occurences - probably not an issue in So Cal :) I love wood b/c I love the way it ages. Ant the fact that if my wood fence gets damaged in 5 years I can get new wood the same size to fix it. After a couple years, it will look similar to the old wood. I'm not sure if vinyl fence parts will continue to be available and you can't really rip some vinyl down to the right width to fix a fence. My last concern with vinyl is that it often gets brittle after it's been in the sun for a couple years. So if your yard (or your neighbor's yard) has kids who play ball, a vinyl fence will likely be chipped or have some chunks banged out of it over time. On the plus side - termites & ants do not like Vinyl. If you want a white fence (not a wood fence that ages to gray/silver over time) then vinyl is a lot less work than wood. Pressure washing once a year is easier than scraping and painting every 4 years. Good luck!

The health issues would be in the application of the product, I believe. A low VOC paint would be on the outside, therefore not subject to the heat. However, the "above the oven" part could mean there's heat, but it would have heated plastic to begin with, which can cause the (shoot, is it) polycarbons (?) to emit? Can you tell I'm winging it? That amateur statement made, OP, I'd definitely still sand the plastic and prime it with an adhesive primer. Painting unpaintable surfaces have become much more doable these days. I've very successfully painted melamine this way, too. I plan to paint the side of my refrigerator. [insert mad scientist howling cackle] I'd like to see your pics!

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)!

Not knowing where you are with this process, I would not recommend vinyl fencing. I have recently bought a house with what is termed "pool vinyl fencing" around it in zone 7b. To be polite, it looks like a giant play pen around a beautiful pool. Even if it was installed properly (wasn't) it's leaning on one side, that is not going to prevent severe deterioration from the elements (it's rotting in places). I am now trying to figure out what to do with a big vinyl mess that could cost thousands to remove plus it would contribute to a landfill. I attached a photo, it actually looks better than I described, the photo is old. I'm thinking of planting a living fence to completely cover the mess, then do landscaping around it. Unfortunately carpenter bees can be an issue with wood. But I see an ugly issue if a vinyl issue is installed. Best, Mike