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Landscape Design Design Dilemma

Good neighbor fence is eyesore. Any ideas?

Karen Stroschein

5 years ago

What about turning falling down fence eyesore into asset? Adjoining neighbors don't want to replace fence and in a nutshell neither were polite about this. Maybe if they have been polite, we would just pay for the cost to replace the fence. What to do?

Featured Answer

Bri Bosh

5 years ago

If you can afford it, just replace it. Otherwise you’re only punishing yourself.

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Comments (8)

Elizabeth B
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Interesting that both sides weren't polite... Share pictures maybe you can stain your side if its not to bad...
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This thread got a second wind. This summer We put up our first fence after living in the house for 18 years. It is lattice and about 16 feet long and affords us some privacy on the patio. I'm still surprised to see it when I drive home. And I still find it has somewhat unfriendly feeeling, even though I chose to put it in! Without fully thinking it through at the time, the fence is part of a larger plan to make the patio usable. It is very very hot out there and inhospitable to lounging. The glassand iron table, iron cushioned chairs and large umbrella just don't meet my criteria for relaxing. Eating a meal, but not reading a book with a drink in my hand I would like to redesign the space and plant a tree for shade then I really could lounge out there...and appreciate my privacy For those who read the earlier posts, the horses across the street still get out. Last week I drove by neighbors (unfenced) yard and there was "Bella" (I think of her as Big Fella Bella) chomping on the lawn. When I couldn't find the owner's telephone number, I went back up the street, took her bridle and led her home. It was daytime and I was afraid if I told her to go home, she'd dawdle in the street and cause a car accident. Not bad for someone who 's only ridden horse at one birthday party back in the dark ages. People's answers were very interestingl. Here only one neighbor has a 'real fence. It is fancy iron and part of a plan for keeping up appearances (and surpassing the Joneses) It is the biggest butt ugly house and totally inappropriate to the neighborhood's age, history and style. Everyone who comes to the neighborhood for the first time asks about it, rolling their eyes. Yes, it needed a fence: an eight foot solid one to spare the neighbor from seeing this ostentatious eyesore. Next, finally getting around to screening our neigbor's white aluminium shed which is on an elevation, and right on the property line (totally illegal now) But he's such an old sweetheart I don't want to appear unneighborly. We often meet over the water faucet up there; he lets me hook up to his well water for summer irrigation. Love thy neighbor, love his shed. Marie
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Well the fence saga continues. I was up early on Saturday morning and decided to get a head start on watering the plants. This way I don't get their way and I avoid the hot sun. As I hooked up my soaker hoses I noticed several rocks from my neighbor's yard in my yard. I kindly put them back(no I did not throw them. As fate would have it, they were gone for the weekend. Monday evening, I had to do some handwatering. As I'm start to water, I noticed several glad bulbs in the middle of the yard. The wife was outside so I made sure she saw me go back up to the fence line and place the bulbs in the dirt. I'm sure there will be more over the next few days and I'll bury them then. Later on when I was taking to my other neighbor I thought I saw something thrown in the yard. She had thrown over a small clump of dry dirt with a weed attached. Then I found purple clover that had been dug up and left in my garden. No I don't have any purple clover in my yard. I usually have white but none since the drought. I put them in the lawn bags and I start to get angry. I decided to stay outside since it was cool (90 degrees) and work off my anger What I heard next made me smile. This whole time I thought the husband was building the fence with the help of a friend. As it turned out, they hired some guy who is charging them by the hour and taking his sweet time in getting work done. The wife was frustrated that not much had been done. So now she's trying to find someone else. I know I shouldn't take any pleasure in this knowledge but it did dissipate my anger.
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Thanks, idig. Except for the smaller "trimming" plants such as the salvia and rosemary, maybe the roses if they like being transplanted, the "after" will really take a couple of years to look good. The Italian cypress and boxwood are more structural plantings which must mature to give their intended effect. And th row of plants on the SOUTH border, well, I am much more comfortable with these tropicalesque types. They grow very quickly to become massive, and will screen our side sunporch very nicely from traffic coming up the street. Those old azaleas did screen that exposure, but mercy they were ragged and dead in the middle. The ones I cut back last year are ready to bloom this year. Our cross-street neighbor brought over another rose for us to plant, her third such gift. The first one she gave me is now tall and graceful with new red leaves and beaucoup of buds getting fat and tinged with deep red. Many people are cheerful givers, like my husband, but do not know how to receive graciously. When folks do not have much to give, accepting their offering becomes magnified in importance. It would be easy to say, "I don't need that in my garden," like her latest offering of thornless blackberries, but giving her a place in our garden seems the thing to do. She has bad health, cannot work in the yard any more, yet each spring she gets the itch to plant something. I hope someone does the same for me in a few years.
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I'm picturing a 2 ft "step" down from your yard to his with a solid fence on the low side. The bottom of the fence is about even with your yard (or is above ground on his side anyway). He put a piece of sheet metal in front of the fence that continues down the face of the fence into the ground on his side. If you look at the fence from his side you see the back of the fence with metal going into the ground in front of the fence. From your side the sheet metal covers the bottom 2 ft of fence and continues into the ground. Is this correct? What kind of metal? It sounds like it will corrode pretty quickly (unless it is stainless). Is its purpose to keep the soil on your side and prevent it from eroding under the raised fence? I figure he'd do better with some stone and filter fabric placed on his side. You could always ask him to paint the metal so it's not so obvious. My understanding is that a property owner is bound legally to put the "good" side of the fence facing out. Sounds like that is what he did, you just don't care for his "edging". It doesn't sound like it will last long to me.
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NHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years ago
If the issue is that it is falling down, add posts to prop it up and then plant in front of it. Or put a fence of your own on the property line, leaving enough of a gap at the bottom that you can use a strimmer to remove any weeds that sprout.
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PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years ago
If it's their fence, then you may face legal action if you take it down. Maybe just install your own fence a few inches in from theirs. Or do as jck910 did, and plant shrubbery or trees to disguise it.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
"We planted fast growing Leyland Cypress bushes on our side of an ugly fence because like your neighbors ours are not nice"

