Residential fence rules

[Terry Therneau]

I grew up on a dairy farm in southeast Minnesota. Fences on a property line were put up 1/2 and 1/2 by each side, usually we each built our own half. The material for the fence had to do with the nature of the livestock being enclosed: a fence for cattle (barbed wire) was cheaper than for hogs (woven wire). By the time I finished high school there were very few who still let stock out in the fall to graze on the cornstalks -- for that we needed a good fence around the entire 160 acres. Now almost no one in that area has animals at all and the old fences have crumbled or been torn out.
At my current home (since 1989) the neighbor one one side has a museum & sculpture garden, the owner put in an expensive fence 5 years ago, 6' aluminum that looks like wrought iron with spikes at the top. She didn't ask for a contribution and I didn't volunteer :-) They put it 3' off the line to allow for "maintainance", but I think more to avoid all the mature trees that were on the line. I'm not bothered by the extra bit of land, which I mow, but some future pair of neighbors might end up arguing about it. I'm 71 and she is a widow, 84 I think; we are on good terms, so not my problem. (The fence has impaled 3 deer so far.)

Terry T.

[Jim Becker]

Residential fencing that the OP posts about and rural fencing that is more focused on the function of containing livestock in or out of areas and other agricultural purposes is a bit of a different scenario. Zoning/building requirements are often stricter in residential areas, although it varies by jurisdiction.

Terry, when I was getting a fence installed a year ago after we got a dog, the aluminum fencing was less expensive than wood...by several dollars a running foot!

[Pat Germain]

There is endless drama surrounding fences between houses. When I lived in Virginia, my next door neighbor had an older, wooden picket fence which was built on his side of the property line. The owner of the house next him had huge dogs that barked constantly. The guy next to me constantly told that guy to keep his dogs quiet or he would call the city and have them removed. The dog owner thought he was smart by calling the city and telling the his neighbor's fence was in disrepair. Sure enough, the city came out and told the fence owner he would have to repair or remove the fence. So he removed it. Dog owner suddenly had two huge dogs and no fence on one side of his yard. Wow, what a chucklehead that dog owner was. He had no money for a fence, so he scrounged around and found scrap wood, bailing wire and assorted trash in a feeble attempt to make fence. Funny, the city didn't approve of that either.

Also, I don't think criminals care which side of a fence is facing them.

[Brian Elfert]

My parent's neighbor built a fence decades ago. The fence was built the the boards alternating which side the board is on. Both sides are the good side. The downside for the neighbor is you can see through if you look at the right angle, but I don't think the original owner was going for total privacy.

[Warren Lake]

This is my other side, it was a field 100 plus year old maples and lovely sunsets. So much for that. I put these in and grew them and keep them lower than the back. They are about 14 feet tall as i keep them down just wanted to block out the second story windows in the home. They give me more privacy than a fence and likely better noise attenuation.

The one negative about trees is the width but in this case and the back it didnt matter. I have started to reduce them width wise a bit.

P2250864A.jpg

[Lee DeRaud]

Where I grew up in suburbia SoCal and here in New Mexico backyard fences were/are the norm and originally built by the home builder. It would be very strange to me not to have them.

This.^^

The "contractor fence" is typically cedar stake (which used to be a lot cheaper than it is now), but after a couple of decades, they generally get replaced with block walls of varying degrees of decorativeness.

[Bill Dufour]

This.^^

The "contractor fence" is typically cedar stake

Like grape stake fence?
Bill D

[Lee DeRaud]

This.^^

The "contractor fence" is typically cedar stake

Like grape stake fence?
Bill D

Yeah, I was blanking on that term. Vertical pickets maybe 2"-3" wide, starts out with no gaps until shrinkage sets in.
It's the kind of thing that gives "flimsy" a bad name.