Apartment Complex Fences, why the difference.

Factual Questions
1

While looking for an apartment with my wife, I noticed the patio fences in the complex had wooden fences on the first floor, and steel fence on the second floor. This caused me to wonder why this was. I had noticed this before in every complex that had this type of patio layout.

I asked the lady who was showing us around why this was. She answered, “For safty reasons. That way a person on the second floor can see if someone is hiding on the porch.”

This seemed weird to me. So a person on the first floor was less safe? I asked a couple of friends, and no one could come up with an answer. Does the teeming millions have an idea?

2

I assume you mean the second floor balcony, right?
My WAG is that the steel is stronger, and easier to maintain. There might be biulding code regs about what can be used on a balcony railing in an apt. building (as opposed to a homeowner’s deck).

The landlady’s response sounds like something my incredibly gullible and paranoid MIL would say.

3

You’re saying the ground level patio fence was one of those redwood privacy fences, and the second-story balcony fence was iron railings?

Maybe because people assume you want more privacy at ground level, that being where most passersby and cars are. Up on the balcony, you’re not quite as visible from the street.

4

Just as Duck Duck Goose said, but privacy doesn’t make much sense to me. I can see into second story apartments as well, why wouldn’t they want the same privacy… Hrmmm… The search continues.

5

I agree with Duck Duck Goosethat ground floors get privacy fences. On the ground floor, you have people walking by, and parking by, the patio. So they get a privacy fence.

Also the privacy fence gives some theft protection. People walking by cannot easily see what you leave out on the patio, so they are less tempted to steal it. They are also taller to keep people out, but a taller steel fence could be used.

Finally, they make the apartment complex look nicer, since people walking by do not have to look at all the junk piled in the patios.

6

I got two ideas:

  1. If the wooden fence was solid or had closely spaced slats (and the metal fence was the widely-spaced wrought iron style) pehaps they wanted to prevent stray balls, leaves, pets and other low flying debris from ending up in the patio.

  2. The more likely answer is that metal fences are required above the ground floor so that it won’t collapse – resulting in an unwanted death/injury plunge – if someone accidentally (or purposefully) leans hard on it or bumps into it; wooden fences are probably quite flimsy by comparison. They probably use wood on the ground floor for aesthetics (or reason #1, above).

7

Just got two other ideas:

  1. Upper floor fences are probably made purposefully “transparent” not for people looking in, but for people looking out. This way residents can look out *and down[/d] without having to peer out over the railing. They can see onto the street, garden, park, whatever from inside their apartment (or at least from a few steps away from the edge of the balcony).

  2. (Now reversing my presumption in reason #1…) let’s assume that the wooden fence is a picket fence with reasonable large slots, and the metal one is a cyclone fence. They probably used the cyclone fence to prevent stray debris from the upper floor patios (balls, pet toys, gardening stuff, etc.) from falling off the balcony onto unsuspecting passers-by.

8

Jeez… twice in one day with the screwed-up codes. Sorry. Here goes again:

Just got two other ideas:

  1. Upper floor fences are probably made purposefully “transparent” not for people looking in, but for people looking out. This way residents can look out and down without having to peer out over the railing. They can see onto the street, garden, park, whatever from inside their apartment (or at least from a few steps away from the edge of the balcony).

  2. (Now reversing my presumption in reason #1…) let’s assume that the wooden fence is a picket fence with reasonable large slots, and the metal one is a cyclone fence. They probably used the cyclone fence to prevent stray debris from the upper floor patios (balls, pet toys, gardening stuff, etc.) from falling off the balcony onto unsuspecting passers-by.