So you want a vinyl fence. However, you don’t want a white one. You’re in luck. Vinyl fencing manufactures offer many choices for colored vinyl fence. But this wasn’t always the case.
Not so many years ago the only vinyl fence colors were light tan and light gray. Soon after they offered darker shades of the two colors. The growth in popularity of vinyl fencing created a need from something other than lightly colored soil fence panels. It wasn’t long before manufacturers offered even more color options.
As technology increased so did the colors. Today you can find just about any color you want. There are even colored vinyl fencing options that look like wooden fence grain or weathered lumber.
Colored Vinyl Fence Meets Technology – Allowing for More Color Choices
For the sake of not getting too technical, the darker the color, the more challenging it is to produce. Especially when manufacturers on vinyl fences have to offer lifetime warranties on their products.
Adding color pigment to the components of vinyl weakens it. Furthermore, the darker the pigment, the more heat it will attract. Heat can cause issues with vinyl fencing buckling and warping in extreme circumstances.
The technology wasn’t yet perfected to produced a reputable product that would not fail or fade. As a result, only lighter vinyl fence colors were offered at first. As manufactures perfected the blend of materials and pigments, darker colors became available.
Now dark color options and blended options of colored vinyl fence are available that weren’t just a few years ago. It even comes in black.
Tan Vinyl Fence Color Options – The Early Years
It all started with tan vinyl fence colors. Basically an off white color. It wasn’t hard for manufacturers of vinyl fencing to produce. Furthermore, it didn’t have the high risk factor of failure that darker colors had.
Keeping the pigment light in color allowed early vinyl products to retain strength and durability. As a result, it became the most popular color option for vinyl fences.
Today, there are many variations of tan and beige colors. Each vinyl fencing manufacturer has their own color with their own name for it. But all of them will offer a tan or beige vinyl fence of some sort.
Gray Vinyl Fence Color Options
Gray was the next vinyl fence color to come into play for vinyl fence manufacturers. Just like tan, it wasn’t too far of a color change from white. Again, a safe bet for manufacturers.
The gray colored vinyl fence options that were first available were very light in color. Again, manufactures were careful not to go too dark or the vinyl would attract heat. That heat could cause potential problems with the integrity of the vinyl fences, so they kept thing light.
Today however, there are many variations of gray vinyl fence colors to choose from. With some of the gray colors being very dark in color. Depending on the manufacturer, black is even an option.
Two Tone Vinyl Fencing – Adding Dimension and Design
When installing a vinyl fence, especially a 6′ tall privacy white vinyl fence, they can be look overbearing. Like a solid wall. To break things up a little, manufacturers offer two tone fencing.
Two tone colored vinyl fencing is when the posts and the rails of a privacy fence will be one color, and the pickets that are used for the fill are another color. This breaks up the uniform look of solid color vinyl fences. It also give the fence a unique look.
Customers choose white framework and tan pickets, or vise versa. Vinyl fences with darker colored post and rails combined with lighter colored pickets really looks good. Giving the fence a unique and modern look and feel.
A quick search of two tone vinyl fencing will give you plenty of ideas.
Other Vinyl Fence Color Options with Blended Colors
Dark browns, cedar and redwood are very popular vinyl fence color choices for modern vinyl fences. There are blended colors made to look like weather barn siding. There are also blended colors that look like wood grain.
The old days of white, tan and gray colored vinyl fence options are over. However, all of these new wonderful colors come at a cost. A financial cost!
As we discussed earlier, making colored vinyl fencing is not easy for manufacturers. As a result, they charge a premium for it.
Normal solid colors like tans, beige and gray all add approximately 10% – 15% to the cost of a white vinyl fence. Some of the darker color will add 20% – 30% more. The the most complex blended colors with wood grain appearance will add even more.
Combining Vinyl Fence Colors with Texture
If providing color options other than white wasn’t enough, manufactures stepped up their game and started offering texture to go along with colors. Of course trying to mimic the grain of a wood fencing was the goal.
Trying to soften the hard look of a solid fence was another one. Modern vinyl fence styles with textures achieve this goal. Besides wood grain, there are even texture options to resemble stucco. These are very popular in the southern states.
Molded vinyl privacy fences have even more definition. Stone and brick are two common styles offered by manufactures. Providing very lifelike authentic looking fencing.
Final Thoughts on Vinyl Fencing Colors and Textures
Vinyl fence is already expensive when compared wooden fence. Choosing to purchase colored vinyl fence is even more of an investment.
You now have more options of vinyl fencing colors than ever before for vinyl fence. Many of the popular colors are the colors you would stain a wood fence.
However, the upfront costs will pay dividends down the road due to the lack of maintenance required and lifetime warranty.
