In our area (suburb of Chicago) over the past years it has been increasingly common for people to install 6’ tall privacy fences made of white vinyl. Examples here. I’m a firm believer that anyone can do just about anything they want with their property, but these fences just look so ugly and cheap to me, especially in a residential setting.
-Is it just a matter of taste? The people putting them up think that is exactly the look they want?
-Is it just price? In my area, I see the fences go up around new construction of homes costing well over a million $, so I would imagine those people would not NEED to go the absolute cheapest route.
-Do some people just not care, or even essentially see how their fence looks?
Just my opinion, but I’ve seen similar fences made of tan vinyl - or even woodgrain - which impress me as much more attractive.
(I’m feeling that I’ve mentioned these fences before, but not finding it on a search.)
The appearance is magnified when you have a couple next to each other, and the yards take on the appearance of pens such as might serve livestock…
I think this is it. I’m not a fan (but I don’t completely hate them). I assume people are putting them up because they like the look (or required by HOA).
I can’t explain the appeal of that housing development at all. The yards of sod, the windows small and oddly placed, the closet bump outs. The fence is the least problematic imo.
Not sure what you are talking about. Some aspect of the link? That was not my neighborhood, just the first example of white vinyl fence that came up on google. In our area, you see them put up behind 50s ranches/splits/Georgians, as well as $million+ new construction mansions.
Probably. They are not my cup of tea, but they do have a sort of pristine look about them.
They don’t warp, crack, or darken like wooden fences do so they age more gracefully. If you power wash it, it looks the same as the day it was installed.
My parents had a vinyl fence installed, and it was very pricy. I have a hard time believing it is the cheapest option.
About 15 years ago, our cedar fence was knocked down by a derecho storm. I looked into a vinyl fence, and at that time, it would have been substantially more expensive than replacing with another cedar fence.
I saw the link here’s what I think. It’s a development devoid of place, or aesthetic in short it’s ugly oh I say the same thing about the mass produced housing product here too. That fence has shown up in my street. The only one so far. It separates two feuding f neighbors who have court cases against es other.
Actually, we’ve seen some that seem to warp/buckle, so they are not impervious. And, yeah, you may need to power wash occasionally, as some get mold.
Wow! That shocks me. For my $, chainlink - especially vinyl coated - looks much better. And if you want privacy, the tan/woodgrain ones look far nicer. We’ve always gone cedar, even tho we know it is not the cheapest, most durable option. But, it is often said that there is no disputing taste…
If not white vinyl picket it’s cedar or pine chain link or iron. Instead of white I’d like to see more color choices, maroon or a dark green. Dark gray battleshipbgray?
Chain link usually looks terrible quickly and doesn’t look great to start with.
Wooden Fences look better but are a major maintenance issue.
The White Vinyl is a compromise, roughly the same price as wooden and very little maintenance.
I’ve seen green, but not too common. I’ve also seen faux-wood. Just my taste, but I dislike the faux-wood. It looks cheap to me, maybe as I do a lot of wood working.
The white vinyl privacy fences don’t appeal to me but I wouldn’t call them ugly.
Now, the ones with white posts and brown panels - those are oogly.
We had a cedar privacy fence back in our Ohio days. Over 15 years old and still holding up well when we left (I stained it before the place went on the market).
We’ve put up white vinyl fencing with all three of our neighbors (left, right, back). It looks nice, is quick to install, and lasts many years.
Chain link fences don’t provide much privacy, which is reason we and the neighbors wanted fences. (This is a suburb of L.A. with small lots.) Wood fences I guess were an option, but none of us considered them.
You can never explain people’s varying taste in home decor/landscaping.
The development next to ours was typical in that you purchased the lot to build on and then had the developer build the house you picked. If the lot backed up to a tree line or water feature rather than someone else’s backyard they liked to throw a “premium lot” fee onto the price for $15-$20K.
One lot that I’m sure was premium backed up to it’s own pond complete with trees, prairie grass, reeds, etc. The owner once their home was built had a 6 foot privacy fence erected around their entire backyard blocking any view of the pond. I have no idea why they spent extra on the premium lot with view just to fence off their view of it.
I think this is a weird take, and I also think it’s a common take.
I have a chainlink fence where the mesh is covered in green vinyl. Posts are metal. It was installed 18 years ago and it still looks brand new. The green melds into the landscape. My friend has one that’s got black vinyl coated mesh and black powder coated posts and it also looks amazing. These fences require zero maintenance (except I do have to trim around them, which anyone with a fence has to do).
I know that older metal mesh and metal posts did indeed eventually turn to rusty shit. My nextdoor neighbor has this very setup on a 50+ year old fence and it looks bad. It looked bad 18 years ago when I replaced our joining section with my new posts and vinyl coated mesh.
A chainlink fence gives you zero privacy, so I can see choosing a slatted privacy fence right off the jump if that’s your goal. But just dismissing a vinyl coated chain link fence in 2024 (or 2006) because you think it’s going to look like shit in a few years is extremely misguided.
I think the main appeal of vinyl fencing (and of vinyl siding, for that matter) is its homogeneity. You can get white vinyl fencing and be sure to look exactly like everyone else who gets white vinyl fencing, around your little boxes made out of ticky-tacky.
Which is, frankly, somewhat horrifying to me, but I can’t deny that there are people out there who want exactly that.
I don’t think chain link fence looks good new. This is a matter of preference, not a hard science.
Also, I’ve seen the coated fences start looking like crap around here, surprisingly fast.
But I’ve also seen the white vinyl fences start looking like crap also. They need to be cleaned once a year realistically or they get green and grungy. A lot of people don’t clean them.
Neighbors on each side of me did the white vinyl, so I did my back fence as white vinyl. It was an easy decision. Also I live in a very old town (by US standards) and none of the houses are cookie cutter. The lots tend to be between 3000-10000sq’ with most under 6000’. So the privacy fences are a big deal when you’re on top of each other.
My prior houses had 2 acres and over 6 acres. I wanted to live in a town with sewer and gas and stores and restaurants I could walk to. This is great for this time in my life.
The white wooden fence this house had when I moved in was too far gone to bother repairing. So it is out and I replaced the lower front yard fencing with a vinyl picket across the front.
We went from this
to this in 2021 to this now:
Back fence is complete generic:
This shows what the backyard fence looked like right before we bought the house:
