A wooden fence with a vertical plank design, showing natural wood grain and texture. Sunlight casts shadows, highlighting the warm tones. Pebbles are visible at the base of the fence.
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Before and After New Backyard Wood Privacy Fence

ByLisa

Today I am going to show you our fence project. Replacing our fence was something we knew from day one we would have to address. We didn’t do it right away because lets face it, it’s not nearly as exciting as some of the indoor projects we have done. Well this was the year.

Top image shows a backyard with a wooden fence and green lawn. Bottom image shows the same yard with a new, taller wooden privacy fence enclosing it. Text reads "Before & After Backyard Wood Privacy Fence.

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The original fence was probably born in 1978 with the house and it showed! It was barely standing in some places and held together with bungee cords in others. It was weathered and crumbling and just in bad shape despite many attempts at repairs. So we got together with the neighbors and talked about having a new fence put in.

A patio area with brick flooring and a small wall, next to a tall brick and siding house. There's a potted plant and three cushioned stools near a wooden fence gate. Trees and neighboring houses are visible in the background.

Before we opened up this discussion to replace the fence, I wanted to make sure I understood how this kind of thing worked. I had heard all kinds of rumors over the years about how you know if a fence is yours or the neighbors but we never had to address a fence in disrepair. I googled it and got all kinds of crazy answers, so I called the city to find out what the law said in our municipality.

Where we live, a fence that is on the property line is considered jointly owned. It doesn’t matter which way the gate swings, what side of the fence you are on, or which side of the finished fence faces your yard. It is strictly determined by the property line. Our street has property line markings on the curb so we didn’t need to have a survey done. If you are considering replacing your fence, I would definitely check with your city or county to make sure you understand how they recognize property when it comes to fences in your area.

We knew we needed a new fence and were fully prepared to pay our share. Luckily, our neighbors agreed to go in on the cost. I set up several estimates and then we all agreed on what company to use.

Before we could have the fence installed, we had some yard clean up to do. We had several bushes that were growing a bit unruly and had to be put out of their misery! Yard work was not the previous owners’ strong suite and as a result there were bushes growing all over the yard with no rhyme or reason. Not to mention there was NO symmetry. And you all know I have a serious OCD problem! I just couldn’t take it anymore and decided it would just be easier to start over.

A sunny backyard with a wooden fence, lush green grass, and a variety of trees and shrubs. A house is partially visible in the background, framed by branches with budding leaves.
 
A backyard with lush green grass, bordered by a wooden fence. Two trees with pink blossoms stand near the fence, providing partial shade. A house with a reddish-brown roof is visible in the background under a partly cloudy sky.
 
A sunny backyard with green grass, bordered by a wooden fence. Two trees with budding leaves stand to the right, while two empty black pots rest on a stone patio at the bottom right. A house with beige siding is partially visible in the background.
 

We found a local guy that would clean all this up for us and get rid of everything. He would also take out the two trees in our front yard that were planted too close to the house and grind those stumps as well as 3 others.

Side note, the previous year we had two giant cotton wood trees cut down in our back yard because they were dead. The arbor company that cut them down wanted $1000 on top of what they were charging to cut down the trees to grind the stumps, so we skipped it. I had read that you can drill holes in the stumps and pour stump killer into the holes and the stumps would die on their own. That is a total lie. Don’t waste your time and money.

They may die after 20 years or something obscene, but not any time soon and not before killing your grass…..Yep! Since we didn’t grind the stumps, they sucked up all the water in the yard trying to survive and all our grass died the year they were cut down. That was a pain!

Anyway, this guy would take care of all that and clean up the yard. Ordinarily we would have done the yard clean up on our own, however, we needed it to be done in a week and we were knee deep in a flooring project inside. So we simply didn’t have time to do it ourselves, but he was very reasonable and did a great job.

A backyard with a wooden fence, various trees, and a patch of grass. A potted plant sits on a stone patio, with a metal chair nearby. The area is partially lined with small rocks.
 

 And a priceless photo bomb by our dog, haha!!! 

A lush backyard with a green lawn and wooden fence. There is a patio area with chairs on the left and a tree with dense foliage on the right. A small plant in a pot is on the patio. A black dog is going to the bathroom in the corner.

Now it was time for the fence. It was so strange to come home and see all the way through to the neighbors yards. A little too open for my taste….

Collage of backyard fence installation: top left shows wood posts on grass; top middle shows posts on a paved patio; top right shows posts beside a house. The bottom image features a grassy yard with newly installed posts along the perimeter.

And within a day it looked like this. What an improvement! It looked so nice to have a clean perimeter and a nice new cedar privacy fence to go with it 🙂

A wooden fence with a vertical plank design, showing natural wood grain and texture. Sunlight casts shadows, highlighting the warm tones. Pebbles are visible at the base of the fence.

A backyard with new wooden fence and brick patio. A black planter sits on the patio. An inset "before" photo shows the previous chain-link fence and greenery. Sky is clear with trees and houses in the background.

To see what we did to the rest of the back yard, check out my side yard hardscaping post, landscaping post, shed post, and fire pit post.

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A backyard features a high wooden privacy fence under a clear sky. A chair is visible near the fence on a grassy lawn. The text "BACKYARD WOOD PRIVACY FENCE" is displayed across the image.

This post, Before and After New Backyard Wood Privacy Fence, appeared first on Garrison Street Design Studio.

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