New fencing - what if we can't agree with neighbour?

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SheenaG4 said:

TELLIT01 said:

Until this topic opened it had never even occurred to me that we have 3 different fence types.  On the left it's vertical boarded, on the right it's the back of waney horizontal lap and the bottom is chain link with a decorative block wall behind that.

It may be that we don't notice the difference after a while, but if we do, it's a long time to live with the mismatch.

Yes, and your neighbours could say the exact same thing. 

It's not really fair for you to keep the same fence that matches your other fences just because "it's the status quo".  It's only like that because you were able to choose the style for yourself 20 years ago.

You've had 20 years of matching fencing all round but your neighbours haven't and you're happy to make them go another 20 years of mis-matched fencing.  

I've got four different styles of fence around my garden, so I'm not bothered, but if both you and your neighbour are so bothered, then either you compromise where one gets the style they want, or you put up two fences and each pays for their fence.

Jeepers_Creepers

Sheena, how many panels are we actually talking about?

I think this might be the 'ideal' solution. Yes, it'll cost more, but not nearly twice as much - no arris rails needed, for example.

You have waney lap and your neighb has vertical lap panel? I'm guessing the neighb's fence is hand-made in situ and doesn't come as pre-formed panels?

You have concrete posts? That's good - rotting timber posts are the bane. Do these posts have slots in them to take standard panels? If so, this is a possible fix; since your off-the-shelf waneys will slot in there straight off, that's a cheap fence to do, and I guess you are happy to pay for all of this yourself as it will be the fence style that matches your side? Cool.

Your neigh then has the fencer attach their vertical laps straight on to your fence on their side, screwing into your top and bottom rails, and pinning the slats themselves together too where they overlap - this will be quick and should also be strong even tho' it won't have dedicated arris rails (your fence does that job).

Win-win in terms of design at least, and really shouldn't be prohibitively costly - it's all going to last another 20 years with regular treatment, isn't it?! The only slight cosmetic compromise for your neighbs is that their slats will be sitting nearer the front edges of the posts, but surely barely noticeable.

The only other thing I'd add is, you need to make sure you have good strong gravel boards so that your waneys don't sag in the middle over time due to the extra weight. It should all make for a very strong fence!

This will most likely cost you more than your neighb, but I don't sense that this is a problem for you.

twopenny

I,too, had thought of double panels but wonder if you'd get damp and condensation between that would discolour and rot.
I have inherited three different types and added a fourth because they were stouter and smarter. No one has ever commented or noticed. 
One I put up was wavey overlap and the back turned to my neighbour has vertical strips of wood that makes it look very similar to the cheap woven ones she has, especially when stained the same colour. No one would notice.

TELLIT01

Jeepers_Creepers said:

You have waney lap and your neighb has vertical lap panel? I'm guessing the neighb's fence is hand-made in situ and doesn't come as pre-formed panels?

Your neigh then has the fencer attach their vertical laps straight on to your fence on their side, screwing into your top and bottom rails, and pinning the slats themselves together too where they overlap - this will be quick and should also be strong even tho' it won't have dedicated arris rails (your fence does that job).

I don't know why you would assume that a vertical lap panel would be made in-situ.  We have 150' of the stuff and it all came as standard panels slotting into concrete posts.  Any fencing supplier should be able to produce panels with waney one side and vertical the other.  A wider cap would prevent too much water ingress with the associated risk of speeding up rot, although the people who made our fence said it wouldn't need treating for at least 10 years.

rach_k

If you can't agree with the neighbour and the previous owners agreed that you could put the fence you solely own on the boundary, I'd stick with the status quo and replace the fence with your choice at your own expense.  It seems reasonable to me that, when you buy a house, you inherit the previous owner's agreements on things like this. 

I'd have a friendly chat with the neighbour and just say that as you both want different things, you'll replace the fence like-for-like so they can spend their money on either replacing their other side or buying panels to fix to the back of yours, provided they're suitable.  They bought the house with mismatched fencing so it can't bother them that much.  If it does, losing the inch or so the second set of panels will take off their garden wouldn't seem to be a huge issue.  

Personally, I'd not want to pay for something mismatched but if you were paying for it I would just be glad to save the money!  If you went even further and made it easy for me to make it match, I'd be perfectly happy.  

SheenaG4

Thanks for all the comments
Pleased to say we've reached an agreement whereby we're standing the full cost of replacing like for like.

Jeepers_Creepers

Win-win!

You get your fence, they save a wad