Dilemma of adding privacy behind retaining wall
Mikey
3 years ago
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JAN MOYER
3 years agoarcy_gw
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Finished My front Garden (Added Retaining Wall, flowers, trees)
Comments (14)What a super job you're doing, You said you painted the front door area yourself. What brand of paint and what color did you use? At our former home, we saw this beautiful chinese red color on a house in an elite neighborhood. Tried to copy it's shutters and front door. I found out the owner's name and called and asked or maybe I wrote to them and asked if they knew the paint brand/paint color they used. The owner said it had been on for a long time but she had saved the can in case they wanted to redo the paint job. I took the information, went to that brand of paint store and had them to mix up the same formula and it was so thin. We always used Duron paints for about 25 yrs. but that wasn't Duron, so I took it to my friendly Duron Paint Store Mgr. and asked her if she could match that color. She asked me if I had added water to the paint, but I hadn't done nothing but stir it and try it on the front door. She worked for way over an hour trying to match that paint and when we paid up, she told me to tell the painter that she had recommended highly to use a black or navy blue primer before applying the red paint. Said red is the hardest color to cover over or blend in. The painter had never used those dark colors before and was skeptical but used a battleship grey instead(what he had in his stock probably)and his employee put 3 coats of the Duron paint on and it still didn't cover. You could see the brush steaks. Finally, I accepted it but wished I had agreed so easily. We kind of ran in similar situation when we painted the front door here a burgundy color....See MorePlanning for Wiring Outdoor Privacy Wall/Retaining Walls
Comments (5)Sorry I was not very clear, I was just referring to the walls proper. You can run each wall conduit back to the house or from wall to wall then the house, depends on what is convenient. Just be sure to size the conduct properly (larger is ok) for the number of wires required. Your local building inspector can tell you what he will accept. Add one wire for the earth ground, it must be connected to your panel. I would suggest you get some landscape wire and run one to each wall, then you can connect speakers to it (the purest s will complain) but it works. 5 amp at 8 ohms will give you about 200 watts. Remember to check the voltage drop in the wire so you can size it properly....See MoreFence behind retaining wall?
Comments (9)I think it's unreasonable to think you'd need to go ALL the way down to original grade with fence posts in order to have a sturdy fence. What you do hinges on the strength of the wall which, of course, we can't gauge from afar. But it appears to be a solid, poured concrete wall, so likely it's strong and adequately stabilizes the soil for a fence erected nearby. In spite of that, it might be as much questions about other things that guide what you should do with the fence. The first of those questions would be appearance. Consider extremes in order to help determine what will be good. One extreme would be a fence directly on top of the wall, extending its plane. Since the retaining wall is a plain, unadorned, flat surface and a "modern" fence with horizontal elements is likely to look similarly hard, raising the height in the same plane is likely to start looking like a military installation, sending messages like: keep out ... off limits ... secret ... Bin Laden used to live here ... etc. To the contrary, stepping the wall back a few feet, is going to give a friendlier appearance. The next question to consider is the construction of the wall. A good retaining wall is built with a layer of drainage gravel directly behind it. Water is collected at the bottom of that layer and piped out from behind the wall so as to prevent pressure pressure from building up (and trying to push the wall over.) In the pictures, a border of gravel is seen at the surface of the back side of the wall. I'm thinking this is probably an extension of the drainage gravel all the way to the surface. Whether it is or isn't, it would be a good idea not to place the fence posts directly behind the wall where they would be in the gravel layer. Thus, there are two good reasons to step the fence back from the wall face. Given the scale of the property, I'd say a 3' set back would work well. I wouldn't go less than 2'. Might go 4'. If you want more specific advice, show the property from the curb, but lined up with the center of steps, and take slightly overlapping pictures that shows all the way from the left neighbor to the right neighbor ... so we can see the complete scene. Also, show a plan view of how the retaining wall is laid out on the property. I am not against the "modern" look at all but think you must consider how it integrates with its surroundings. It might be more modern looking if all the plants on and surrounding the property were vaporized and one created a look along the lines of a power company sub station ... like a desert of gravel and an engineered looking patch of grass. Hmmmm .... maybe that would be a little unfriendly looking ...? Actually, I think your modern-looking house looks fine with the trees and greenery around it. SHADE is a nice thing ... more friendly than blazing sun. Along these lines, I'm thinking that maybe extending your retaining wall with another hard, fairly plain surface, is going to be just too much hard and plain. Personally, it would be for me. Because something has a friendly surface does not mean it contradicts compatibility with "modern." To the contrary, I think a friendly surface has the ability to HELP modern look better. One such example that comes to mind is how creeping fig can cover a wall in greenery, while at the same time looking very "modern." Here are examples (one of them doesn't qualify as modern.) I'm not suggesting creeping fig, but using it as an example of a "look" that is compatible with "modern" but still not unfriendly. Even if a "hard" fence is used, I think there must be something interesting and friendly about it....See MoreRetaining Wall and Shared Fence Hot Mess. Suggestions Please!
Comments (6)Thanks, everyone! Sorry it took me so long to get here today but I wasn't receiving any notifications so I didn't think anyone had responded. And thank you Stiley for the very kind words about my yard. That makes my heart happy because it's been a long-term project to get to this point. Thank you. <3 So, building the fence on top of a retaining wall is a non-starter, unfortunately. That was actually my first inclination and what I would have probably done it if others weren't involved. It's a bit complicated to go into here, but at this point, it looks like the retaining wall has to stay on my side of the property line. Someone suggested giving up the dead space and moving it my way and that's also something I actually considered, but I really don't want to lose any space (even if non-functional). All of the neighbor fences intersect, so I think it would also look strange, but mostly it's just the idea of giving up land. I know that probably sounds kind of silly, but I grew up on acreage with horses and living on a postage stamp with neighbors that close now is bad enough! ha ;-) The idea of giving it up just...I can't. :-0 Do you think a concrete or stone retaining wall could be built next to the fence on my side with less of a gap? Or are there other materials I should be thinking about? I love the grate idea if I do get stuck with the big gap, I would just have to find one small enough that little dog feet wouldn't go through. ;-) And the shorter bull wire fence is a great idea, too. Thank you! I didn't even know what it was called and now I do so that's very helpful! And much better looking than the temporary chicken wire currently residing there! This place is so great for helpful ideas and I'm so thankful to be able to come here and ask. I'm going to hit y'all up for ideas on my patio, next, because that's happening after I get this retaining wall figured out. Thank you again so much! Kimberly...See MoreChristopher CNC
3 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
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3 years agoJanie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
3 years agoChris
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