That's a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face :-) Leyland cypress are NOT bushes - they are very fast growing, large trees.....60' tall or more and with a potential to get pretty darn wide....25' feet. Not many have gardens that can accommodate these giants easily.

Planting a shrub border or some narrow screening evergeens (like arborvitae) can work but the effect will not be immediate. Personally, I'd opt to construct my own new fence on my side of the line if they did not accept your offer to finance the replacement.
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kitasei
5 years ago
Do you know who built the fence, and who owns it now? Do you know where the property line is? This is important to know, along with the local codes that govern responsibility for maintenance and for establishment of boundaries! AFTER you are clear on all this, then begin to think about the outcome you want, both short and long term. This of course includes the human dimension of the relationship with a neighbor.
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queenvictorian
5 years ago
I think if the neighbors don't want to replace the fence and you were all buttheads about it, the well might be poisoned on building a new fence for the both of you.

Other options are planting evergreen shrubbery or just building a new fence on your side of the property line. The neighbors behind us did this (well before we moved in). My block is very old, with backyards facing each other, and originally, all the fencing between the yards was just waist-high wire fencing with cute posts because privacy fencing wasn't a thing back in 1900, I guess. Most yards still have the original fences. Anyways, neighbor across from us wanted a wooden privacy fence, so they unilaterally built one within their property alongside the original wire fences. It's a fine fence, but joke's on them because these are all super tall three-story Victorians fairly close together and I can see straight into their yard from upstairs. So much for privacy lol.
artistsharonva
5 years ago
Too bad neighbors are not working together. If you could, ideally could get a fence both like & share in costs.

However since that's not the case then,

Focus on what you can control which is your property.

Put a fence up to hide theirs or plant shubbery.

Do what you prefer to look at.

See it as an investment into your paradise. Probably will add value to home, too.

Good luck with that
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