Privacy Fence Direction?

[cjct927]

I am having a 5’ + 1’ lattice red cedar fence put in around the back side of our house, rough diagram shown above. Solid board. The two long segments (top and right in the picture commented below) are not street-facing, and are boundaries with neighboring yards.

My question: I was thinking of having the sides that aren’t street-facing face “inwards” so that I don’t see the support beams from inside my yard, but do the opposite for the street-facing segments. Will this look stupid and inconsistent? I’m having a tough time envisioning it!

 

[fritz29]

Depending on your local ordinances, you may be required to put the good side towards the neighbors.

That is a requirement in many areas

 

[mike93lx]

Good side to the neighbors. A fence with the framing facing the street will look goofy, also makes it easier to climb, which may or may not be a problem at your location

 

[lilredex]

I always put the bones on my side. (1C)

 

[mike93lx]

I always put the bones on my side. (1C)

Even the "rough" side looks nice on that one.

 

[txvwnut]

I am planning on doing a privacy fence on the shop side of the yard and when I do I’m going to do what I call a peekaboo style fence where the pickets alternate sides.

 

[lolaetype]

My question: I was thinking of having the sides that aren’t street-facing face “inwards” so that I don’t see the support beams from inside my yard, but do the opposite for the street-facing segments. Will this look stupid and inconsistent? I’m having a tough time envisioning it!

At our last house in a subdivision the developer put up fences on the property lines. fences facing streets had the boards facing the streets. In our back yard the left side got the boards the right side got the posts and stringers. The back fence was just luck, someone would get the posts and stringers and the other person got the boards.

At our house before that, I bought and installed the fence with the poles about 1" inside the property line. I put the boards on the left facing our yard and on the right facing the neighbor's yard (an empty lot at the time). The back fence was a concrete panel fence provided by the developer.

If you want to see all boards and no posts and stringers an expensive solution is to install boards on both sides of your fence.

 

[mike93lx]

If you want to see all boards and no posts and stringers an expensive solution is to install boards on both sides of your fence

May not be a problem in some places, but that just feels like you would be making a haven for wasps. Shaded and easy for them to get in and out but not their predators

 

[nadogail]

A "Good Neighbor" fence has boards on both sides. Really Good Neighbors split the cost and maintenance of Property Line Fences.

 

[mikedodge]

Depending on your local ordinances, you may be required to put the good side towards the neighbors.

That is a requirement in many areas

Thats how it is here.
2 sides of our yard are fenced, both done by the neighbors on their side of the property line. One is chain link buried in a hedge, the other is a nice metal fence. They put up a crappier one facing the neighbor on the other side.

 

[Shiftless]

You can have it both ways. Like the peek a boo described in post #6
Or like the idea I am working on. But that will cost a lot more.

My backyard neighbor and I are planning to build a 37 foot long, 6 foot high fence that looks almost exactly the same on each side. Tongue and groove all heart redwood boards. What do you guys think of these plans he drew?
I don’t like the idea of his using concrete piers and steel brackets and think direct burial of the 6x6 redwood posts will be stronger compared to relying on a few steel brackets to keep the fence upright. We have heavy clay soil here and 15-20 inches of rain per year.

Having seen the shoddy work (and crazy high bids) by several fence contractors, I have chosen to take my time and DIY this fence.

 

[mikedodge]

I don’t like the idea of his using concrete piers and steel brackets and think direct burial of the 6x6 redwood posts will be stronger compared to relying on a few steel brackets to keep the fence upright. We have heavy clay soil here and 15-20 inches of rain per year.

Having seen the shoddy work (and crazy high bids) by several fence contractors, I have chosen to take my time and DIY this fence.

If you do direct burial plan on replacing the posts at some point, they'll start rotting at ground level. Mine lasted about 15 years before it started falling apart from that. I made mine in a way that it could come apart to do maintenance like that down the road. That being said we get more rain then you.

 

[Shiftless]

If you do direct burial plan on replacing the posts at some point, they'll start rotting at ground level. Mine lasted about 15 years before it started falling apart from that. I made mine in a way that it could come apart to do maintenance like that down the road. That being said we get more rain then you.

Lately I have seen installations where they wrap the post with a kind of bituminous shrink wrap product where you waterproof the first 6-8 inches or so of the post at ground level a few inches below and slightly above the soil level. I have pulled failed fence posts in the past and that seems to be just about the only place they rot all the way through.

I think I will go with that product on my posts.

 

[Joe Reed]

May not be a problem in some places, but that just feels like you would be making a haven for wasps. Shaded and easy for them to get in and out but not their predators

I had that wasp problem in the sections where I had boards on both sides. They were pretty short sections so I removed boards from one side, stapled aluminum screen into the cavity on the other side to prevent wasps from getting through the cracks. Then I stapled screen across the other side before putting up the boards. That was several years ago.....solved the problem!

 

[ATC]

If I were paying for the fence, I'd want to look at the pretty side of it.

 

[driftpin]

If I were paying for the fence, I'd want to look at the pretty side of it.

They refer to the 'pretty-side' property owners as having what is called a 'spite fence.'

 

[Youngandfree]

No one mentioned having stringers on the outside makes.it easy for someone to scale the fence uninvited.

 

[mike93lx]

No one mentioned having stringers on the outside makes.it easy for someone to scale the fence uninvited.

Post in thread 'Privacy Fence Direction?' https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/privacy-fence-direction.547304/post-11210296

 

[Jon h]

No one mentioned having stringers on the outside makes.it easy for someone to scale the fence uninvited.

It also makes it easier to kick the boards off and walk through the fence………

Jon h.

 

[egdede]

Shadow box fences are a little cheaper than facing both sides. And chicks dig 'em : )

 

[JohnX14]

I enforce fence regs here and it doesn't matter which side faces inward or outward. (Here) With that said, the "good side in" looks like a mistake to me. I had the choice and put the finished side out.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

"Good" side always goes out, posts to the inside. Doing it any other way really looks like a "hack"/homeowner job.

 

[Two Sheds]

There are many fence designs that look the same on both sides, so there is no "good side". My neighbors just put in a vertical board fence that is like that, with the boards sandwiched on top and bottom. I am currently repairing an old fence on another side of my yard that was installed in the early 1960s. It has horizontal boards, and also looks the same on both sides. It used cedar posts bolted into steel brackets set in concrete. All but one of the posts are still solid after 60 years. The one that failed got dirt pushed against the bottom of the post; the post was rotting and the bracket rusted out. One problem is that there were no caps on the tops of the posts, and the tops of the posts are rotting due to the wet end-grain.