Earlier this week we shared our new horizontal privacy fence for the main portion of our backyard. However, having a detached garage made the design of the fence a little challenging on the driveway side. This side had a shared chain link fence with our other (much nicer) neighbor and a super questionable gate.
Why yes, those ARE ethernet cables holding everything together. What.
We knew that we wanted to have a shorter fence with a gate to divide the main yard from the driveway so that we could keep Geoffrey from roaming too far.
Derek designed the dividing fence and gate with his dad who was in town for the weekend. Together they had the posts set and the panels constructed in no time.
What. A. Hunk.
First they spaced the cedar posts so that there were two equal sides with a 3 foot gate in the middle. They left the posts at full height so that they didn't have to worry about making them all level until the very end.
They whipped up a quick batch of concrete and used "kickers" to brace each post while the concrete set overnight.
We wanted the hog panel to be framed out nicely, rather than just attached on one side since this would be seen from both sides very regularly. So Derek "sandwiched" the hog panel between two sets of cedar 1x2 frames. This created a nice finished look.
After framing out each hog panel, they added an additional larger frame using cedar 1x4 framing which added a little depth to the overall look. It also provided additional blocking which helped when attaching each panel to their posts.
To finish of each panel, they added a cedar 1x6 cap to protect the end grain of each post and finish off the overall look. Plus I can set my tiny cactus menagerie on it. So there's that.
Geoffrey approved of the missing gate.
The gate was fabricated using the same process as each side panel. They added metal L-brackets to each corner which are covered by the 1x2's. This added extra stability since the gate wouldn't be mounted directly to any posts, and needed to remain square.
Once the gate was complete, they added a turnbuckle that ran diagonally across the gate to prevent the gate from sagging over time. Then they added hinges and a puppy proof latch.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the driveway we had Alamo Deck & Fence finish off the other side of the horizontal fence. We had them start at the edge of the garage and continue around to go across the driveway where the gate would be.
We really wanted the gate to look like a seamless horizontal fence from the street, while having minimal exposed latches, hinges, etc. This took several designs before we landed on the look and function that we wanted. We divided the gate so that it would have a 4 foot opening on one side and 6 foot on the other.
We chose the most minimalist hardware possible in order to keep everything as seamless as possible.
With the permission of our neighbor we finished off the look by taking the fence all the way to the edge of their house. Everyone agreed that this looked much cleaner, while also giving them a bit more privacy in the end.
After both the big fence and dividing fence were complete, we stained them to match the main yard fence so that everything tied together nicely.
And now for some lovely before and afters.
