Picking cedar over pressure-treated pine is the right call for a Fort Worth fence, and most homeowners get that far. What almost nobody asks is the next question: which cedar?
Cedar is not one product. The pickets stacked at one supplier and the pickets stacked at another can differ by grade, thickness, moisture content, and mill, and those differences decide whether your fence line is still flat in year five. Two cedar fences built the same week by the same crew can age completely differently because of what went on the rails.
If you are still weighing species, start with cedar vs pine for Fort Worth yards. If cedar is settled, here is what to look at.
Grade Is the First Thing to Ask About
Western red cedar fence pickets are commonly sold as #2, #1, and select tight knot, roughly in that order of quality and price.
#2 is the budget grade. Expect larger knots, more loose knots that eventually fall out and leave holes, and more pickets per bundle that you would not want facing the street. #1 is the practical middle, with tighter knots and fewer rejects. Select tight knot is the premium grade, with small sound knots and consistent color, and it carries a price to match.
For most backyard privacy fences in DFW, #1 is the sweet spot. Select tight knot is worth it on a front yard fence or a horizontal build where every board is visible and the look is the point.
Thickness Changes How a Picket Behaves
Cedar pickets commonly come in 5/8 inch and 3/4 inch nominal thickness, and some suppliers run thinner than that.
A thinner picket costs less and moves more. It cups sooner, it splits more readily at the fastener, and it has less meat around the nail or screw to hold once the wood dries. A 3/4 inch picket costs more per board and holds its shape through more cycles of wet and dry.
On a six-foot privacy fence that is going to live through fifteen Texas summers, thickness is one of the cheapest places to buy durability.
Green or Kiln Dried, and Why Gaps Show Up Later
This is the one that surprises people. Cedar pickets are sold green, meaning still carrying mill moisture, or kiln dried.
A green picket is heavier, darker, and noticeably wetter to the touch. Installed tightly against its neighbors, it looks perfect on install day. Then it dries over the following months, shrinks across its width, and the gaps appear. On a side-by-side privacy fence that can mean quarter-inch sightlines, the homeowner never agreed to.
That is also why a board-on-board layout with real overlap is worth the extra material on a privacy run. The overlap absorbs the shrinkage. You can see how that style is built on our board on board privacy fencing page.
Knots, Wane, and What to Reject
Even inside a good bundle, there are boards you do not want on the fence.
Look for loose knots you can push with a thumb, because those become holes. Look for wane, the rounded bark edge where the board came off the outside of the log, which leaves a thin weak edge. Look for pickets that are already cupped or twisted in the stack, since they do not flatten out once fastened. Look for splits running from the end, which will keep running.
A good crew culls as it goes and uses the rougher boards where they do not show, or sets them aside entirely. Ask how your installer handles culls. The answer tells you something about the whole job.
Rough Sawn or Smooth
Rough-sawn cedar has a textured face straight off the mill. Smooth, or S4S, has been planed on all four sides.
Rough sawn takes and holds stain better because the open grain drinks it in, and it hides small imperfections. Smooth gives a cleaner modern look, which is often what people want on a horizontal fence, but it takes stain less deeply and needs a more careful product choice.
Either way, plan on stain. Most fences in North Texas are due for a coat every two to three years, and the first one matters most. Our fence staining service covers the timing and product side.
What We Put On Your Fence
We build in cedar because it is the most reliable material for a wood fence in this climate, and we are particular about which cedar goes on the rails. Pine still has a place on budget runs and some utility fencing, and we will tell you when it makes sense rather than defaulting you to the more expensive board.
Buzz Custom Fence is family owned in Fort Worth, more than 25 years in DFW, with background checked crews and a 1-Year Workmanship Warranty on every install.
Want to see the material in person before you commit? Set up a free on-site estimate and we will bring samples and walk the fence line with you, or read more about our wood fence installation.