I live in the middle of over 90acres its all under barbed wire fencing. We have occasionally had small amounts of livestock (kids 4H projects). We have to watch the fences to keep people from coming on the property to ride 4wheelers and just destroying the land. Mr.Wrekker has to run the fences at least once a week, all the gates have locks, these people have no compunction about cutting the barbed wire to gain access. We just installed a electronic gate guard to our main gate to the house, it alarms once when someone pulls through the gate. If it alarms twice we know it’s not someone who knows the code. So we are on alert for a delivery or unknown visitor. It’s an ugly fence for sure. You gotta do something though. We want a nice tall border fence but Mexico won’t pay for it.
I noticed in the southwest US, yards were fenced in by cinder block walls to keep critters, namely coyotes, out.
I would be content to have little fencing, but Mr. CK likes his privacy, so if we ever got to choose, we would have a solid fence.
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The types that live in single family detached houses are the type that are also likely to value their privacy. A six foot cedar fence (normally the maximum height allowed by building code) makes a back yard pretty private so your neighbors can’t see you in your swimming suits if you’re tanning or have a backyard pool.
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Wood is pretty cheap compared to stucco or brick. It’s normally within a homeowners skill set to put up a wood fence (which don’t require elaborate foundations) as opposed to masonry.
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You do see a lot of chain link fences. They totally skip the privacy aspect, but are cheaper to maintain and install than wood fencing. They’re good for keeping the dog in or the neighborhood kids from cutting across your yard.
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As another poster mentioned, studio based sitcom TV shows tend to have them because you can build a cheap backyard set (like the Brady bunch and the patch of AstroTurf where the doghouse used to be). Without a fence you’d have to build a set of the entire neighborhood, or else have a matte painting. The back yard is just another set piece in the studio. With single camera shows with no studio audience, like Malcolm in the Middle it’s more common to shoot exterior scenes in a real neighborhood and only have interior scenes on sound stages.
Our HOA requires them. All of our backyards are fenced, with tall wood or PVC fences, painted the same shade of gray. It’s like living in Camazotz.
I have one side like that and one chain link with plans to replace the chain at some point. Hedges take too much work/care and I just really don’t want to know if you (my neighbor) are in your yard. If you are I may talk to you when you don’t want to talk or – you may want to talk to me when I really don’t want to talk. Basically privacy.
They are also inexpensive and easy to repair. The vertical boards can be purchased already
cut to the correct size for just a few dollars each. I had repair my side fence recently and
it just took a few minutes to knock out a damaged board and nail a new one into place.
Tall wooden fences are also extremely common in the UK. We like our privacy, and it’s the simplest, cheapest way to construct a tall barrier. Brick walls of a similar scale would cost a fortune, and may be subject to more complex planning restrictions (and arguments with the neighbours about where the property line really starts).
Wood fencing is also a natural material which weathers well and can blend well with the surrounding vegetation.
This. Since I have to live within driving distance of the city, the burbs are the best option. A tall privacy fence isolates me from neighbors, allows some privacy from the madding crowd, and security for outside activities. FTR, here’s a pic of mine – I think wood fence is very pretty if properly built. The other side is identical, but is actually a large powered gate that closes across the driveway. This allows us to bring the cars inside the “compound” making it impossible to know whether the house is occupied. The hedge in the right side extends all the way to the street, ditto on the left. This keeps random wanderers off my lawn (there… I said it!) and adds to our privacy as well.
Grew up in Chicago, where every house (on its 30’ wide lot) had a chain link fence around the back yard. Broke my arm jumping one of them…
In each of my 3 homes as an adult, I have installed 4’ tall wood picket fences. Mainly because we have always had at least 1 large dog. But also to keep other people out of our yard (primarily related to having a dog. Kid comes into your yard uninvited, messes with your dog, something happens, the dog - and it’s owner - are automatically to blame.)
At this house, for the first time, we put up a 6’ fence along one side of our lot - after our neighbors on that side installed camera aimed - at least somewhat - towards our house. But I agree with folk who dislike the “boxed in” feeling of solid privacy fences all around.
Not a fan of the PVC. Just personal preference. And partly because of my upbringing, no doubt, but never understood the hate for chainlink. As a city kid, chainlink, asphalt, and gravel were pretty much the common materials encountered…
Yeah I don’t understand the hate for chainlink. I’ve got a chainlink fence, as do most of my neighbors. It works for keeping yards separated and holding dogs in. I had to extend mine up from 4’ to 6’ because it turned out my dog was a jumper. But now that our city is getting quite a coyote population, I’m glad I did.
