Really? It’s not that rare, especially in former housing estates, as that was the cheap option when many were built. I have black-coated chain link fencing, it came with the house, and much of the area has the same stuff. I’m looking at replacing it, as it’s a bit tatty at this point and the previous owners let some sycamores grow through it.
I wish I had privacy fencing instead of the chain link that the house came with. One side fence belongs to the neighbor. The rear fence belongs to whatever entity owns the 8-foot deep canal behind my property. Maybe I can plant some jasmine or passion vines and cover them.
Japanese land tends to be too small to pilot in fencing, but when I lived in the States, I preferred wooden privacy fencing.
In the home I grew up, there was a wooden privacy fence on one side of the backyard and chain link on the other. The wooden one was much better.
WTF? When I post on my phone, I’ve got to check what Autocorrect-san posts for me.
I meant something like Japanese land is too small for fencing. . .
Pre-existing chain link is what we mostly have in these urban parts, and has the benefit of being very long lasting and resilient to minor misadventures. Alternating yellow and white slats would drive me crazy, but we did find white vinyl slats that slid easily into place between the offset links along a back section that we did NOT want to see through [neighbors’s row of trash cans t’other side] with the benefit that we could infill only just as much as we wanted to, and it looks just as ‘good’ from either side so nobody gets to beef about that.
Or buy some slats to fill in?
I like the idea of Jasmine, though. Cones usually like chain link.
I’m with kferr, I’ve rarely seen it used in the UK for residential. Aside from looking like a prison yard, it doesn’t give any privacy. Wherever I’ve lived, everyone has wanted their back gardens to be private.
I’ve always had either wood fencing or a combination of wood and brick walls.
Can’t have slats or cloth in chain link in my city unless it’s a dumpster enclosure gate.
Well, the key word here, at least for me, is “privacy”, so that got my vote.
I need to ask my neighbor if she would mind if I planted the Jasmine on my side of her chain link fence. I think she’d be OK with it because she tried to get some vines growing on her side but her dog kept tearing them out.
In my city all lots are at least .5 acres, and everyone has nice big lawns. In my neighborhood, it’s set up so most everyone backs up to some sort of nature - a creek or a utility easement or just a wooded area of someone else’s property. Chain link is definitely the way to go here. I have a beautiful view out the back, with some houses in the distance. On the sides are my neighbors’ yards, not really my neighbors’ houses.
I had a 4’ green vinyl coated chain link fence installed when I moved in, connected to my neighbor’s 3’ fence on one side. That was plenty to keep my golden retriever in. When she passed, I got a mutt who made poor life choices, and he found himself on the wrong side of the fence quite often.
I had my neighbor’s 3’ section replaced with a 5’ fence and that helped keep the dog from going that way. But he still had no problem accidentally clearing the 4’ fence. So I bought fence extenders from a company that makes a “dog proof fence system” and put it up. It was black posts with black plastic netting. I put that up and extended my 4’ fence to 5.5’ and it worked a treat. And it actually looks quite nice. The extension is still up and it has lasted over 10 years now.
I keep it up even though my boy is gone (my remaining girl couldn’t jump over a candlestick). I figure I’ll see what kind of rapscallion my future dog is, and if they are more ground-based, I’ll take down the extension.
TLDR: Chain link for me. There’s ways to keep dogs in. I couldn’t imagine boxing in my yard, and I don’t think a dog would appreciate it either.
Yes, it all depends on what you want? Privacy? Containment? Just demarcating the property line?
Chain link for the front yard, where I would want people to see the landscaping and yet stop them from walking in or around it, and wood privacy for the back yard for privacy from neighbors.
We’ve enhanced privacy at our current home and the previous one by planting arbor vitaes (‘Green Giant’) to block the view from the road in front. They’re relatively fast-growing and good results are achieved within a few years. Shorter varieties are available if you don’t want an eventual 30’ or more informal hedge.
Pluto’s backyard habitat has an attractive 4-foot fence with black metal bars, which doesn’t provide privacy but keeps him in (his digging tendencies have decreased with age). It also tends to keep out larger encroaching wildlife.
After we sold our Ohio place, the new owners/flippers removed most of the arborvitaes and also took out some of the towering white pines that shielded the property from a neighboring development. Apparently, some people want to be up in their neighbors’ business and vice versa.
A gardening book I read awhile back mentioned how it had long been the fashion in the U.S. to avoid fencing, as part of an egalitarian view that everyone was entitled to share views of neighboring properties, unlike the British preference for walled/closed-off outdoor spaces. These tendencies seem to parallel the size of properties - if you’re jammed up against your neighbors on a quarter-acre or less of land, you tend to value privacy more, especially in the age of omnipresent security cameras.
Apparently the privacy fence has been covered on both sides for about 16 years now without excessive degradation. I couldn’t remember when it was installed, but in the list of Related Discussions at the bottom of this page was a thread I started in 2009 talking about that very thing.
And it seems the neighbors’ fence was originally installed to contain their pit bulls, rather than screen off their hot tub (they added some tall plantings when the hot tub went in). Nowadays there’s less discussion of pit bulls on SDMB, but as it turned out the male pit was a dangerous bastard, and the female (Tillie) was sweet as spring flowers.
Finally, alto the double-sided fence is weathering fine, the 3.5” space between the sides is a convenient highway for squirrel traffic. Which is no big deal.
Lay down landscape fabric, weed barrier. Then pea gravel.
You could use a decorative rock if desired. I like colorful river rocks in a area that very visible in the yard.
Rain can still drain through the landscape fabric.