Specifying security fencing means hitting certain criteria to meet your security needs.
Ultimately, choosing the right colours for security fencing is a crucial part of the specification process, it may even be part of the planning consent.
While the colour of security fencing may be considered more of an aesthetic consideration, it can still be an important aspect of the fence’s overall effectiveness as a security measure.
There are many things to consider when designing your fence, from planning conditions, the colours available from your supplier to people’s preference.
This blog will explore the most common fence colours, why these are popular, and give details into the manufacture process, to help you choose the fencing colour that’s right for your site.
What Are The Trends In Colours For Security Fencing?
Although there are in excess of 600 colours to choose from for powder coating, when it comes to security fencing, there are colour options that are notably more common than others.
The most popular colours for security fencing tend to be darker, neutral shades, such as the black RAL 9005 and green RAL 6005 shades. In fact, in Barkers powder coating plant, you can typically find that 50% of what is coated is dark green, 30% is black and around 20% is other colours.
Although other colours, like grey and blue, are quite common within that 20%.
It is common for green to be specified, especially if the premises is in a rural area. For example, the Royal Horticultural Society chose resilient VGuard mesh, complete with extra-long posts for securing in uneven ground, to fence off their Welcome Building area. The fencing colour complimented the environment around the 154-acre-site perfectly.
Generally, darker and muted colours are perceived as more professional, this makes black or grey a popular colour fence for higher-end facilities across the UK.
Matching The Colours Of Security Fencing To Your Brand
Businesses typically have brand guidelines that they must adhere to. From graphics, to fonts and most notably, colours, branding is what makes a company recognisable.
Your perimeter fence, whilst primarily functioning as a security system, also affects the image of your site and business.
The benefits of matching your security fence with your business’ branding include:
- Cohesion in branding: You can create consistency in your brand messaging by having your security fence the same colour as your branding. This emphasises the sites professionalism and ultimately, their level of protection.
- Brand recognition: This will build trust with customers and help to establish the image and profile of your business.
- Deterrence: The level of continuity across the whole site suggests a high level of security across all aspects of your business.
- Increased visibility: Increased visibility means your branding is noticeable by passers-by. Security fence specification details do not always need to be related to unwanted visitors.
This approach was taken on by Barkers Fencing and Brittons Timber, where the company took on a refurbishment project. They chose Barkers Fencing to supply a 3-metre-high palisade fence for their depot in Roatch Docks, Cardiff.
As this business were looking to improve their presence on the industrial estate, Brittons Timber chose to have their palisade fence powder coated a shade of deep red often referred to as “red wine”.
This shade of red matched the company branding, so this colour was displayed throughout their premises.
This fence was constructed for the purpose of deterring intruders, while ensuring uniformity with the company branding.
Lowestoft Port Authority powder coated blue was also used to match their branding as well as the surroundings. As a seaside town, it blends in with the sea, the sky and multicolour beach huts.
Using Colour For Deterrence
Although choosing the colours of your security fencing might a small design element, there are actually security benefits from specifying the correct colour for your project.
For example, the colour of your security fence may contribute to its visibility and deterrence factor. Darker colours, such as black or dark green, can appear more intimidating to intruders.
These fences often signal the presence of a serious security measure to those approaching your site. If a fence is assumed to be part of a larger security structure, using colours to match other security measures such as gates and barriers, will deter an intruder.
There are, of course, sites that will want to specify a fence for security measures without specifying intimidating colours such as primary schools and nurseries. In this case, pastel shades can be perceived as more welcoming.
How Location Can Affect Your Security Fence Colour Choice
The location of your site will have an impact on your colour specification.
Surrounding elements of your site, such as green areas, other buildings and public transport will impact your design choices.
In our previous blog on topography and how this affects the fence building process, we discuss how the shape of the land around your premises impacts your choice in fencing. Similarly, the land surrounding your site can determine your colour specification.
For example, if your site is in a coastal area, a marine grade polyester powder coating can be used instead of usual powder. This will protect your security fence from the effects of erosion and discolouration. This is worth considering before deciding on a fence colour, to ensure that there is availability, and that your supplier provides such coatings. Lead times can often be affected if special colours are chosen.
Furthermore, projects in locations that are faced with extreme weather will need to consider a colour that is easy to clean, and that won’t show dirt as quickly. Yellow, for example, hides no dirt.
Alternatively, your site might be in a built-up location, with many premises all designed to look the same. This might not necessarily be your branding; however, you would need to adhere to this colour scheme to avoid possible conflict and a negative reaction to your fencing. In some cases, there might be zoning regulations or land use control in place to ensure this can’t happen.
How Barkers Fencing Can Support You In Your Colour Choice
At Barkers Fencing, we typically powder coat our samples in Midnight Blue 5011 in line with our brand guidelines.
As we colour our fences at our in-house finishing facility in Stoke-on-Trent, we stock around 70 colours on site. However, we provide over 600 colours, so please request a special colour in advance to get the fence result you want.
Bespoke colours, which includes anything other than our traditional black RAL 9005 or green RAL 6005, can be requested to fit your needs.
If you are looking for a security fence, and you’re unsure on which colour to specify, visit our website at Barkers Fencing for more information.
A live chat option is available to get any questions answered by a member of our team. Alternatively, please get in touch via email or phone to discuss your fencing project today.