Garden Fencing – increasing the height

fannyanna

Has anyone added trellis to the top of an existing garden fence?

This is something we’re considering for our garden providing our neighbours are also happy with the idea. The current fence is about 3 foot high and we’ve thought we could perhaps add another couple of feet by putting some trellis panels on the top.

I’m wondering how they could be fixed to the fencing and whether we need to take the current fence posts out and add taller ones.

keystone

If the fence is between front gardens or adjacent to a highway you are nearly at the legal limit (which is 1 metre). Fences between gardens at the back and sides can be 2m without requiring planning permission.

On a practical front unless you extend the posts how do you stop the trellis flapping about? Indeed the only logical way to attach them is to extended posts and not to the fence underneath.

If you are going to replace the posts in entirety to gain height then the existing fance panels {?) will have to come out too and you might just as well consider 5 or 6 foot panels in place of three foot ones.

BTW if its your fence in question here and it's on your land you can do what you like with it as long as you remain within planning restrictions. The neighbours don't have to be happy with what you want to do although it would be nice if they were.

Cheers

fannyanna

Thanks for your response.

keystone wrote: »

If the fence is between front gardens or adjacent to a highway you are nearly at the legal limit (which is 1 metre). Fences between gardens at the back and sides can be 2m without requiring planning permission.

The fence is around the back garden (no highway) so we wouldn't require planning permission.

keystone wrote: »

On a practical front unless you extend the posts how do you stop the trellis flapping about? Indeed the only logical way to attach them is to extended posts and not to the fence underneath.

If you are going to replace the posts in entirety to gain height then the existing fance panels {?) will have to come out too and you might just as well consider 5 or 6 foot panels in place of three foot ones.

I did wonder whether you could somehow add a new post on top and secure it to the current one.

As you said if it all has to come out it wouldn't be worth the effort - as we'd be better replacing the whole thing.

keystone wrote: »

BTW if its your fence in question here and it's on your land you can do what you like with it as long as you remain within planning restrictions. The neighbours don't have to be happy with what you want to do although it would be nice if they were.

Cheers

One fence is ours although we'd still want to make sure the neighbour was happy with our plans. We intend to stay there for a long time and being on good terms with my neighbours is important to me. Also I'm a bit of a wuss and like to avoid conflict

Once again thanks for the response.

jcb208

You can buy fence post extenders so you can add extra length to post and then fix trellis to that

Ulfar

Hopefully you aren't in a windy location, if you are extenders aren't that great.

krlyr

An alternative we've just gone for is screening - you can attach it straight to the 3' panels if they're yours so no need to extend posts etc

Edwardia

We consulted neighbours about our fence plans even though we didn't have to, legally. They seemed happy.

Once it was up, they decided they didn't like it and damaged it on several occasions plus nailed screening on it and in the end it broke in high winds due to the extra weight.

We left the eyesore and eventually they put up their own fence to hide ours.

So I would always now point out to neighbours our boundary our fence our choice. Your boundary your fence your choice. Simples