Good Neighbor Fences (live, fence, moving to)

[Roaddog]

Me and the neighbors shared the work on repairing our wooden fence, I paid for the materials, finally had a block wall put up around the back yard, nobody shared the cost but no more repairs.

[eureka1]

Read the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost.

[Ultrarunner]

I would have checked the all of the above

People are funny... I had neighbors ask me to build a fence and offer nothing.

Had an elderly neighbor that was always active and said he would be happy to do all the work if I would have the material delivered... did one heck of a job and worked on it most of the summer.

All the fences I built are still going strong... first one was back in 1982-83

Had another neighbor that was not all there and she had a dog known to bite... didn't want to do anything with the existing fence... her deceased husband built it 40 years ago when they married. I put up a cyclone fence 6 inches inside the line with wood slats... and left her to deal the dilapidated mess on her side.

I've had lots of neighbors... make the best of what you have to work with.

Only once did a neighbor go off the deep end... he was going through a divorce and his wife was institutionalized... I offered to rebuild a fence and we agreed on the particulars... I was on his side one day when his wife said I was trespassing... I thought she was kidding until she called the police... the police realized she had a history of illness and that was that... I didn't know this because I was new to the neighborhood.

Another neighbor set posts 2' inside of my residential city lot... there was a language problem... I showed him the line and he was not happy... I reset the posts in the proper location we get along fine today...

One property had a group of young thugs that moved-in... one inherited the house when his Grandmother died.... I called a fence company out and the guys were threatened... the neighbor on the other side always asked me if I wanted to sell... so I called her and said I was thinking about it... she bought it... and I no longer had the problem.

Nothing is a reliable as quality chain link... Wood can be magnificent when done right or a maintenance headache. Concrete Block is the most costly and needs to be done right the first time.

[Lovehound]

My post earlier in the topic discussed only the negative. On the positive side, my fence shared with my next door neighbor was falling down. I discussed it with him and we agreed to split the cost of the materials and build it together. We completed about half of it in the first day (not an all day thing), and he was busy the next day so I just finished it myself (no problem). That same fence is still standing and solid today, compared to the fence my idiot neighbor behind me built, astonishing that it hasn't fallen down yet, and the fence me and my next door neighbor built is 5 years older.

I've learned a few things about building fence and here's my best idea (although I haven't done it yet). The main problem with wooden fences is that the posts rot out at the bottom due to exposure to water. You're supposed to level the concrete so that the wood won't stand in a puddle. However there's a better way. You can get metal brackets at your home improvement store (Home Depot, Lowe's) that look sort of like the letter "H". The top ears have a couple mounting holes. You sink the bottom ears of the "H" in your concrete, and then when the concrete sets you drill holes through your fence post and run a couple of bolts through it and the bracket ears, making sure the bottom of the post is lifted enough that it won't sit in water. I'm sure that post would last decades longer than one set in concrete.

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Guess we're lucky in one regard. Here in the Midwest, very few people have privacy fences so yards flow together and we all cooperate in mowing, leaf gathering and burning and snow removal on the rare occasion it becomes necessary.

Yea its amazing. In the midwest, unless you have a pool, people get offended if you slap up a fence. Neighborhoods where people cooperate and keep a natural flow of the yards are seen as desirable.

[jovial gent]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Yea its amazing. In the midwest, unless you have a pool, people get offended if you slap up a fence. Neighborhoods where people cooperate and keep a natural flow of the yards are seen as desirable.

Interesting.....I'm from NY and I originally didn't like the privacy fences when I came out here. Now it's one of the things I want. Mainly because I have two dogs and want a place for them to run around without darting into the street. It's also nice for sun bathing too, which you can do a lot in CA even without a pool.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

The home we just bought has a block wall fence all around and we don't forsee any problems for a very long time.

[jeffredo]

Originally Posted by jovial gent

Mixed results so far I see. The place I put a bid on has neighbors on the left and right. The back "neighbor" is the water district. Thanks for the input, interested in hearing more experiences.

This is almost exactly my situation. My back fence faces a flood control basin and I have just two neighbors on either side. The houses are from the 30s (connected rowhouses) and the fencing is kind of a decrepit hodgepodge of chain link and five foot wood. I want to replace the entire thing with quality cedar six foot, but I'm unsure of what the neighbors might say/do with I approach them. One has three small dogs in his backyard and I'm sick of them going ape-crap every time I set foot out there (thats the short chain link side so they see me).

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

The home we just bought has a block wall fence all around and we don't forsee any problems for a very long time.

Unless there's a big earthquake. The Northridge quake took my block wall, turned it into rubble.

[jovial gent]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

This is almost exactly my situation. My back fence faces a flood control basin and I have just two neighbors on either side. The houses are from the 30s (connected rowhouses) and the fencing is kind of a decrepit hodgepodge of chain link and five foot wood. I want to replace the entire thing with quality cedar six foot, but I'm unsure of what the neighbors might say/do with I approach them. One has three small dogs in his backyard and I'm sick of them going ape-crap every time I set foot out there (thats the short chain link side so they see me).

I would show them the plans you have for the fence. Once they see it is nicer they would hopefully go along with it. Whether they help with the cost is another story. My father remodeled a house in NJ this year and asked the neighbor if he wanted the old worn out shared fence replaced with a new one (at no cost to him). The guy refused so my father had a fence built in front of it. This means his property is now 5 inches or so shallower because of this but it was worth it to put in the functional fence.