Ornamental steel and iron-look fences for Detroit homes, front yards and pools

Wrought iron, cast iron, steel and aluminum are four different metals

True wrought iron is a nearly pure iron with fine threads of slag running through it, heated and hammered into shape by a smith. It resists rust well and can be reworked, but it has not been produced in quantity for a very long time. When a fence is advertised as wrought iron now, it almost always means steel bar styled to resemble the old work.

Cast iron is another older material. It was poured into molds for decorative posts, finials and panels, and it is brittle: a hard hit or water freezing inside a hollow casting can crack it.

Modern ornamental steel is mild steel tubing or bar, welded or assembled into panels and coated against corrosion. Aluminum looks nearly identical from the sidewalk, weighs far less and never rusts, though it is softer. A good proposal names exactly which metal you are getting.

How a modern steel fence panel is built and finished

A typical steel panel uses square tubing for the pickets and heavier channel or tubing for the rails. The rails are punched so pickets pass through, and the joints are welded or fastened. Welded panels are stiffer; rackable panels flex to follow a slope. The finish is what keeps steel alive outdoors, and a painted panel with no zinc underneath shows rust far sooner. Look for these layers on the spec sheet:

• Galvanized base: zinc applied before forming or by hot-dipping, protecting the steel even where it gets scratched.
• Pretreatment or electrocoat: a primer layer that helps the top finish grip.
• Powder coat: a finish sprayed on dry and baked, usually black, that resists chipping better than brushed paint.
• Field touch-up paint: for cuts and scratches made during installation, which should be supplied with the fence.

Where rust starts on a metal fence

Rust rarely begins in the middle of a picket. It starts where the coating was broken or where water sits. Welds are the first spot, because heat burns away zinc and paint, and a welded joint that was not cleaned and recoated will bleed orange within a few seasons. Cut ends left bare after trimming on site are the second.

The third is the post base. Water runs down every post, pools where steel meets concrete or soil, and stays there through each freeze and thaw. Add sidewalk salt and the bottom of a front-yard post can thin out while the rest looks fine. Hollow posts with no cap can fill with water and split when it freezes. A cap on every post and a concrete collar shaped to shed water are small details that add years.

Front-yard fencing on older city homes

On a city lot with a brick bungalow or colonial, an ornamental fence usually does a different job than a backyard fence. It marks the property edge, keeps foot traffic off the lawn and frames the front walk. It does that without hiding the house.

Front yards are also where the rules are tightest. The city, village or township zoning code decides how tall a front-yard fence can be, how open it must be, and how far it stays from the sidewalk and from driveway sight lines on a corner. Confirm them before ordering, since made-to-order steel is not easily returned.

Using ornamental steel for security without a fortress look

Steel pickets are hard to cut, hard to push through and awkward to climb, which makes them the usual choice where security is part of the goal: closing a side yard off from an alley, protecting a back door, securing a driveway gate or enclosing a porch.

Security is still a matter of degree. A fence slows people down and makes intent obvious, but the gate is the weak point, so its lock, latch and post deserve as much thought as the panels. Keep shrubs from growing into a ladder beside it.

Spear tops, flat tops and picket styles

The top of the picket sets the character of the whole fence. Choose a style the rest of the street can live with. A tall row of spears can look unfriendly on a quiet block yet be exactly right along an alley. Common profiles:

• Flat top: the rail runs across the very top. Clean and modern.
• Spear top: pickets pass above the top rail and finish in a point. Traditional and harder to climb.
• Staggered spears: every other picket rises higher, for a more formal front-yard look.
• Finials and quad-flare tops: decorative caps added to pickets or posts, usually on gates and entry sections.
• Puppy pickets: short extra pickets placed between the regular ones along the bottom, narrowing the openings so small dogs cannot slip through.
• Arched sections and gates: a curve along the top rail that frames a walkway or driveway entrance.

