Best Screws for Cedar Fencing: Stainless Steel vs Coated

In 28 years of timber construction, we've built hundreds of cedar fences. The single biggest mistake we see? Wrong screws. Black streaks bleeding down every picket, brand-new wood looking 20 years old. That's what happens when iron meets cedar's natural acids.

We've tested stainless steel screws against coated, galvanized, and everything in between on real job sites. This guide covers which screws actually work on cedar in 2026, what sizes to use, and how to install them without splitting a single board.

TL;DR: The Best Screws for Cedar Fencing at a Glance

• The best screws for cedar fencing are 304 stainless steel wood screws, #10 gauge, star drive (T25), Type 17 point, like Eagle Claw 304 SS screws at $0.22 each.
• The best screw size for cedar fence pickets is #10 x 2" for standard 3/4" pickets into 2x4 rails, which gives you 1-1/4" of thread engagement in the rail.
• Use 304 stainless steel screws for any inland cedar fence and 316 marine grade within 5 miles of saltwater, where the added molybdenum stops chloride pitting.
• Screws are better than nails for a cedar fence because they provide 5-11x more withdrawal resistance than smooth nails and won't pop when cedar swells and shrinks seasonally.

The Best Cedar Fence Screw Brands According to 2026 Fence Builder Reviews

Which Cedar Fence Screw Is Right for Your Project?

Every cedar fence project is a little different. Here's a quick decision guide based on what you're actually building.

If you're building a standard 6-foot privacy fence inland, go with 304 stainless steel, #10 x 2", star drive. That one spec handles about 9 out of 10 cedar fence jobs we see. The 304 grade handles rain, humidity, and seasonal weather without issue. You'll spend roughly $30-75 more on stainless screws compared to coated for a 100-foot fence. That's less than the cost of two pickets

If you live within 5 miles of the coast, step up to 316 stainless steel. The molybdenum in 316 stops salt air from eating through the steel's protective layer. Simpson Strong-Tie data shows salt spray concentration drops off sharply between 300 and 3,000 feet from the shoreline, but the extra cost of 316 (about 5-6 cents more per screw) is cheap insurance anywhere near saltwater.

If you're on a tight budget, hot-dipped galvanized screws meeting ASTM A153 are acceptable, but expect some staining after 3-5 years in wet climates. The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association says HDG is fine under paint or solid stain. For a natural or semi-transparent finish, stainless is the only way to avoid black streaks.

If you're replacing pickets on an old fence, match the screw size but upgrade to stainless. You're already doing the labor. Spending an extra few dollars on the right screws saves you from doing this job again.

If your cedar fence has wire mesh sections, use stainless steel screws for the pickets and frame, and Cat's Claw fencing clips for attaching barbed wire, welded wire, or cattle panels to cedar posts. Cat's Claw clips install 4x faster than traditional U-nail staples and won't work loose over time.

If you're a contractor bidding fence jobs, the stainless premium is tiny against total project cost. One experienced contractor put it this way: "$145 per box versus $70 for HDG? I'll pay the extra to avoid a callback all day." Compare that to sanding 200 pickets because your coated screws bled, and the math stops being a question.

Tips on Choosing the Best Screws for Your Cedar Fence

1. Choose Corrosion Resistant Screws That Won't React to Cedar

Stainless steel screws are the best fasteners for cedar because they won't react with the wood's natural acids. Here's why cedar is different from other fence woods:

• Cedar is packed with reactive chemicals. Western red cedar heartwood contains 10-20% natural oils by weight. These oils make cedar rot-resistant and give it that distinctive smell, but they also react aggressively with iron.
• Iron + cedar + water = permanent black stains. When iron from a regular screw gets wet around cedar's oils, it produces iron tannate, the same blue-black compound used to make writing ink for centuries. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory says this reaction "often occurs the first morning after rain or dew."
• Cedar is way more reactive than pine. If you've used regular screws on treated pine without problems, that's because pine doesn't have much tannin. Cedar is up there with redwood and white oak, with a naturally acidic pH around 3.5-4.0 (similar to orange juice).
• Stainless steel stops the reaction entirely. The chromium in stainless steel creates a protective layer that keeps iron locked inside the metal. If that layer gets scratched, it repairs itself. No iron getting out means no iron tannate means no black streaks.

