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Choosing the Correct Fence Height for Your Home

Introduction

Fences are important structures for your suburban home. Homeowners build it for security, beauty, keeping their pets within their premises, and other reasons. That’s why it’s important to build your fence at the right height. You can search for a “fencing company near me” and hire professionals to build it for you. Let’s check out how you can choose the correct fence height for your home.

The Details

  1. Objectives of the fence – A fence is a big investment for any homeowner. Apart from the high upfront cost, you also need to pay recurring costs over many years on repairs and maintenance. The purpose of the fence plays a major role in the amount you’re ready to invest into the fence. For some, fences are protective barriers that keep trespassers and animals outside the boundaries. That’s why they need a tall and sturdy fence that can deter intrusion effectively.

For others, the fence may be a barrier to keeping their pets and loved ones inside the property boundaries. It’s a protective barrier that keeps your kids and pets from going out of your reach into dangerous situations. For others, fences are just adjoining structures that are part of the landscape and for others, it’s just an aesthetic accessory for their property. Either way, the objective of a fence should tell you about the height you need.

For instance, if you’re building a privacy fence to keep prying eyes out, you need to build something that’s taller than most humans and their line of sight. The same holds for security fences that keep loved ones in or intruders out. It needs to be taller than the jumping height of your dog and should be tall enough to pose climbing difficulty for intruders. On the other hand, if the fence’s major role is simply ornamental, you don’t need to spend as much on materials to make it tall.

  1. Front vs Back yard – Apart from the objective of the fence, the location of the fence also plays a role in defining its height. If you’re building a privacy fence in your backyard, a tall fence that’s around 8 or 9 feet is the norm. It’s way above most people’s line of sight and helps keep nosy neighbors out in every way possible.

However, you can’t do the same while fencing your front yard. The front yard allows you a clear view of your beautiful neighborhood and you don’t want to block it off with a tall fence. People don’t spy on you from the front yard either. Moreover, many suburban neighborhoods have HOA regulations that won’t allow you to build anything more than 4 feet tall in the front yard.

  1. Fence for marking boundaries – While fences do mark your property lines, they are usually built for the other reasons mentioned above. However, if you have a large property and just want to mark the boundaries with a permanent visual mark, you can build a short boundary fence. These fences usually don’t exceed the height of 6 feet and don’t offer any security or privacy.

Instead, they are a visual mark that prevents innocent people from trespassing into your giant property and also prevents neighbors from accidentally building something on your property. With a short fence, you get to save a lot of money on materials for bounding your large property. Usually, this kind of fence is common on ranches, estates, farms, and other such places and is very rare in urban environments.

  1. Unlimited Regulations – When you buy a home, you own the property and are free to build all sorts of things on the yard including different types of fences. However, there are some limitations that are slapped on by local authorities and there’s no getting around it. Local authorities who impose such limitations include Homeowners Associations and municipalities and they put up certain restrictions on the style of the fence, materials you use to build the fence, and finally, the height of the fence.

Municipalities and cities impose such regulations mostly for land regulation and public safety. For instance, if you have a corner property or it’s located at a curb, a very tall fence will obstruct the view of drivers who are trying to make a turn. So, the fence height is limited to reduce accidents.

Homeowners Associations have a very different purpose for imposing regulations. As the name suggests, it’s an association of local homeowners who make regulations to protect their interests. Their main goal is to prevent their property prices from crashing due to odd-looking homes in the neighborhood. That means you can’t build something ridiculous like barbed wire fences, it can’t be too tall, and the final structure should preserve the uniformity of the neighborhood.

If you plan to build something that’s gorgeous and very expensive, but too unique, it will stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood and may deter away potential home buyers. That’s why HOAs go above and beyond to set style, height, and material guidelines for fences. If your fence is out of code, you’ll be charged with a heavy fine.

  1. States regulations for pool fences – Things also get very unique if you’re trying to build fences around your pool to keep your loved ones safe. Pools drown thousands of victims each year and that’s why certain states have regulations for pool fences. Some states have vague guidelines where the main requirement is to just build a fence around the pool while others are very thorough about the shape, material, and height of pool fences. Most states require you to build a pool that’s around 4 feet tall or higher.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several factors that may influence the fence height for your property. From the purpose of the fence to which part of the property it is being built and if it’s up to code with local regulations. Either way, once you have decided on the fence height, you can search for a “fencing company near me” and hire pros to build it for you.

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