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Last Updated: October 12, 2016
Why do we build fences? To hold something in or to keep something out? For aesthetic purposes or utilitarian? To block unsavory sights or to prevent neighbors from spying? Maybe – just maybe – we build fences for all of these reasons and more. The fact is, there are dozens of reasons for a fence to exist: safety, security, privacy, decoration . . . As you begin planning your new fence, consider the reasons for a fence and decide which features are most important to you. What do you hope to accomplish by building a fence?
One of the most popular reasons for a fence is to protect people and animals. If you have children, dogs, cats, or even horses, a fence can keep them wrangled up in your yard, so that they don’t run off, injure themselves, or get lost. You might also be concerned with elements outside of your yard, like lakes, ponds, cliffs, or hills. By installing a fence, you ensure that no one within your yard will accidentally fall into a body of water, fall off a cliff, or climb a dangerous bluff.
A fence will also prevent strangers from easily entering your property. Whether you’re imagining criminals trespassing on your land, teenagers unknowingly traipsing through your garden, or deer sauntering through and munching on your apple trees, a fence is a great way to ward off uninvited guests.
Going right along with security, a fence is also a great way to establish the boundaries of your property. Sometimes people trespass on land accidentally, not realizing that they’re upsetting the owner. Other homeowners might be frustrated that their neighbors aren’t respecting the line that separates their properties. In situations like this, a fence will create a clear, hard-and-fast boundary.
Many homeowners think of their outdoor space as an extension of their indoor space. They want to achieve a high level of privacy in their yard or pool, so that they can relax and feel free to be themselves. If you’re worried about neighbors eavesdropping or spying on you, a privacy fence might be the perfect solution. For additional privacy, plant trees near your fence.
Although most fences are built for a utilitarian reason, once a homeowner decides to build a fence, the aesthetic appeal of the project should become a primary concern. Just because a fence has an important job to do, that doesn’t mean it can’t be regal and gorgeous. In addition, some homeowners choose to erect a fence primarily for its curb appeal. If you’ve always dreamt of having a white picket fence, a large fence draped with vines, or a stylish ornamental fence, why not make that dream a reality? Not every fence acts as a shield or barrier; some simply look lovely.
Is your neighbor’s yard filled with weeds and other unwelcome plant life? Is the vegetation attempting to trespass onto your lawn? Instead of allowing the weeds to grow unchecked, stop them by adding a fence. Although this won’t work for all weeds, some will stop in their tracks if you impede their progress with a defensive fence. You will need to choose a fence without many gaps that reaches to the ground, such as a vinyl privacy fence.
Finally, our last two reasons for a fence revolve around concealment. If you live on a noisy street or your neighbors throw a lot of parties, a privacy fence can buffer the noise somewhat. If this is your primary concern, look into noise-buffering fences like foam-filled aluminum. Noise-concealing fences can also benefit people who live near schools (good morning, marching band!), concert venues, restaurants, and generally lively streets.
Perhaps your partying neighbor also has a trashed backyard with overflowing garbage bins, yellow and patchy grass, and old furniture on the lawn. Or maybe your home is located next to an overflowing dumpster, an outlandish sculpture, a ramshackle shack, or just a very ugly house. Whatever the case may be, if you don’t want to see these unattractive sights from your yard, you can conceal them with a fence. Look for a tall, opaque fence that will hide anything you find unappealing. We recommend vinyl privacy fences for this purpose.
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Your family’s reasons for a fence will affect your planning process and the type of fence you choose, so be sure to consider your reasoning carefully beforehand. What is your purpose? Why do you need a fence? What do you most hope to achieve with this fence? When you can answer these questions, you’re ready to get started.
Finally, if you’re interested in purchasing a new fence, be sure to check out MMC Fencing & Railing. In our online store, you’ll find high-quality and virtually maintenance-free vinyl and aluminum fencing systems. All of our products come with a protective warranty and are built to last a lifetime. To learn more about our fencing systems, please give us a call at 1-866-931-5002. We would be happy to help you select a fencing system that fits your needs. Good luck!
By Anna Daniels
…Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out, …
Robert Frost, Mending Wall
A few days ago I realized that every single piece of residential property on my City Heights block, save one, has a fence and or a gate between the residence and the street. The business at the end of the block is also completely fenced.
I only became conscious of this fact after spending a number of hours last month walking along the side streets north of University Avenue a few blocks east and west of 30th Street in North Park. This area looks in many ways like the City Heights side streets off of University Avenue, farther to the east, where I now live. There are the same generic craftsman style detached houses and two story multi-unit apartments and condos, for the most part built more recently.
But these North Park side streets look different aesthetically in terms of the colors of paints utilized and kinds of landscaping; and they look different in terms of overall appearance than the area where I live. I was really struck by the fact that so many of the residences in this part of North Park, close to a busy commercial area, still do not have fences in front of the property.
So why are there so many fences in some parts of San Diego, and less or so few in others? Why are there so many more fences in the mid-city areas than there were thirty years ago, when I moved here? Do fences make good neighbors? Do fences make good neighborhoods?
My house has a fence in front of it. I provided the simple design, Mr. Huerta built it, and then I painted it, with some paint selection assistance and much appreciated gifts of bowling balls from an artist friend. I’ve pulled out a journal entry I made on the subject in 1999:
Defensible neighborhoods? My neighbors and I have put the “fence” in defensible. When my husband and I bought a house in the densely populated, largely poor mid-city community of City Heights twelve years ago, you could count all the front yard fences on our street on one hand. Now they are everywhere–legal and illegal, wooden, cyclone, cyclone with razor wire, brick, iron and cement.
They are a visible accompaniment to the annoying ubiquitous bleats of car alarms, security bars, circling police helicopters, guard dogs and the possession of legal and illegal firearms. They take on a more tasteful guise in the tonier neighborhoods, but San Diego, like its other urban counterparts is replete with an architecture of fear.
I can still remember my resistance to building that fence. For starters, fences cost money, and money was in short supply those first years when we were struggling with our mortgage payments. The all too frequent appearance of strangers on the porch at all hours of the day and night asking for money and the theft of property on the porch started to take its toll on me. I felt anxious leaving the house to go to work and anxious returning home from work, unsure of what would await me.
Once we made the decision to build a fence, to provide a physical and psychological delineation between the private and the public, we had to decide what kind of fence. Would we live invisibly behind a barrier of greenery or wood? The community police at the time counseled us to avoid that approach because we could enter our property and be unpleasantly surprised by someone lurking inside.
We chose a fence design that was open to view while clearly establishing a physical separation of the public from the private. That separation is much more psychological than physical, but it has worked — for the most part.
Fences obviously exist as a form of limited control and crime deterrence. They can also provide a much needed privacy, a retreat from a world that is too much with us. That privacy can be a two edged sword however, isolating us from our neighbors and what is happening on the street. Fences also provide a blank canvas for the creative spirits among us, providing an unexpected source of beauty and delight.
I grew up in a working class western Pennsylvania suburb in the 50’s. All of the front yards had grass and the backyards, also grass filled, rolled into each other in a seamless carpet of green. This was simply how houses were supposed to look at the time. Today, these back yards are all separated by wooden fences, which reflect the more transient nature of residents there and how that transiency is viewed. People come and go rather than buy a house and stay there for thirty or more years.
Perhaps the fence is a manifestation of one way that we accommodate the uncertainty of who we will end up with as a neighbor. My street seems much safer to me now than it did in 1997 when we built the fence, yet I can’t imagine taking it down. Living in a house or apartment with a front fence is simply what we do now.
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