Fence glossary · Materials
Vinyl-coated chain link
Galvanized chain link fabric and framework sheathed in a bonded or extruded PVC layer, almost always black or dark green. The coating adds a corrosion barrier over the zinc and, more usefully, makes the fence visually recede — a dark mesh reads as far less of an object than a bright one.
The optical effect is the reason it gets specified on residential and HOA work. Silver chain link catches light on every wire and the eye reads the fence as a surface. Black mesh absorbs it, the wires disappear against whatever is behind them, and at twenty feet you see the yard rather than the fence. Set against a wood line or behind planting it is close to invisible, which is why it is the standard on retention basin enclosures where the township requires a fence and the community would rather not look at one.
There are two ways the coating is applied and they do not perform the same. Extruded-and-bonded fabric has the PVC adhered to the wire, so water cannot track along the gap between coating and steel. Extruded-over fabric is a sleeve, and once it is nicked, moisture gets underneath and works along the wire where nothing can be seen or repaired. On any fence that will stand in wet ground the bonded product is the one worth having.
Coordination is the detail people miss. Coated fabric hung on silver framework with silver caps, bands and tension wire looks worse than an honest galvanized fence, because the eye goes straight to the bright hardware. Framework, fittings, tension wire and gate hardware all come coated to match, and specifying them that way at order time is the difference between a fence that disappears and one that reads as half-finished.
