What Is a Silt Fence?

A Silt Fence is a permeable geotextile fabric that is trenched into the ground, backfilled, and held up with stakes. The material will catch various soil particles disloged by rain events, but will allow silt to pass through it. Silt Fence should always be used as your last line of defence to retain sediment from leaving your site. Silt Fence can also be used as a perimeter control on your construction site. Many high visibility colors are available, which makes silt fence an ideal replacement to construction fence in lower traffic public places.

Why use a silt fence?

Silt fence should always be used to reduce your release of sediment to the environment from your construction site. You should always consider some form of erosion control practice in combination with your silt fence, to reduce the amount of sediment that your silt fence will have to deal with. Maintenance as with any of the sediment or erosion control practice is key. Silt fences should always be inspected after every rain even, and trapped sediment should be removed when it reached 1/3 the height of your installed silt fence.