Block Fence (Phoenix: home, contractors, inspections)

[tre5]

You are required to have a gate for egress reasons. You have to be able to get out of the back yard. Say you have a fire in your house and can't get to the front of the house. Your only escape is to the back yard. Your mother-in-law is visiting and there is no way she is hopping the wall... how does she get to safety? The gate! If you have room for an RV gate it is a great selling point (take that from a realtor). It may even be cheaper to have a RV gate than a wall. If you put up a 10' gate it would save you about $250 and you would probably only spend $150 on a simple gate. You need at least a 30" clear path per code requirements, so a minimum 3' gate is required on at least one side of the house.

[Kimballette]

Originally Posted by tre5

You are required to have a gate for egress reasons. You have to be able to get out of the back yard. Say you have a fire in your house and can't get to the front of the house. Your only escape is to the back yard. Your mother-in-law is visiting and there is no way she is hopping the wall... how does she get to safety? The gate! If you have room for an RV gate it is a great selling point (take that from a realtor). It may even be cheaper to have a RV gate than a wall. If you put up a 10' gate it would save you about $250 and you would probably only spend $150 on a simple gate. You need at least a 30" clear path per code requirements, so a minimum 3' gate is required on at least one side of the house.

I agree that having a gate is wise. However, I don't think it's required in every city. We moved into a lovely home in Mesa near Las Sendas that didn't have a gate to the backyard. The house was in an HOA community, and we never got any comments or complaints. Having said that, it was a pain in the heinie when the Pet Butler person had to walk through our house to "scoop" the backyard. Plan for a sturdy gate. You won't regret it!

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by AZJoeD

You need a gate. Preferably 4' or maybe even a RV gate. There are going to be times you need to get in and out of the yard. If do any landscaping, garbage cans, barbecue grill, if you AC unit goes out, etc. You don't want to haul an AC compressor through your house.

You can always lock the gate.

Originally Posted by tre5

You are required to have a gate for egress reasons. You have to be able to get out of the back yard. Say you have a fire in your house and can't get to the front of the house. Your only escape is to the back yard. Your mother-in-law is visiting and there is no way she is hopping the wall... how does she get to safety? The gate! If you have room for an RV gate it is a great selling point (take that from a realtor). It may even be cheaper to have a RV gate than a wall. If you put up a 10' gate it would save you about $250 and you would probably only spend $150 on a simple gate. You need at least a 30" clear path per code requirements, so a minimum 3' gate is required on at least one side of the house.

Required by law or not . . . definitely consider a gate!

[wit-nit]

Originally Posted by Bummer

Required by law or not . . . definitely consider a gate!

Good advice.
You also need to consider re-sale value. So it's cheaper and wiser now to install a gate rather than later on and some problem arises. I believe if you check with the City's Fire Dept that they can tell you the requirements. They need access to your back yard or they'll drive through your fence.
Also your home insurance may require it or charge you a premium price if not.

[Xica_da_Silva]

Originally Posted by nitram

Good advice.
You also need to consider re-sale value. So it's cheaper and wiser now to install a gate rather than later on and some problem arises. I believe if you check with the City's Fire Dept that they can tell you the requirements. They need access to your back yard or they'll drive through your fence.
Also your home insurance may require it or charge you a premium price if not.

Great additional points, Nitram. I'll check with the Fire Dept to make sure and confirm this with the contractor as well before starting the project.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

i dont like them i got em. they fall over & crush people and houses. cats consider them a stage for late night opera performances.

Not when they are built correctly and kept up. Also never seen a block wall fence crush a house. Most homes are taller. I do know that older block wall fences without steel reinforcement had a tendency to fall over, but with current building codes that isn't something that happens often. With normal maintanance you can keep a block wall fence standing for years to come.

[observer53]

Fall over and crush people and houses? Uh, no. The block walls built today are quite sturdy. When I was a kid, we lived in a house in the Arcadia area with a wall all around the back yard. It was made from block that was really more like bricks, painted, with metal reinforcement running up in it (it was every bit of 6 feet high, maybe a little higher). I still remember the very rainy morning when I was standing in my parents' bedroom, getting ready to go on a camping trip, I looked out the window just in time to see a large section of the wall just fall over. It looked like slow motion (that's when I saw the metal strips put inside it). No one was hurt, or crushed, but my sister's horse was quite surprised to see the structure that formed one end of the small part of his pen fall over. I ran out to lock him up in the upper part of the pen, so he couldn't get out. And, they came and put the wall back up, and it's still up today, decades later (don't live there any more, but I've seen the house).

[motormaker]

^^ You guys goota understand Hucks sense of humor.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by motormaker

^^ You guys goota understand Hucks sense of humor.

OK, I get it. I have been taken in before. I have dished it out before as well and been mis understood in my rantings. Always a fan of humor though. LOL. Sorry for not being on the same page. LOL

[observer53]

Even assuming it was meant to be funny, it wasn't particularly so. Not everyone's "brand of humor" is necessarily going to get the reaction it's intended to get.