With very strong winds forecast one again Wednesday night into Thursday this week I'm wondering how I can prevent my 6 foot (4 panel) fence from blowing down once again. I live in a rather exposed location.
Short of removing the panels and perhaps bracing the posts, what other options are open to me?
Any tips please folks?
Thanks
Mine has broken twice in 2 weeks. I have 4" posts and the wind just snapped them like twigs. (I repaired it over the Christmas period but It's currently propped up with several supporting wood braces....)
I will now set concrete posts fitted behind and bolted to to old broken post(s). I don't want to take the whole 80 feet down and start again but as equally important I don't want to spoil the appearance from the 'front' side.
Cheers
Richard
Concrete posts of 3m length at least.
Good quality fence panels properly slotted in.
Prayer.
If it has blown down with a wind speed of less than 50mph I would suspect that it was either past the sell by date or had not been erected to an adequate standard. Apart from doing as you have suggested the is not much more that can be done short term.
Peter Crosland
How about putting hinges on one end of each panel, then you can "open" them when gales are forecast.
You're on a hiding to nothing with this one fella. Each year more posts will blow over as they rot through and each year you'll plant more concrete ones to support it all...then when it's all rotted away, you are left with a series of haphazzardly erected concrete posts which are useless and ugly and will be in the way of a new fence, which is what you need now.
You can't.
Remove the panels and the posts and erect new concrete posts, then insert the panels if they fit, if they don't, buy new ones and insert them prior to erecting the next post (concrete one post in, then a panel, then drop in the next post up to it tightly and so on)
Make sure the fence is as "open" as possible, to let wind through...
Simple don't replace it and stop fighting nature with a bit of cardboard 'cause you ain't gonna win. Next time it gets a bit windy go out with an umbrella and feel the force that has on that, be careful though you might get knocke off your feet. Them think about how much is on a fence panel...
Put up something decent like a drystone wall, mind you nature demolishes them given time but they rarely blow over.
Secure the panels in place with angles cut from baked bean cans tacked to the fence post and panel with an industrial staple gun. When a storm blows the panels detatch themselves without damage and can be refitted in minutes the next day. I find that a doubled up thickness of tin can is best to prevent nuisance detachment of panels.
Thanks very much for all the suggestions, some interesting ideas there. :)
If you hinge the panels to the gravel boards and add springs, they will right themselves when they blow over.
Colin Bignell
Why a six foot fence? Maybe to protect plantings? UK sunbathing in the nude?
In this windy climate next to the North Atlantic, if we have fences at all they are generally only about waist height and not completely solid.
We do happen to have a short section of solid fence at one end of our lumber deck. One approx seven foot long section also forms one wall of our Shed #2. (garden tools and winter tyres etc.) but rest of the deck has rails about 40 inches high. Also the bottom horizontal deck rail is high enough to permit cleared snow to be pushed under it! The top of the rails provides bird feeding along with several seed feeders hung from tree branches, so we can watch the birds across the deck.
But most houses here while they may have a waist high fence between the properties have no front fence. And some no fences at all. A friend does have the advantage of an approx six foot high fence along the rear of their property, owned by the adjacent cemetery. Very quiet neighbours. Also about 40 inch high open fences each side of their pie shaped cul de sac lot.
While good fences make for good neighbours surely six foot high is a bit much (wind hazard/cost/maintenance?) and, if you don't mind the comment, 'sort of isolationist'? How can you chat with your neighbour over a six foot high one.
IIRC (vaguely) the pounds per square foot force due to wind had something to do with 0.003 times velocity of wind in mph. squared? Thus: At 1 mph the force was 0.003lbs/sq'. At 10 mph 0.3 lbs/sq' At 30 mph 2.7 (i.e. approaching 3) lbs/sq' At 100 mph 30 lbs/sq'
PS. 50 kMh (30 mph) is a not too unusual wind here, wintertime anyway. So a six foot high fence would encounter a sideways forces of around 15 to 20 lbs per foot of length. Allowance for storm conditions, quadruple that (see the v squared etc.), and with posts, say six feet apart, that's around 100 plus pounds per section of fence. Assume that the 100 pounds is applied half way up the posts, 3 feet above ground that's a turning moment of approx. 300 foot pounds, per section. Maybe more during a really savage gust? Fortunately in winter posts are sometimes but not always, especially with good snow cover, frozen into the ground.
Maybe it IS our North Atlantic gale with occasional gusts up to 150 kMh that are the real reason we don't have six foot high fences. Our mainly wood frame well insulated (stick) house do stand up to the wind very well.
However to be honest we have built some rustic looking fencing within the property to hide our wood cutting storage activities. Used 4 by 4 treated wood posts on approx. six foot centres, 2 by 4 horizontals and five to six foot long 'palings' which are the random width thickness 'slabs' off the sides of small logs when they are saw milled. The bark eventually comes off and they age nicely. This fencing is more protected than on the edges of the property and is also built with a couple of right angles to another shed and wood storage for additional strength/stability. the first one I built like that, only 4 foot high, with non treated posts, just stakes driven into the ground, lasted almost 20 years. I finally scrapped it and used remains in wood stove.
PPS. There is an interesting story here about an installer who having completed installation of a wind velocity device called his head office to explain that while it 'was' a bit breezy he couldn't get the device to calibrate as per the instructions. It was varying and reading up to
60 mph. After much delay and further investigation it was found that 'it was blowing' 60 that day and there was nothing wrong with the devicePPPS. Have thrown a couple of the now discarded Christmas trees at the end of the house to tempt the snow to drift/accumulate there and thereby reduce the wind brushing that outside wall, just a little. Snow is good insulator but we haven't had much this winter so far.
"nightjar .uk.com>"
That's clever!
Mary
We have a six foot high fence round the back garden to keep fox out, we were fed up of them killing our chickens.
The fence is chain link though so it doesn't stop vision - or wind (although it will have some effect).
The neighbours planted shrubs and climbers on their side, which suits us, it means that we can plant right up to the fence and the hens have more room for scratching.
Mary
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