2. Avoid Screws That Cause Cedar Fence Black Streaks

Zinc-plated, bare steel, and mechanically galvanized screws all cause black streaks on cedar fences because their iron reacts with cedar's tannins. Here's what to stay away from:

• Zinc-plated / electro-galvanized screws (the shiny silver ones in bulk bins). Their zinc coating is just 5-12 microns thick, roughly a coat of paint. It wears through during driving, and staining starts with the next rain.
• Mechanically galvanized screws. The USDA Forest Products Lab notes their coating "contains iron and staining is likely."
• Bare carbon steel (black or uncoated drywall screws). No coating at all means immediate staining on first wetting. If someone hands you a box of these for a cedar fence, hand them right back.
• Copper fasteners. The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association warns against copper nails because cedar's natural oils actually corrode copper over time.
• "Exterior rated" ceramic-coated screws. The coating is a barrier, but it's carbon steel underneath. Chip it during driving, and iron meets tannin at the breach point. SPAX prints "Not recommended for Cedar or Redwood" right on their coated HCR-X box. When the companies selling coated screws tell you not to use them on cedar, that tells you something.

3. Know Why Hot Dipped Galvanized Screws Stain Cedar

Hot dipped galvanized screws will eventually stain cedar, but they last longer than zinc-plated screws because their coating is 3-10x thicker. There are three types of galvanized, and they perform very differently on cedar:

The WRCLA calls HDG "the most widely used and economical" option, but recommends it only under paint or solid stain. For a natural cedar finish, they say "stainless steel is the only way to go."

The USDA FPL is even more direct: "If using galvanized fasteners, they must be hot-dipped galvanized fasteners meeting ASTM A 153/A specification. Other galvanized fasteners fail."

Quick rule at the store: If it's shiny, don't use it on cedar.

4. Pick Stainless Steel Screws Over Coated Screws for Cedar

Stainless steel screws are the better choice over coated screws for cedar fencing because the protection goes all the way through the metal, not just the surface.

• Stainless steel = iron locked in by chromium and nickel throughout the entire screw. If you scratch it, the surface seals itself back up. It will outlast the cedar fence it's holding together.
• Coated screws = regular carbon steel with a protective layer painted or baked on the outside. The moment that coating gets damaged from driving, weather, or wear, cedar's natural acids reach the steel underneath.

The Simpson Strong-Tie corrosion guide notes that even their own carbon-steel fasteners "create a weak link" when paired with stainless connectors, because the coated screw is always the one that fails first.

One exception worth knowing: FastenMaster GuardDog is the only coated screw with a lifetime guarantee for cedar and redwood, at about $0.10-0.15 per screw. Every other coated screw either warns you not to use it on cedar or just doesn't mention cedar at all.

5. Choose Between 304 vs 316 Stainless Steel Screws for Your Fence

304 stainless steel screws are the right grade for any inland cedar fence, while 316 marine grade is only needed within 5 miles of saltwater. Both grades prevent tannin staining completely. The only difference that matters is salt.

• 304 stainless (18-8): 18% chromium, 8% nickel. Handles rain, humidity, freeze-thaw, and cedar's natural acids. We've never seen or heard of 304 corroding on an inland cedar fence. Contractors have pulled apart 30-year-old decks with 304/305 screws and found them looking new.
• 316 stainless (marine grade): Adds 2-3% molybdenum, which stops salt air from eating tiny pits into the steel. Needed within 5 miles of the ocean, or near roads that get salted in winter.
• 305 stainless: The middle option. Same family as 304 with slightly more nickel. Simpson Strong-Tie uses 305 in several of their stainless steel deck screws. For most inland fences, 304, 305, and 316 all work the same.

Cost difference: About 5-6 cents per screw between 304 and 316. On a 100-foot fence, that's roughly $19 total.

If the box says "18-8 stainless," that's the same family as 304. The numbers refer to the chromium and nickel percentages. It's confusing marketing, not a different product. Look for a box that tells you the specific grade.

6. Use Screws, Not Nails, for Your Cedar Fence

Screws are the better fastener for a cedar fence because they provide 5-11x greater withdrawal resistance than smooth nails and won't pop when cedar swells and shrinks through the seasons.

