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Personally, I would tear it down, since you said it was rotted anyway, and put
up a chain link fence instead.
Then you could grow vines on it, and still have privacy from your neighbors.
It's hard when you live next to a rental property, the tenants could care less
about what they do to both your property and the landlords.
You could try to sue them, but that doesn't mean you will get anywhere.
You could try flashing, but how are you going to get permission from the tenants
to go into their yard to install it?
I wouldn't bother with any of that, life is short, put chain link, as tall as you are permitted
up and call it a day.
There are so many vines you could grow on it, and then you won't have to worry about rot.
I googled "Do wood fences rot?" and came up with all sorts of information. Again most quality wooden fences are made with pressure treated lumber and preservatives are put on the rest of the wood. I read several article and never say one word about "insulation".
I googled "Do wood fences rot?" and came up with all sorts of information. Again most quality wooden fences are made with pressure treated lumber and preservatives are put on the rest of the wood. I read several article and never say one word about "insulation".
In California a wood fence is likely Redwood or Cedar, and it's not pressure treated since those woods have natural rot resistance. Even if the fence is pressure treated, the wood used likely is not rated for ground contact. I've seen piles of non-ground contact pressure treated wood left out uncovered stacked on the ground. It does rot. Usually it's only pressure treated posts and landscape timbers that are actually rated for ground contact, not fence boards and cross members.
As for insulation, that's probably not the correct choice. There are some insulation materials like XPS that act as a vapor barrier. XPS is rated for ground contact but it's also not durable enough to be used in a garden bed nor is it rated for sun exposure.
PVC, galvanized steel or aluminum flashing will work. Moisture will get trapped between the wood and flashing but as long as one side of the fence can dry out and the wood doesn't touch the soil it will last much longer than a fence with dirt against it.
Probably I would go with the white vinyl fence, to make sure it will not rot from their flowerbed. But, the neighbor might not like it.
If my neighbor refuses to pay half and I pay the whole fence replacement, then do they have the right to decide what type/color fence I can put up?
This isn't necessarily true. In some nicer neighborhoods, I've seen people put the fence posts on the outside because the smooth side looks nicer in their yard. They will have 1 or none neighbor fences connecting to theirs (so it's obviously their fence), but posts are still out.
I had this exact same thing happen to our redwood fence. My neighbor edged off a flower bed on her side and filled it with dirt up against the fence. That one spot--and only that one spot--rotted out. Without a doubt it was due to the dirt and constant moisture up against the fence.
I have a raised bed along a 30' section of my fence. It is about one foot high. Along the fence I lined up a row of 8" X 8" X 16" concrete blocks. The kind they make walls out of. That not only kept the soil off the fence, but it created a good barrier between the moist dirt and the fence. Granted, they are 8" wide, so you lose that space in the bed (assuming your bed was rather narrow). But it's been there for 8 years and not a problem. I filled in some of the blocks with Quikrete and sunk 2" X 2" X 8" redwood posts in them to create trellises for vines. Between the vines and the plants in the bed (it's a bearded iris bed), you can't see the blocks at all. They were also cheap--about $1.50 a block.
I had this exact same thing happen to our redwood fence. My neighbor edged off a flower bed on her side and filled it with dirt up against the fence. That one spot--and only that one spot--rotted out. Without a doubt it was due to the dirt and constant moisture up against the fence.
I have a raised bed along a 30' section of my fence. It is about one foot high. Along the fence I lined up a row of 8" X 8" X 16" concrete blocks. The kind they make walls out of. That not only kept the soil off the fence, but it created a good barrier between the moist dirt and the fence. Granted, they are 8" wide, so you lose that space in the bed (assuming your bed was rather narrow). But it's been there for 8 years and not a problem. I filled in some of the blocks with Quikrete and sunk 2" X 2" X 8" redwood posts in them to create trellises for vines. Between the vines and the plants in the bed (it's a bearded iris bed), you can't see the blocks at all. They were also cheap--about $1.50 a block.
I can't really put in th econcrete blocks at their side.
Now one of the fence contractors told me that they vinyl costs 2x as mich. Interesting, as on the home depot website the redwood panel and the vinyl panel seem to have the same price. Maybe they meant the wood picket fence piece by piece (not panel) is 2x cheaper?
I have a 50' flower bed along a back fence, I thought was my neighbors but it is mine! The posts fence was nailed to are on my neighbors side but the whole thing is on the lot line. When I was taking down the other portion (I'm on a corner) I found out the whole thing was mine. The case of where the posts are isn't true in this case. I get along with my neighbor and they wanted the back portion to stay because they have dogs.
I had someone put screws in the boards instead of nails, plus I dug dirt away from the bottom of boards so they would not rot more and we did replace bad boards. I put lake stones along the bottom edge so I don't bury boards as I dig back there, and to discourage their dogs. The contractor cut about 2-3" off the bottom of the boards once the dirt was away to increase air flow. It isn't the greatest fence but saved myself a big expense and my neighbors were happy I didn't take it all down.
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