Cedar costs more and lasts longer. Pressure-treated pine costs less and does the job. That is the whole cedar vs pine fence decision in two sentences, and if that were all there was to it, nobody would need the rest of this page.
The part that actually decides it for most people is what each wood does in its first three months in an Augusta yard, and what you have to do about it. Here is that, plus how long each lasts, what grade of lumber you are getting, and the situations where pine is the right answer.
The short answer
| Factor | Pressure-treated pine | Kiln-dried cedar |
|---|---|---|
| Installed cost | Lower | Higher per foot |
| Moisture when installed | Wet from the treatment. Dries in your yard over 45 to 90 days | Dried below 12% before it is installed |
| Movement in the first 90 days | Expect checking, twisting, cupping, and warping while it dries | Far less. The drying already happened |
| When you can stain it | After it dries, 45 to 90 days depending on the season | Pre-stained before install, or stained right after |
| Lifespan, maintained | Shorter | About 10 years longer |
| Picket grade | Number two at best | Number one, close to clear |
| Color if left alone | Grays | Weathers to silver-gray |
| Rot and insects | Treated to resist both | Naturally resists decay |
| Repairs | Board by board | Board by board |
| Posts | Steel, four and a half feet down | Steel, four and a half feet down |
Buy pine if the number on the estimate matters most, you are fine staining it yourself once it dries, or you are not staying in the house long enough for the extra years to be yours.
Buy cedar if you want the fence to keep looking the way it did on install day, you want it stained from day one, or you would rather not spend a season watching boards move.
The first 90 days: why pine moves and cedar doesn’t
Pressure-treated pine goes in wet. The treatment that protects it from rot and insects is forced into the wood, and the boards arrive still carrying that moisture. They dry out in your yard, not at the mill.
In this climate that takes about 45 to 90 days, depending on the temperature and the time of year. Warm weather dries it faster, so a fence built in summer gets there sooner than one built in winter.
That drying window is when a pine fence does almost all of its moving. As the wood dries it shrinks. Then it rains, the boards take water back on and swell. Then they dry and shrink again. That cycle is where the cracking, checking, twisting, bowing, and warping come from. Checking is the trade word for the fine splits that open along the grain. Most of what people point at on a one-year-old pine fence happened in that first season.
Kiln-dried cedar skips it. The cedar we install has already been dried in a kiln to below 12 percent moisture before it reaches your yard. The shrinking already happened, under control, before the board was ever nailed to a rail. So you don’t get that first-summer round of movement.
Cedar is still wood. It will check a little, it will change color, and no natural material sits outdoors unchanged. But the difference between a board that dried in a kiln and a board that is drying on your fence line is the difference most people are really asking about when they ask cedar or pine.
Staining: when you can, and what pre-stained means
You can’t stain a pressure-treated pine fence the week it goes in. The wood is too wet to take it. You have to wait for that 45 to 90 day drying window to pass, then stain or seal it to protect it from the weather. That is a job on your calendar a season after the install, and it is the step people most often skip.
Cedar gives you two options. It can be stained after it is installed, with no waiting period because the wood is already dry. Or it can be pre-stained before it goes up, which is how we build most of ours. Pre-staining means the boards are coated before they are installed, so the fence is protected from its first day instead of a season later.
After that, both woods want maintenance coats over the years as needed. Stain is what holds the original color. It also cuts how much moisture the wood takes on and slows the sun from fading it. A fence that’s kept stained lasts longer than one that isn’t, whichever wood it is.
Cedar doesn’t have to be stained. Left alone it weathers to a silver-gray, and some homeowners choose it for exactly that look. Pine left alone grays too, but it keeps moving while it does, and the moisture it takes on unprotected is what shortens its life. If you already know you won’t stain the fence, that tips the decision toward cedar or away from wood altogether.
One thing to know before you plan around it. Pre-stained cedar is something we offer at install. What we don’t do is come back later to recoat a fence. Those maintenance coats are yours or a painter’s, and it is worth deciding now whether that is a job you will actually do.
How long each lasts in the Augusta area
Cedar outlasts pine. That is the species, not the builder. Maintained the same way, a cedar fence here will typically go about 10 years longer than a pressure-treated pine fence. Not double. Call it a decade.
“Maintained” is doing real work in that sentence. For cedar it means stained at install or pre-stained, then recoated as needed. For pine it means stained once it dries, then recoated as needed. Either wood left bare in Georgia humidity gives back years.
Two things shorten a pine fence in particular. The first is the moisture cycling in that first season, which opens checks and splits that then hold water against the wood. The second is skipping the stain altogether, because the fence had to sit for two or three months first and the job fell off the list.
The thing that shortens either fence most has nothing to do with cedar or pine. It is the post. A wood post buried in slow-draining clay is the first part of a conventional fence to fail, and it fails below ground where you can’t see it. We set steel posts four and a half feet into the ground under both woods, and the boards mount to the post so you don’t see the metal. That takes the biggest failure point out of the comparison and leaves the pickets, which is where cedar’s extra years actually show up.
Lumber grade: what you are actually buying
Pressure-treated pine pickets come in at a number two grade at best. That means knots, and boards that are not all straight in the bundle.
The cedar we install is number one grade. Clear grade would mean no knots at all. Ours is not fully clear, but it is very close. Fewer knots, straighter stock, more consistent boards from one picket to the next.