Gates and hardware for heavy metal gates

A steel gate weighs more than a wood or chain link gate of the same width, and that weight pulls on the hinge post every time it swings. Gate posts should be heavier than line posts and set firmly, and wide openings may need a wheel, a center stop or a pair of leaves instead of one long one. A sagging steel gate usually means the post moved.

Hardware is where cheap ornamental fences give themselves away. Look for adjustable hinges that can be tuned as the gate settles, latches built for exterior steel that will not rust shut, and a drop rod with a ground sleeve on double drive gates. Self-closing hinges and a magnetic or gravity latch are worth having on any walk gate, and a gate in a pool barrier needs them. Fixing a gate that already sags or drags is handled on the fence repair page.

Setting posts in the ground or mounting them to concrete

Most ornamental posts are set in the ground in concrete like any fence post, and the hole has to go below the depth frost reaches in a Michigan winter, a figure the local building department sets. The full digging and setting sequence lives on the fence installation page.

Metal fencing has an option most other materials do not: mounting to existing concrete. A post can be fixed to a stoop, retaining wall or slab with a welded base plate and anchors, or set into a hole cored into the concrete and grouted in place. Base plates are quicker but less rigid. Core-drilled posts are stronger, but the concrete has to be sound, and a cracked old stoop may need repair first.

Repainting and rust repair, step by step

A powder-coated fence asks for very little, but every steel fence picks up nicks, and older painted iron needs regular attention. A touch-up or a full repaint generally follows this order:

1. Wash the fence to remove dirt and salt residue, then let it dry completely.
2. Take off loose rust and flaking paint with a wire brush, sanding pad or grinder, down to firm metal.
3. Apply a rust converter wherever bare steel cannot be fully cleaned, such as tight scrollwork.
4. Prime exposed metal with a primer made for steel, giving welds and post bases an extra coat.
5. Topcoat with an exterior enamel or direct-to-metal paint on a dry day above the temperature listed on the can.
6. Recheck post bases and caps a season later, since that is where rust comes back first.

When aluminum is the better choice

Aluminum ornamental fencing does not rust, so salt from a busy road or a corner lot does not threaten it the way it threatens steel. It is far lighter, easing the load on posts and hinges, and its finish usually needs only washing. That makes it the common pick around pools and on bigger suburban lots in places like Troy, Farmington Hills and Sterling Heights, where the fence is long and mostly decorative.

The trade-off is strength. Aluminum pickets dent and bend more easily, and a determined person can pry them apart where steel would hold. For security along an alley, or a driveway gate that gets bumped by cars, steel usually earns its upkeep.

Ornamental fencing as a pool barrier

Ornamental metal is a favorite pool fence because parents can see the water from the house while it stays closed off. A pool barrier rule changes how the fence has to be built, though, and the details come from the residential building code the city or township has adopted, plus any local amendments.

Those rules typically address the overall barrier height, the largest opening allowed between pickets, how horizontal rails are placed when they sit on the outside face, the gap under the bottom rail, and anything a child could use as a foothold. Gates generally have to swing away from the pool, close on their own and latch on their own, with the release placed out of a small child's reach. The adopted code sets every one of those figures, so have the plan checked with the building department before ordering. Panels sold as pool-ready still pass or fail on how they are installed.

What drives the cost of an ornamental steel fence

Ornamental fencing is priced by the contractor after seeing the property. A complete proposal names the metal, the coating system, picket and rail sizes, post sizes, the top style, every gate with its hardware, and how posts will be set or mounted. The biggest cost drivers are:

• Steel versus aluminum, and the grade of coating on either one.
• Panel height, picket spacing and options like puppy pickets or staggered spears.
• Gates, especially double drive gates, arched gates and keyed or self-closing hardware.
• Mounting method, since core drilling into concrete steps or walls takes more labor than setting posts in soil.
• Slopes that need rackable panels or stepped sections, and how many corners the layout turns.
• Removing an old fence, saving and restoring original iron pieces, or matching an existing fence on the block.
• Pool barrier details and any permit or inspection the city requires for the address.

Ornamental steel and iron-look fences for Detroit homes — common questions

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