True, a dilapidated chainlink fence is an awful sight to behold. But mine is 12 years old and still looking fantastic, with silver posts and green vinyl-coated links. I have a great view, and you barely notice the fence when observing the yard.
My neighbors w/o fences have dogs that roam across yards and wander the streets and that scares the shit out of me. Fences totally work in this neighborhood.
We have chainlink surrounding our entire property, including the front yard. Front yard fences are very common in my neighborhood, and when people fence it tends to be chainlink, even for new fences. Our lots are tiny (there’s about 10-15 feet between houses) and a solid barrier fence would probably feel claustrophobic. Add to that the only bylaw I know of related to fencing - that a solid fence must be set back at least 3 feet from the sidewalk and must be shorter than 3 feet on corner lots - and chainlink becomes the obvious choice if you want to 1) maximize your usable outdoor space, 2) keep your dogs and children in, 3) keep other people’s dogs and children out, and 4) maintain good relations with the neighbors who might be clueless or careless about where the property line is and when it’s OK and not OK to cross it.
They keep dogs in and deer out. There’s a great feeling in letting your dog out the back and knowing it’s not going to wander off. Plus planting a garden and being able to harvest it before the deer do.
Saw this post yesterday and did my own informal survey of my neighborhood while running errands this morning. We live in a subdivision first built in the 1960s, with lots about 1/2 acre in size. The lots are pretty uniform in size, but of slightly varying shapes and orientations.
Of the 40+ houses I passed:
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None had tall wooden fences of any type.
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None had fenced front yards of any type.
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The single wood fence I saw was the one that my back yard neighbor put up because of his dogs. It is a plank fence 42" in height, with slots between the planks.
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Chain link fences in back yards were most common (about 1/2 of the houses) and at least 1/3 had no fence at all.
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My own back yard fence is modular aluminum with black powder coat to look like wrought iron. I saw at least four other houses with similar fences.
There are no HOAs where I live, and yet, wooden fences everywhere.
Today, Americans love the idea of their own freedom. We have largely lost any sense of ensuring that of our neighbors, and in the process ensured the ultimate loss of our own.
Very sharp, love the look with the black fittings.
My back yard is boxed in with a 6’ cedar plank fence. Not too exciting on its own, but it’s durable and makes an excellent anchor and wind screen for a lilac hedge, and keeps the dogs confined. I guess the same thing could be accomplished by chain link, but I really don’t like the look. Being honest, I am fine with knowing I have neighbors, but I don’t care to look at them.
I’m visiting north of Indianapolis, and I just took a walk around the neighborhood. Big houses, big back yards, no fences except a very few in front of some houses.
Maybe a reason for them in California is that our yards are relatively tiny, even for very expensive houses. That makes the cost of a fence very reasonable, and might decrease the desire for your neighbors to spill over into your yard.
Where I lived in Texas, they were often a block long, beside subdivisions. I had assumed they were noise suppressors, to keep traffic noise from sweeping across the neighborhood.
If you think fences in the USA are ugly, you should see the ones in Mexico.
In many Mexican cities, a house will be surrounded on all sides by a high brick wall. At the top of the wall, they pour a layer of concrete, with glass bottles imbedded in it. When the concrete dries, they break off the tops of the bottles, leaving sharp-edged glass shards poking upward, to deter intruders.
Lot size varies a ton in the US. Brick or stone walls require foundations, which require heavy equipment; not cheap. If you have half an acre to fence in (not uncommon) this would be extremely expensive. But a solid wood fence provides the same privacy for a fraction of the cost. In the US, wood is a very cheap building material. I’d say it would cost at least 10x to build a concrete wall vs a fence, possibly more.
Op here, I am not sure if I really got the answer for my question, pretty much everyone says that the reason for those fences is privacy and that is understandable, especially around pool areas, but that doesn’t answer my question, why that exact design (plain wood as I call it) ?
Few people mentioned cheapness, that’s a type of an answer I was looking for, but that is an answer applicable mainly to rundown neighborhoods that don’t want to spend much on landscaping, but what about medium and rich households, is it really that big of a burden for them to buy a prettier type of a fence than just featureless wooden planks?
As I said, here in eastern Europe you can find great looking fences (tall ones), of every material you want, stucco, stone, brick, whatever you want to find, you’ll find, everywhere, not just in upscale neighborhoods, but also in neighborhoods where an average car age is 10-20 years. So if much, much poorer people than middle/high income families in USA can afford great looking fences, that offer even more privacy and are stronger, then I just don’t know…