UKC

...but I don't think we'll be able to get the Mexicans to pay for it. And I suppose we'll don't actually need to, it's just something we're considering...

Our back and side garden currently has a 2m high wooden slatted fence around it, with a large leylandii (3-4m) hedge along much of it. We rely on this for privacy, and for noise reduction from the sometimes-busyish road beside us.

The fence beside the hedge is in poor repair, but doesn't matter too much due to the hedge; the section by our back gate is better but the gatepost has now warped and cracked.

We're trying to work out whether to just repair that, or to replace the back section with a 2m high, 4ish metre long wall, but leave the hedge section alone, or replace the whole thing (25m, roughly) with a 2m wall. The hedge is annoying, but does give good privacy and traffic noise muffling, and it had a pair of birds nesting in it this spring.

We'd need someone who knew what they were doing to build a wall, we don't. How much roughly would that be likely to cost for these options? We're in Stirling, and the wall would need to be sturdy and not just made of brick (doesn't fit in with the area).

Is there anything else we should be thinking about, or checking? Planning permission?

A climbing forum is obviously the best place to ask about this, so I've done so here.

Thanks in advance!

Can't help but if ukc can't answer this for you then it's a shadow of its former self  

My husband is a Stirling based landscape gardener. Their company is in Blackford. They are called Landscaping by Wallace. Maybe give them a call and discuss? 

Is the company vehicle a motorbike and sidecar?

Ha ha!

I did suggest when he started working there that he should change his name to Gromit! Lol

So you're worried that your fence is no longer delivering the goods, you're not bricking it but you think hedging may be wise so you're asking for quotes in Stirling?

Thanks, I will and have also emailed you.

If we went down that route we would need to make sure he had the Right Trousers for the job, though.

Shh, it's a privet matter.

Lol! I will hide all the wrong trousers before he goes to work!

Could/would you plant and cultivate a wildlife hedge instead of a wall? 

I'm thinking of hedgehogs no longer being able to mosey under the fence, and bees and insects doing their thing....

I'm afraid I don't think that's practical here, Mr. D - it needs to provide privacy all year round, and can't be allowed to encroach too far on to the pavement.

It's a good idea, though. On the plus side, our garden is already teeming with bees!

I've had a letter from the council about my hedge doing that. I cut it back as far as I can, but it just wants to lean out more and more. I need to do something structural. Good luck with your wall.

Ah right, so it's either a fence or a wall.  Two top tips, the family friend who put my fence in painted something tar like which is used for felted roofs onto the ends of the posts before he concreted them into the garden, then it rained part way through and he proudly pointed at the water forming into droplets where he'd painted it with only 1 coat before the second one. He seemed pretty sure the posts wouldn't rot from the ground upwards due to that, he capped them with hard wood pieces machined to look nice to protect the other ends as well.

I noticed the new pole at Stanage Pole has been capped with a piece of lead...

Hedgehog holes required:

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/made-hole-fence-hedgehogs-yet/

Indeed, I'm looking into making holes under it for them this weekend. 

A drystone dyke would certainly stand out in suburban Stirling and less expensive than a traditional stone wall 😊.

I'd be a bit scared of a 2m-tall drystane dyke toppling, lively as one would be!

Particularly on to the pavement.

Is the garden side of the fence south facing?  If so I’d repair/replace the fence and replace the leylandi with mixed hawthorn/blackthorn/hazel/rose hedging.  The hedging will screen noise in the summer when in leaf, and I imagine you won’t be in the garden so much in winter when it’s bare.  

If the garden is north facing you’ll struggle to establish the hedging in the shade of the fence.

The garden side is mostly north facing, with the shorter, currently unhedged section west facing on the inside.

It's only 3-4 metres from our large kitchen/dining room window to the pavement (across our side path/garden), so it's important to properly obscure that bit, even in winter.

The main back garden is a bit less important to fully screen in winter. We're on a corner, so have a road beside the front, side AND back garden, although the one at the front is quiet and we've no fence or wall there.

The big leylandii hedge is actually outside the fence, just now.

Lovely, that should be. I'd hope it wouldn't be lively!

Ha-Ha

Very good

No reason why it should topple if built properly. I've built substantial sections next to pavements and main roads. But it would require a base getting on for 90 cm wide so would take up a fair bit of space.

Ho-ho

Like a ha-ha, only deeper...