Grade matters more than it sounds like it should. A knot is where a board splits. A bowed board is the one that pulls its fasteners in year two. And it shows from the street: a number one grade cedar fence looks like a different product, and it keeps looking that way longer.
On every wood fence we build, cedar or pine, the 2×4 rails are number one grade and the pickets come from bundles we have selected rather than mixed-grade stock off the truck. The species decides what the best available picket grade is. We don’t install the warped ones from either.
What about cost
Cedar costs more per foot than pressure-treated pine. We are not going to put a number on that gap here, because the real answer changes with the footage, the number of gates, the layout, and whether there is an old fence to pull out first.
What we can tell you is how to think about it. The pine fence costs less on the estimate and asks for a staining job a season later. The cedar fence costs more on the estimate, can go up already stained, and gives you about 10 more years. Whether that trade is worth it is mostly a question of how long you are staying.
The estimator prices both for your yard, on site, so you are comparing two real numbers for the same fence line rather than two ranges. It is free and there is no obligation.
When pine is the right call
Pine is not the lesser choice. It is the practical one, and for a lot of yards it is the correct one.
It costs less per foot, and on a long run that gap is real money. It is treated to resist rot, decay, and insect damage, which matters where the bottom of a fence meets Georgia soil through a wet season. It takes stain or paint once it dries, so you can change the color later.
Pine makes sense when:
- You are selling or moving inside a few years, so the extra years cedar buys would belong to the next owner.
- The budget is tight, and a well-built pine fence that exists beats a cedar fence you are stretching for.
- You are fine waiting a season and staining it yourself, or paying someone to.
- The fence is a boundary or a dog line more than a feature.
Cedar makes sense when:
- You are staying, and the extra decade is yours.
- You want it stained on day one and don’t want a job waiting three months out.
- The fence is visible from the house, the street, or the pool, and the look matters to you.
- You would rather not spend the first summer watching boards move.
Both go on the same steel posts and both come in the same layouts. Stockade is the standard solid privacy fence. Shadowbox alternates boards on each side of the rails so it looks the same from both yards. Board-on-board overlaps the pickets so gaps can’t open as the wood moves. Both also build as horizontal fences and with cap-and-trim on top. Standard height is 6 feet, and we go to 8.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my new pressure-treated fence cracking and warping?
Because it is drying. Pressure-treated pine is installed wet and dries in your yard over about 45 to 90 days. As it dries it shrinks, then swells again when it rains, and that cycle opens checks and splits and twists boards. It is normal for pine in its first season and it is not a defect. Kiln-dried cedar is dried below 12 percent moisture before install, which is why it does far less of this.
What is the difference between kiln-dried and pressure-treated wood?
They are two different things. Pressure treating forces a preservative into the wood to resist rot and insects, and the boards come out wet. Kiln drying bakes the moisture out before the wood is sold. Pine fencing is treated but not dried. The cedar we install is kiln-dried and naturally resists decay, so it does not need the treatment.
Does a cedar fence need to be stained?
No. Cedar left alone weathers to a silver-gray, and some homeowners want exactly that. If you want to keep the original color, stain it. Stain also cuts how much moisture the wood absorbs and slows fading from the sun, so a stained cedar fence lasts longer than a bare one.
Will cedar boards still warp or crack?
Some, yes. Cedar is a natural material, so expect a little movement, some checking along the grain, and color variation over the years. Kiln drying and good material selection reduce it a great deal. Nothing eliminates it, and no natural wood stays perfectly unchanged outdoors.
Is cedar more expensive than pressure-treated pine?
Yes, per foot. How much more depends on the length of the fence, the number of gates, the layout, and whether an old fence has to come out. The estimator prices both for your specific yard so you are comparing real numbers rather than ranges.
Can a cedar or pine fence be painted instead of stained?
Yes. Both can be stained or painted. Pine has to dry out for 45 to 90 days first, or the finish will not take. Cedar can be finished right away, or pre-stained before it goes up.
How tall can a wood privacy fence be?
Our standard wood privacy fence is 6 feet tall, in cedar or pine. We build up to 8 feet. Whether your neighborhood allows 8 feet is usually an HOA question, so check your covenants, and the estimator will confirm anything city or county specific at your address.
Can you build a horizontal fence in cedar or pine?
Yes, in either. Horizontal fences need tighter post spacing and proper backing so the long boards do not sag or move, and that is a framing question the estimator sorts out on site.
Does pressure-treated pine resist insects and rot?
Yes. That is what the treatment is for. It is treated to resist rot, decay, and insect damage, which is why it handles sitting near Georgia soil better than untreated wood would. It still needs stain or sealer once it dries to reach its full life.
What to do next
- Decide how long you are staying in the house. That one answer settles most of this.
- Decide whether you will actually stain a pine fence a season after it goes in. If the honest answer is no, lean cedar.
- Look at both woods on a real fence, ideally one that has been up a few years, not a sample board.
- Pick the layout first. Stockade, shadowbox, board-on-board, or horizontal all come in either wood, and layout changes the look more than species does.
- Ask any contractor what grade of lumber they install and what the posts are made of. Species is only part of what you are paying for.
- Call 706-214-2665 for a free on-site estimate. The estimator measures your fence line and prices it both ways, cedar and pine, so you are choosing between two real numbers for your own yard. You don’t need to measure anything first.