Yard Dividing Fencing Suggestions?????????

[infiniteMPG]

We have a little over an acre lot here in west central Florida and are looking for some fencing suggestions. The lot is slightly wedge shaped with a small lake in the back yard. We currently have a 'dog lot' fence encompassing about 1/4 acre around the back of the house from when we had dogs. We're wanting to get rid of that fence and open up the entire yard but we still want to seperate and define our property down both sides of the lot.

The lot is around 375-feet on one side and around 450-feet, that's from the easement by the road in the front, to the edge of the lake in the back. Several lots nearby have split rail fence but some of the rails have fallen out and it looks a little ratty. Some other yards have white decorative fencing that just doesn't seem to fit in well with the trees and lakes.

We're looking for suggestions on an economical method of fencing down the sides of the yard, not to completely prevent people from entering, but to keep the average person from just wandering around the lake and through our yard. Split rail isn't off the charts but we'd like some suggestions on a better way of doing it. On a budget (as most everyone) so we're not looking at adding 825-feet of expense privacy fence.

Any and all suggestions gladly welcomed!

[Mark H]

Boxwood hedge

Privet hedge

Ect.

[Colbyt]

Split-rail was my first thought as I started to read your post.

A simple 3 or 4 board "horse farm" type fence would be my second choice. Easy to mow under and minimal upkeep if you don't have horses to eat the boards. This is also very easier to add a wire fence behind should you choose to get another pet.

[infiniteMPG]

The hedge would be great but how long does it take to establish a hedge like that? Especially since we're talking 825-feet totaly of divider. The horse farm style fence is like what we have for the dog run area, only we have 2" x 3" wire mesh in the back to keep the dogs in (back when we had dogs). I like that idea and like the fence look. Our issue was that some of the cross beams after a while warped all to heck and it started looking shabby.

The electric fence idea we like but we'd need to rig up the web cams first so we could capture those precious moments ;O)

Thanks for the suggestions!

[nick hull]

An electric fence is cheap and easy. Few people will test it to see if it's hot ;)

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

** Posted from **

[Noahbuddy]

nick hull wrote in news:nhull- [e-mail]:

If I could afford it, I'd put up a concrete wall 20 feet high with stabbing spikes at the top for anyone who climbed up.

[KLS]

I second this horse farm type of fence, but what we have uses just 2 decking boards as the cross boards, screwed to 6x6 posts. Looks great, and very easy to mow under and maintain.

[infiniteMPG]

What is the spacing on the cross boards? We have a partical yard fencing with this style but we used 4x4 pressure treated lumber for the uprights (and a trick I learned in Georgia is to coat the end with pruning paint before placing in the ground and this prevents water from seeping into the post and rotting it). We used 6-ft lumber and sunk it 2-feet in the ground and used a bag of concrete at the base of each (doubt we'll do that with border fencing) leaving a 4-foot post. Then we used 1x6x8-foot at the top, the bottom and one venly spaced in between. The lower one was to prevent the dogs from diggin under the fence but it's a royal pain to mow around.

And did you paint the boards or leave the raw wood???

[infiniteMPG]

spikes at the top for anyone who climbed up.

Stabbing spikes don't compare to 4-foot coils of razor wire.... ;O)

Of course we're talking a back yard that borders the Rio Grande, right?

[Colbyt]

What is the spacing on the cross boards? We have a partical yard fencing with this style but we used 4x4 pressure treated lumber for the uprights (and a trick I learned in Georgia is to coat the end with pruning paint before placing in the ground and this prevents water from seeping into the post and rotting it). We used 6-ft lumber and sunk it 2-feet in the ground and used a bag of concrete at the base of each (doubt we'll do that with border fencing) leaving a 4-foot post. Then we used 1x6x8-foot at the top, the bottom and one venly spaced in between. The lower one was to prevent the dogs from diggin under the fence but it's a royal pain to mow around.

And did you paint the boards or leave the raw wood???

Most of the real ones are 8' CC for the posts, true rough sawn oak 1x6 with an over-board nailed on top of the joint in line with the post. Black asphalt based fence paint or white. The black looks better for much longer.

Two boards would be plenty for a friendly residential yard fence. Farm fences are about 5' high with 3 or 4 boards. For you 3' high with 2 boards would do the job.

Colbyt

[KLS]

The spacing varies, but on average it's about 8 ft. Also, I misspoke slightly: the solid posts are old cedar posts that measure about

4"x5", an odd size. I think 4"x4" PT would work just fine. *AND* the most decorative part of this fence, which faces the street, is not supported by solid posts, but by posts constructed from 1"x4", and these have held up pretty well (the posts are the oldest part of the fence, of indeterminate age; we replaced the picket part, totally rotted, with these decking boards, all PT, about 4 years ago). We painted the boards, but if I had a huge area to do, I'd just put some kind of weather sealer on them, leaving the natural color.

[infiniteMPG]

Are these rough or finished? And painted? And how deep do you sink them? The existing dog lot run we made has a bag of concrete mixed and poured at the base of each post (we had big dogs). Don't want to do anything to these except post hole and set 'em. Sandy soil I'm not sure how deep to go. Maybe 6-foot posts sunk 2-feet leaving a 4-foot post???

We're looking at dividers between our yard and the adjoining yards so we won't have anything facing the street. We have two pretty massive palmetto shrubs at the front corner on both sides so we're looking at starting the fence at the backside of the palmettos. So no post at the front, just the palmettos and then the fence extending from behind them. I think that will be a cool look.

Thanks for the input!