Featheredge fence problem

rajanm

We've had a new featheredge fence fitted. A part of it follows the slope up our garden.  

The problem is that the fence has been set too high above the ground so that at some points it reaches over 7ft and needs two gravel boards for it to touch the ground. 

It also goes up then down then up again at the point where the garden slopes before levelling off. Our neighbours aren't best pleased and neither are we.

We think the fencer will come back to rectify it. How easy is something like this to sort out?  Can he just remove the gravel boards, chip out the postcrete and drop the level of the posts without damaging the featheredge pales?  Or do we need to start again in that section with new pales, posts and Arris rails?

Bendy_House

Are these pre-made panels? Or, built, bespoke, on site?

Photo?

grumbler

Gravel boards imply premade panels.

If so, removing the panels and the boards has to be easy, but "chipping out the postcrete" is a hard job and may require serious power tools. And the slot for the boards has to be cleaned. Quite possible, the whole lump has to be demolished, the hole made deeper and the post reinstalled.

Is it not easier just to put one gravel board where two of them are supposedly needed?

rajanm

grumbler said:

Gravel boards imply premade panels.

If so, removing the panels and the boards has to be easy, but "chipping out the postcrete" is a hard job and may require serious power tools. And the slot for the boards has to be cleaned. Quite possible, the whole lump has to be demolished, the hole made deeper and the post reinstalled.

Is it not easier just to put one gravel board where two of them are supposedly needed?

No they're not panels but individual strips of wood built on site. We can't use two gravel boards because the main problem is that the fence is too high and against council regs.  It's also unsightly as it rises then dips then rises then dips. It should be one continuous gentle slope 

Bendy_House

I've seen different solutions to uneven ground, from keeping the panel tops horizontal - so the increase/decrease in height in 'steps', to the fence top actually following the ground slope, so at a similar angle (tho' often evened-out a bit SO's not to be too 'wavy').
If you can provide a photo, then I think folk on here should be able to say, "Hmm, it SHOULD have been done like THIS..."

rajanm

Bendy_House said:

I've seen different solutions to uneven ground, from keeping the panel tops horizontal - so the increase/decrease in height in 'steps', to the fence top actually following the ground slope, so at a similar angle (tho' often evened-out a bit SO's not to be too 'wavy').
If you can provide a photo, then I think folk on here should be able to say, "Hmm, it SHOULD have been done like THIS..."

Yes this is what it looks like

stuart45

Can't understand why he's done it like that. The slope doesn't look that much. It does look wrong.

grumbler

rajanm said:

Yes this is what it looks like

To me it looks like a typical botch. There is absolutely no justification for it going up and down.

IMHO, it has to be either

horizontal top lines with small steps - my preferred and most common.

OR

straight line at the top with small slope.

Bendy_House

That is just bad. I'm hoping it's an optical illusion from the up-down weaving of the gravel boards, but it makes it looks as tho' they are also not in a straight line, but weaving sideways!

Needs completely redoing - how can they expect anyone to live with that eyesore?

koalakoala

I hope you didn't pay for that work !

Bendy_House

How should that be done? 
Given the overall slope looks to be fairly minor from one end and t'other, would a straight top line - at a single gentle slope - be visually better than panel-width horizontal stepped top lines?

I'm sure Raj would like to be prepared with this info before the fitters are tackled.