Fence made from gravel boards

[tigsmom]

Hi, I'm back again I'm trying to gather all info for the garden before the bank holiday so we can at least get the materials together and make a start. It's a big project with many areas so I may be picking your brains a lot, sorry!

Anyway, we need to replace nextdoors fence to make the garden secure for the kids and after 2 years of having no fence (it blew down) we are assuming that the old lady nextdoor isn't going to replace it. We have got some cheap fence panels for the bulk of it and are going to get concrete posts but the main problem is her patio. It slopes towards our garden so all the rainwater falling from her leaky guttering goes onto her patio and then onto our garden/house (it's no wonder we were flooded is it?). As we cannot make her rebuild her patio or fix the guttering we thought of erecting a fence using concrete gravel boards/posts for the first two panels (up to the end of her patio), setting the bottom boards into the ground & concreteing them in therefore making a concrete barrier (hopefully forcing the rainwater back onto her patio & making it her problem again )

I'd just like a bit of advice as to can the posts cope with the weight of the gravel boards, the best way of holding them in place etc. I'd hate for them to collapse on my kids

 

[Diyisfun]

Can you not put in concrete fence posts & drop the gravel boards into it, then cement & you will have thames barrier.

 

[tigsmom]

Yeah, that's what we want to do (I guess I didn't make it very clear, sorry!). We were just concerned that the concrete posts might not support the weight. That's why I thought concreting the bottom boards in too might help.

 

[Diyisfun]

If you plant the concrete posts deep enough they will hold the gravel boards.
My garden at 1 end I have 3ft of gravel board & fence on that, so the soil from the slope is not on the fence panels.

 

[Thermo]

concrete fence posts will support gravel boards the whole way up, if they are installed in teh ground correctly. 1/3 of the height should be below ground

 

[tigsmom]

The fence panels are 6'. We were going to get 8' posts for them but I guess that means we will need 9' for the ones with the gravel boards. (Can you buy 9' concrete posts?) That's going to be interesting because the first one is up against the house and the foundations are only 2' down!

 

[breezer]

I see what your idea is (blocking the water) but i dont think it ill work as you want. what is to stop the water following the gravel boards to the end and coming down there? (obviopusly i cant see the job and you can) BUt good luck.

just thinking, if its a patio, could you not "jack up" the end next to the fence?

 

[tigsmom]

It's ok if the water follows the gravel boards because it will then be going away from the house and will just run onto my neighbours garden. The idea is to stop the water running off her patio onto our garden/house wall (her patio runs the wrong way from the left of her house to the right/our house instead of from her house down toward the garden.) A garden wall would be better but we just don't have those skills!

 

[mattylad]

If you are doing all this, and as your neighbours water should not be coming off her patio into your property (they should have proper drainage) it may be worth while discussing a solution with them also, perhaps putting some form of drainage/soakaway to prevent the water coming onto your property in the first place.

By offering to do it they are more likely to agree to letting you & allow you access from their side to sort out your fencing too.

 

[Thermo]

The fence panels are 6'. We were going to get 8' posts for them but I guess that means we will need 9' for the ones with the gravel boards. (Can you buy 9' concrete posts?) That's going to be interesting because the first one is up against the house and the foundations are only 2' down!

no 1/3 of 6 is 2, so they only need to be 8 feet.

the one against the house should be a wall plate which is a half post that is bolted to the wall

 

[tigsmom]

Sorry - haven't had much sleep lately (new baby) plus was at casualty with the kids until midnight last night (don't ask!) so my brain isnt functioning 100% today yeah, we'll just buy 8' post as originally planned.

There's just an old(ish) woman on her own next door who just neglects her property. When we were flooded the loss adjuster said she must have been flooded too but she denies it, probably because she's either got no insurance or can't be bothered to get the work done. We have just replaced her front fence and she didn't even acknowledge it. She tells us she's poor then books holidays, redecorates and buys new kitchen appliances. We reckon she's just not put a fence up because she knew we'd do it eventually because we need security for the kids. Her first grandchild is due in a few months so guess where her money will be going then? We just want to shut her out now.