I been thinking.
I would like to build a cmu wall around my back patio, about eight feet high. My backyard is windy due to open field next door. I really like to sit in my yard without seeing the neighbors. maybe bbq, small container garden, hot tub. Just privacy.
I figure about twenty feet out and the length of the house, forty feet. I could add some patio doors to the bedroom.maybe some spanish type arch ways into the rest of the yard.
It would block the windows from the rest of the neigborhood on the back side. so I could leave them open.
What you think.
I know, wooden fence, wooden fence only last about three years here
Edited 3/11/2009 9:01 pm by brownbagg
Replies
> I been thinking.
Dangerous.
(Be sure to check local building and zoning codes with regard to fence height, setbacks, etc. An an 8-foot CMU wall may need some sort of bracing to prevent toppling in severe weather.)
An an 8-foot CMU wall may need some sort of bracing to prevent toppling in severe weather.)that what I was thinking too
broken glass bottles in the mortar cap at the top?
Might look nice if you parge it or whatever it is they call it that looks like stucco. Plant some bushes at the bases to soften the impact. Seemed like all the houses in the towns of the highlands of Mexico had the entire prperpty (mebbe 18th to 1/4 acre) 'fenced' like that. Not sure what their motivation was.
that what I was thinking, having a open house but still protected from the hood
One builds in a pilaster every 15 or 20 feet. Stick some steel in there and fill those cores, and skinny dip all you want!
Seriously, the tops of the pilasters and wall needs some form of cap. Use the same paver or brick found elsewhere in your landscape to tie them all together. Stucco the wall to match your house. That extra coat of texture goes a long way to seperate you from the poor peole down the street.
6 feet tall isn't enough? -
it'll be hard to build an 8' wall that will stay in place in a hurricane - maybe a bond beam around the top?
maybe a bond beam around the top?I was thinking the whole thing being a bond beam. of course it will be solid filled, and I alway have rebar laying around. maybe 12 inch split brick
Break it up by making it zig/zag a bit.
Add's strength, reduces the sound effect off a long flat hard wall.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
If you build it Florida style it will be 150MPH rated.
This is two #5s in the footer, two #5s in the bond beam and a #5 in each dowelled cell. They are in the corners, both sides of any opening and every 4 feet otherwise.
Openings wider than 6 (or 8?) feet require 2 dowelled cells on each edge.
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/wall%20detal.jpg
Every zig and every zag will give you strength.I didn't use cmu, but I did swap with a neighbor -- a couple extra feet for them right by their parking pad, for a couple extra feet for me by my house.Requires a bit of legal work, but it sure is stronger if you're going cmu.Yes to pilasters, too, and don't forget a few 2'-high planters, benches and table areas, and a cool built-in BBQ.Maybe build in your own hot tub, then tile it -- tight to the fence is more private, more sheltered from the wind, and gives you a sturdier fence.By the time you add all, or even a few of these accessories, you'll be bombproof.I think if you did an advanced search on Bowling Ball On A Pedestal, somewhere in that thread you'd find a post from me where you could get a good view of an angled fence, combined with a raised planter and a cantilevered bench. My project was all wood, but it's still relevant to you-- at one point, the whole structure is 10' tall, but all of the different levels soften it visually/esthetically.AitchKay
Not just a structural issue, but maybe zoning as well. Here, anything over 6' requires a permit.
If it's only a sight issue, i'd consider slats or a wire trellis. Something some vines could climb. Cheaper and a lot easier.
Well, depending on how big (or small) your patio is, you may not need a solid, full-height wall. What can work better is a wall, solid up to around eye-level when seated, then an open-style breeze block above that.
Cuts down on full darkness behind the wall (which can cause eyestrain in full sunlight) while not eliminating breezes 100% of the time (and you are near enough the sea to want some breeze, some of the time).
Maybe use a split-face block so it doesn't look like ... cmu.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I used to work at a building in da hood. We use to have a guard that sat in a shack watching the 40 cars parked there because we had a lot of smash and dash for car stereos. It was surrounded by a 6' chain link fence. Along the street there was a really nasty patch of poison ivy growing up it. I used to think, "Why don't they take care of that?" Then I realized, no, I like that just fine.
I'd make it more like 5' high and top it with lattice of some sort. Would look more decorative and less like a barracks or survivalist compound
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
been thinking.
dangerous stuff... becareful out there....
at 8' in yur soil... way wider footers with extra bar...
storms.. solid cell pours and got more rebar...
don't ferget the firing ports, embedded razor wire and spikes....
why CMU's??? cast it...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
The one big difference I noticed between MI and Tx is that they love, with a capital L, fences in TX! They require them in a lot of subs here. In Mi, they often forbid them.
about time ya got back into the swing of things...
fer BB lets' go full perimeter and 12'..
and not waste time and energy on ports or gates...
either yur in or out...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
fer BB lets' go full perimeter and 12'..dont laugh, i really thought about a house with ten foot porches on all four side and where ever a window was have a double open french door. all four sides. then about ten foot from the porch over hang have a 10 foot block wall.all four sides, that way you have a open house but no neighbors.
wasn't laffin'...
let's move that up to 16'....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
ya think we can get Cloud to put a roof on it???
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
If'n he puts a glass roof on it and creates a heat buildup there, maybe he can get some Stimulus Money?
In my town a famous architect built public buildings with basically 10' window wells, painted white on the inside, where there were windows in toilet rooms. That way there was lots of natural light, but still privacy.
I'll bet the painters, window washers and maintenance guys all had a celebration party when he died or retired
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!