Does it get windy ? If not cover with battens of the same wood, use staples.

A bit of a funky design to begin with. A far better approach would have been a 'good neighbor fence' with the pickets alternating on both sides of the fence. The advantage is that it provides the same uniformly attractive appearance on both sides and while providing gaps/spaces for wind penetration, it still offers complete privacy.

At this time after the fact, you can plant shrubs in front to screen, cover with bamboo screening or simply cover the gaps with narrower pickets (could make an interesting pattern). If well constructed and not in a high wind area, wind shouldn't be an issue.

I think the OP has edited the original post, adding “strong winds”.

Solid wood fencing exposed to strong winds are not long lived.

Sorry not to make it clear, what contractor said is that the air can go through in case there is a wind storm. We are living in Seattle area, usually don't have strong winds often.

How about installing narrow pickets to the top/bottom caps but leave space for air to go through from side? In this way, the pickets are not directly applied to the gap bu still provides privacy.

I'd do some landscaping and stop worrying about it. Your neighbors are unlikely to be as interested in your backyard activities as you might imagine.

“Usually do t have strong winds often”..Just requires one strong wind. Moderate winds on a solid fence may take several years, you will notice the fence has some movement.

are you doing something you do not want your neighbors seeing?

Disclaimer: we are totally doing nothing special in our backyard, but don't enjoy the feeling of being watched.

Re being watched...really...maybe you are doing more watching than the neighbor.

What about the wind?

Winds in the Puget Sound area are rarely strong enough to do any property damage. After a lifetime, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times that has happened!! The odd tree or tree limbs falling, yes, but the only time I've seen a fence blow over was when the support posts had rotted.

An easy and relatively inexpensive solution is to line your side of the fence with bamboo or willow fencing rolls. No wind issues at all with those.

Gardengal, looks like we were posting at the same time about the unlikely event a fence would ever blow over in the PNW. Fence builder must have moved here from Kansas, lol.

I've used a lot of rolled fencing of bamboo and willow, but do not find them opaque for privacy. I've even doubled them and can still see through them (the willow/twig style). I'd love to know if you have a source for something that really affords privacy; usually there are gaps in the ones I've been able to find.

On a standalone basis, yes they are not fully opaque. But when used as a covering against the existing fence, you would have to be right up against the fence peering through it to see anything!! They should provide more than enough privacy.

I see there's actually a Wikipedia page on PNW windstorms. Above this recounting (below) of certain specific events is a table at that page of how often each level of windiness typically occurs.

Notable Pacific Northwest windstorms[edit]

• 1880: Great Gale of 1880
• 1921: January 29, the Great Olympic Blowdown.
• 1962: Columbus Day Storm began life as tropical storm Typhoon Frieda/Freda.
• 1979: February 13 windstorm leads to the catastrophic failure of the Hood Canal Bridge.
• 1981: Friday the 13th Windstorms, November 13–15[4]
• 1990: November 22–24, Mercer island bridge sinking Washington state[5]
• 1993: Inauguration Day windstorm, January 20. Claimed five lives, 750,000 homes and businesses without power with total damage in western Washington of $130 million.[6]
• 1995: December 11–12[7]
• 2002: South Valley Surprise of 2002
• 2006: Hannukah Eve windstorm[8]
• 2007: Great Coastal Gale of 2007
• 2013: Remnants of Typhoon Pabuk on September 28-29, 2013 caused heavy rain in Portland, Oregon had the wettest September ever on record.
• 2015: August 29–30 windstorm knocking out power to 710,000 customers in British Columbia's Lower Mainland region. Several municipalities in Metro Vancouver were without power for three days; at the time it was the largest outage in BC Hydro's recorded history.[9][10]
• 2016: Ides of October storm, Typhoon Sondga transitioned into an extratropical storm as it crossed the North Pacific and approached the west coast of North America. Originally, expected to be a historic windstorm to make a direct hit on Washington State, the worst of the storm ended up staying offshore. Despite this, coastal regions reported winds as high as 100 mph and an EF-2 tornado touched down in Manzanita.[11]
• 2018: December 20th, as winds approached (and occasionally exceeded) 100 km/h, trees came down, high seas cancelled ferries and over 750,000 customers in British Columbia lost power; causing the largest outage in BC Hydro's recorded history.[12] One man needed to be rescued by helicopter from the damaged White Rock Pier and a woman was killed in Duncan after being struck by a tree.[13]
• 2020: January 31st-February 1st, an intense low pressure system brought heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, Washington State and strong winds in the Fraser Valley and over 13,000 customers in British Columbia lost power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_windstorm#:~:text=%20Notable%20Pacific%20Northwest%20windstorms%20%201%201880%3A,bridge%20sinking...%207%201995%3A%20December%2011%E2%80%9312%20More%20

Seattle is quite a bit inland from the coast with a mountain range in between. Windstorms yes, but a fence blowing over in Seattle would be extremely rare. I remember well the 1962 Columbus day storm as I was a teenager babysitting a newborn in a new small apartment complex with huge picture windows. I still remember them flexing and hoping they wouldn't shatter.

This is a better source of wind information for Seattle than a generalized PNW storm report.

https://www.seattle.gov/emergency-management/hazards/windstorms

We had two fence panels blow over in the 2006 windstorm. Fence was about probably about 10 years old at the time and we were able to just stand it right back up. This occured on the exposed western slope of West Seattle, where winds from the SW move unimpeded over Puget Sound.

Now I know all about Seattle winds...

Well, I stand corrected! One fence blew over in Seattle! ;-)

I have the exact same problem here in Texas. My backyard has a fairly new 6 ft. wood privacy fence around it - and with 1/2 acre yard, that means I have A LOT of fencing. On all three sides, we have neighbors who have large dogs and I have 4 frenchies. When they see each other between the gaps in the fence, they go crazy and bark and bark and mine invariably start fighting each other. We've tried EVERYTHING to stop them, including bark collars. Nothing worked. After months of trying to figure out something permanent, I came up with the idea of taking apart 2" faux wood window blinds to cover the gaps. I cut them to the right size and using small wood screws attached them directly to the wood pickets on the bottom half of the fence. I will say that my side of the fence is the one with braces so I didn't have to do the whole fence. From the middle brace to the bottom brace is only 24" so it wasn't hard to find used blinds that size and up (goodwill, garage sales, people throwing old ones away, etc.) For less than $100 I was able to do all three sides. Each blind has about 65 slats so it didn't take too many to do the whole fence - Maybe 18? Cutting the blinds to right size was easy, I used a razor blade to score each blade and then just snapped the extra off. A little time consuming but worth it. I considered using plastic outdoor spray paint close to wood fence color, but decided I really liked the look of the white stripes against the wood pickets. Brightened up the whole yard. Since the blinds are pretty thick and made of vinyl, I'm hoping they will last as long as the fence will, and I'm pretty sure they will. Time will tell. We have strong tornado like winds here all the time and I've not had an issue - nor do I have betweenthefence dog barking anymore. With a little bit of time and effort, problem is solved.

^ love your ingenuity!

Itsjustgigi…a year old post I know…but did that cut down the fence fighting from your dogs? Have same issue.

Ha, I have 5 Frenchies with same problem. I’m so familiar with that aggression they turn o. each other if they don’t have an outlet. New neighbors started it and now it’s a problem. Fantastically unique idea.