My Mississauga neighbour mentioned he was thinking of building new fence. I told him to provide more details once he had made a plan. Without further discussion he has started building - the photo is the result so far. He has added to the height of the original posts and front faced on his side. The height is just shy of 8' which not only looks odd but may be too tall if I am reading the bylaw correctly. From my side it isn't looking too nice. I think he plans on continuing this for the 20 or so feet that our houses back onto each other.
Is it just me or would this bother you?
Last edited by shepkraft on Aug 1st, 2017 2:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.
You have to decide what you want out of the fence. Personally I don't think it's that bad, and I think if you wanted to be nice I would just ask if it can follow the same pattern as the fence below. Use a solid colour stain / paint (do not try to go for a "natural" look) and it'll look fine.
However if you are concerned:
a) It is too tall for the bylaws and in the future you may be forced to pay someone to take it down
b) It is not built to handle wind / weather and may topple over
c) You don't like how it looks
d) It is blocking sunlight that you want
Then you should talk to your neighbour about your concerns and see if you can reach a compromise. The neighbour clearly wants privacy for their backyard (I'm guessing for the gazebo sitting out there) and there is nothing wrong with having a conversation about it. It would be rude of them to just assume they can do whatever they want on the fence unless they can demonstrate it is their fence.
I am assuming your entire length of fence will be converted to this new style? Or will you be left with a portion of your back fence that is just the old (lattice) style? If you are faced with a mixture of styles that would be my primary reason for declining it. I would not want half of my back fence to be different than the other half.
TrevorK wrote: ↑
You have to decide what you want out of the fence. Personally I don't think it's that bad, and I think if you wanted to be nice I would just ask if it can follow the same pattern as the fence below. Use a solid colour stain / paint (do not try to go for a "natural" look) and it'll look fine.
However if you are concerned:
a) It is too tall for the bylaws and in the future you may be forced to pay someone to take it down
b) It is not built to handle wind / weather and may topple over
c) You don't like how it looks
d) It is blocking sunlight that you want
Then you should talk to your neighbour about your concerns and see if you can reach a compromise. The neighbour clearly wants privacy for their backyard (I'm guessing for the gazebo sitting out there) and there is nothing wrong with having a conversation about it. It would be rude of them to just assume they can do whatever they want on the fence unless they can demonstrate it is their fence.
I am assuming your entire length of fence will be converted to this new style? Or will you be left with a portion of your back fence that is just the old (lattice) style? If you are faced with a mixture of styles that would be my primary reason for declining it. I would not want half of my back fence to be different than the other half.
Thanks for the tips. Yes - the gazebo is about 18' tall at the top and houses summer parties complete with disc jockey and strobe lights. They are doing this style of fence on all 3 sides. On the 2 sides they removed the fence but kept the back which partially backs on to my house. Since they haven't done anything in the past 2 weeks I think they plan on leaving the shed in place and the fence portion as is.
Its not bad however what I dont like is that he took off the top of your fence and just built on top of it without tell you what he was going to do which is wrong. He does not own that fence as it would be 50/50 at the very least.
So now its up to you. If you feel that its strong enough and now going to break or tip/bend over time with winter/weather and you are ok with it then leave it. However if you dont like it and you feel like its not sturdy then I would tell him & also remind him that you ask him to provide you with more info on what he was going to do but just decided to just built it and not say anything & since you dont like it because of whatever reason you want him to take it down and do it properly.
sickcars wrote: ↑
Its not bad however what I dont like is that he took off the top of your fence and just built on top of it without tell you what he was going to do which is wrong. He does not own that fence as it would be 50/50 at the very least.
So now its up to you. If you feel that its strong enough and now going to break or tip/bend over time with winter/weather and you are ok with it then leave it. However if you dont like it and you feel like its not sturdy then I would tell him & also remind him that you ask him to provide you with more info on what he was going to do but just decided to just built it and not say anything & since you dont like it because of whatever reason you want him to take it down and do it properly.
Bang on. I hate the look of the lettice, but dude bro can't just go and mod the fence as he wishes.
I think that it looks horrible. Looking at that design would cause me loss of enjoyment of my yard and that is concerning. I would talk to him about just rebuilding the entire fence (rip out the old) and I would also be talking to the city about it.
Considering that you already had a very early preliminary talk about it, I think it is totally reasonable to be upset (if you are).
I'm sorry but I think it looks like crap. First you have two tones because obviously the older fence is old and weathered whereas the new one is, well new. Secondly the height is probably too high. Most city by-laws restrict the height to 6 feet, but I'm not sure what Mississauga's bylaw is. What if you can live with it and don't want to inform city hall, it's your choice.
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Have you checked to make sure the fence isn't on his property, and therefore his? You could also check with the bylaw people with regards to the height.
Not sure it's all that bad... once it ages to the same colour you'll probably get used to it.
I think it looks terrible, and the mish-mash of everything (from looking at your side) looks pretty bad. It doesn't fit in at all. He is almost forcing you to replace your whole fence now (if you want it to look right). Uggg.
shepkraft wrote: ↑
Thanks for the tips. Yes - the gazebo is about 18' tall at the top and houses summer parties complete with disc jockey and strobe lights. They are doing this style of fence on all 3 sides. On the 2 sides they removed the fence but kept the back which partially backs on to my house. Since they haven't done anything in the past 2 weeks I think they plan on leaving the shed in place and the fence portion as is.
I think this would annoy more than the actual fence! But that's just me.
I don't think it looks that great however I would tell him it looks bad because of the addition and ask him to provide the fence boards for the bottom and I would install them for a more even look....this not only would solve your "looks" problem and your noise/vision problem, but also not cause any annimosity.....all happy.
I'd be thrilled. He's giving you more privacy, always a good thing, he's doing all the work and as he's a party-guy, he did you a favour and he saved you money. As long as he continues and completes the entire side. But for continuity purposes I'd go ahead and replace the existing lattice on the other 2 sides with the same slats as what he's using (but lower in height because his is probably a by -law violation). Staining the whole thing will solve the colour differences and plant some self-clinging climbing vines to cover where the posts join and you're good.
I think it looks pretty ghetto. Shoulda ripped out your fence and built that big ass fence from the ground up. then it would be fine.
building it like that looks ghetto. maybe it'll look better when it's all the same colour but it still looks like something my creative grandfather would have done with left over wood from like a neighbour's project..
If you are unhappy with the situation ( and I would be ) then call bylaw to check height limits ( most limits are 6 feet ).
Since he originally spoke to you about fence, then you must have some type of rapport so go and talk to him about it regarding height, construction and appearance on your side.
If not comfortable in speaking with him, then call bylaw and lodge a complaint about the height and then rest of the fence issues,
They will step in about any infractions and your neighbor will be PO'd but, does it really matter considering what he has done.
I wouldn't mind it. Stain your existing fence or paint it (it looks like it needs some maintenance/cleaning)
You can easily tell he did it for privacy. More so for him, but at the same time helps you out?
)
I'm saying this because my neighbour built a big deck about 6 feet off the ground. They are out there quite often and completely took over my privacy in my yard (they can see right over the fence and see my hole back yard). (i also dont get why people do this... why would you want a deck that over looks peoples back yards..)
Anyways i went ahead and built this along the lines of this
