A Few Words on Fences
Our neighborhood turns 27 later this year and if you haven’t noticed yet, our fences seem to have been built to last 20 years. This means your fence probably needs replacing if you haven’t done it yet or it will in the next year or three.
Of concern to the Blackburne Creek Homeowners’ Association (HOA) are reports that some members are not shouldering their portion of the costs of replacing a fence and are more or less refusing to share the cost of replacing a worn out fence. Let’s face it, if your neighbour’s side of the fence is rotten, then there’s a 100% chance that your side is too and claims that “your side” is fine are only seen as a way to saddle your neighbour with the total cost of replacing the fence. And although it might be nice to get that new fence at no cost to you, it’s a sleazy way of doing things and I doubt that you will be able to borrow a cup of sugar from that neighbour anytime soon. So please do the right thing by suppressing your desire to take advantage of a neighbour and make a deal to share the cost of replacing the fence.
Now, to those of you who have already replaced your fence but have not stained it, our Restrictive Covenant requires that our fences must be kept in good repair, including the application of one of our approved green colours. We are not allowed to leave our fences a ‘natural wood’ colour nor are we allowed to stain our fences any other colour. And although the HOA Board does allow a bit of leeway for pressure treated fence boards (opinions are split as to whether one should wait awhile prior to staining these woods), please have your fence stained as early as possible the following season.
Finally, to those whose fences need repair, replacement, or just a new application of stain, the Board has sent out notices every year to the few homeowners whose fences have come to our attention (usually through your neighbours who give us your address). Unfortunately, given the age of our fences (where many are more or less the same age), our list is growing. Perhaps it’s time to resurrect the idea of getting a group discount for fence materials and/or construction (our last effort was with Classic Landscaping but it wasn’t used much if at all, probably due to the cost being rather high – Classic had no idea of the volume so were not able to offer an attractive discount). If you know of a supplier or contractor (only honest ones please), perhaps you could let the Board know by sending us an email and we could contact them to discuss a group plan or something along those lines.
There, hopefully this article will urge you to take an honest look at your fence and decide whether it is indeed time to repair, replace, or restain.
On that note, enjoy the rest of your summer.
Brian Hawrelak
President