Why screws win on cedar:

• Smooth nails can lose up to 75% of their holding power from cedar's wet/dry cycling (USDA Wood Handbook)
• Screws let you back out and fix mistakes. Nails don't.
• Screws resist cedar's seasonal twisting and cupping better than nails

When nails still make sense:

• Ring-shank stainless nails work well for pickets if speed is the priority (pneumatic nailer is 2-3x faster)
• Cost: ring-shank nails run about 1-1.5 cents each vs. 22+ cents for stainless screws
• Many pros use a hybrid approach: ring-shank stainless nails for pickets-to-rails, stainless screws for rails-to-posts

For DIY projects, screws are the clear pick. You're not racing to finish 500 feet in a day. Two per picket at each rail. Don't overthink it. If you go with nails, make sure they're stainless too. HDG ring-shank nails will still stain cedar.

7. Use #10 x 2" Stainless Steel Screws for Cedar Fence Pickets

The best size screw for cedar fence pickets is a #10 x 2" stainless steel screw for standard 3/4" pickets going into 2x4 rails. The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association recommends at least 1" of thread penetration into the rail, and a 2" screw in a 3/4" picket gives you 1-1/4".

Quick screw size guide for cedar fencing:

Why #10 over #8? Cedar is one of the lightest softwoods you can buy (specific gravity around 0.32). A #10 gives you 15.9% more withdrawal resistance per inch than a #8. In a wood that holds screws at only about a third the strength of pressure-treated pine, that extra diameter matters.

8. Attach Fence Pickets With Two Screws Per Rail

Two screws per fence picket at each rail is the standard. For a 3-rail privacy fence, that's 6 screws per picket.

• Why two? The WRCLA says boards 4" and wider need 2 fasteners at each attachment point. One screw per rail leaves the picket free to rotate, twist, and work loose as cedar moves through the seasons.
• Where to place them: About 3/4" from each edge of the picket, in line with the center of the rail behind. This keeps screws out of the splitting zone while anchoring both sides against cupping.
• Total screw count for a 100-foot fence: 200 pickets x 3 rails x 2 screws = 1,200 screws. At $0.22/screw for Eagle Claw 304 SS, that's about $264 total. Coated screws at $0.10 each would be $120. The $144 difference is less than the cost of four cedar pickets.

9. Pre-Drill Cedar Fence Boards to Stop Screws From Splitting

Pre-drilling stops screws from splitting cedar, and you should always do it within 1 inch of any board edge or at the ends of pickets.

Pilot hole sizes for cedar:

• #8 screw: 3/32" drill bit
• #10 screw: 7/64" drill bit

Quick trick: Hold the drill bit in front of the screw. You should see the threads sticking out on both sides, but the solid shaft should be hidden behind the bit. If you can't see threads, the bit is too big.

When you can skip pre-drilling: In the center of a wide board, away from edges and ends, quality screws with a Type 17 auger point can go in without a pilot hole. The Type 17 has a tiny slot that cuts through fibers instead of wedging them apart. You'll find some version of this on most good cedar screws. Eagle Claw and Starborn use Type 17, SPAX calls theirs 4CUT, and GRK has the Zip-Tip. They all do the same job.

When you can't skip it: Near edges, near ends, always. On a fence with 200 pickets and 6 screws each, pre-drilling adds about 40 extra minutes. Compare that to replacing split pickets.

Build Your Cedar Fence With the Right Stainless Steel Screws

We've seen too many cedar fences ruined by the wrong screws. After 28 years of building with cedar, the formula is simple: 304 stainless steel screws for inland fences, 316 for coastal. #10 x 2" for pickets, #10 x 3" for rails to posts. Star drive, coarse thread, Type 17 point. Pre-drill near edges, and put two in every picket where it crosses a rail.

The best screws for cedar fencing cost about $144 more than coated screws on a typical 100-foot fence. That's less than the price of four cedar pickets, and it means you'll never have to sand black streaks off 200 boards or pull out every screw and start over.

Cedar is a premium wood that deserves the right fasteners. Browse our stainless steel screws for cedar fencing and get the screws that'll look as good as your fence does 10 years from now.