AmeriFence of Madison is a Leader in Wood Fence Products.

Incense Cedar fence pickets, rails, and posts are some of the most rugged and decay-resistant of native American woods. Found in California, southern Oregon, and western Nevada, it comes from a forest tree and is one of the top woods of the Western Woods Region. 

Incense Cedar is a very attractive tree of columnar or pyramidal form usually growing on mountain slopes from 2500- to 7000-foot elevations. This form makes it an exceptional choice for fence pickets providing very straight and clean grains in the pickets. Trees at maturity have a rapidly tapering trunk with a buttressed, fluted base.

Incense Cedar’s botanical name is Libocedrus decurrens. Under normal conditions, mature trees are 20 to 30 inches in diameter and 75 to 110 feet in height. The tallest cedar trees can grow to 150 feet tall and six feet in diameter. The tree is rarely found in pure stands but generally grows intermingled with Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine, Douglas Fir, and White Fir. We are still harvesting old-growth Incense Cedar for fence products today. This is critical as we get plenty of the good heartwood.

The smooth surfaces to which Incense Cedar is machined combine to form quality-looking fences. The wood may be painted or stained in any of the wide variety of finishes in the modern painter’s color hues. Fence contractors, carpenters, architects, DIY stores, and homeowners tout it as one of the finest wood fence products available today.

Decay resistance in lumber important and the high dimensional stability of Incense Cedar provide this. Its volumetric shrinkage, when dried from a green state down to 12 to 15 percent moisture content, is only 3.8 percent close to the bottom of the 3.4-6.6 range of commercially important softwoods. This is important for fencing as it is the least likely of all cedars to shrink. A cedar privacy fence will never shrink to point of leaving gaps, so you can always maintain your privacy.

Incense Cedarwood is non-resinous. Sapwood is white or cream-colored and the heartwood is light brown or light reddish-brown. The texture is fine and uniform with small, evenly arranged cells. The incense cedar wood has a spicy odor characteristic that a lot of people enjoy.

Perhaps its outstanding characteristics are what lead to its widespread use in a variety of lumber products. Also, its exceptional resistance to decay and high durability when exposed to the weather make it the choice lumber for many. The Forest Products Laboratory classes Incense Cedar with woods that hold stain the longest and suffer least when protection against weathering becomes inadequate. As one of many options your Madison fence company carries we are happy to assist in your wood selections.