Five Lifestyle Changes that Require a New Fence

When you move into a new home, you might enjoy a wide-open backyard unhampered by a fence. In fact, you may have a beautiful panorama behind you that you want to enjoy that would be cut off by a fence. There may come a time, however, when circumstances may change, and a fence may become a necessity. In other cases, you may move into a home that already has a fence, but over time it deteriorates or simply becomes no longer suited to your needs. Here are 5 lifestyle changes that could require a new fence.

1. Putting in a pool

Being able to put in either a built-in or above ground pool is generally considered a feature that adds significant value to a home. What it also does is expose homeowners to additional liability. While most pool owners know the importance of keeping children from running around slippery pool surfaces and monitoring horseplay, the truth is, they are also responsible for keeping their pool secure when it is not in use.

In fact, the majority of drownings are accidental, and they occur most often when a pool is unmonitored. The good news is homeowners are only responsible for providing reasonable protection against accidental drownings, which generally means secure fences and gates. While you may already have a fence in place when you put the pool in, you need to make sure the fence is sturdy and secure and capable of keeping out small children or even teens that may try and sneak in while you are away. While you may not be held liable for intruders that choose to use your pool while you are away, it is always better to not even take that chance by installing a sturdy, secure, fence with lockable gates.

2. Having children

Having a beautiful backyard is a great thing for kids, particularly in our tech age when it can be difficult to get small children to go outdoors. Putting in a swing set, trampoline, bounce castle or creating other types of outdoor activities can help, but you also want to keep your children safe. Putting in secure fencing with gates that latch securely from the inside can go a long way towards giving parents peace of mind when their children are playing in the backyard.

Not only will a good, secure fence keep children from wandering off, but it can severely alleviate the very real threat of potential abduction. No matter how safe the neighborhood you live in may be, strangers always have the potential to wander in and intrude. A good, secure fence can help keep your kids safe while still allowing them the freedom to play outside.

3. Getting pets

Whether you get a new puppy or decide to create a small farm in your backyard, a fence is an invaluable part of keeping furry or feathered friends safe. In addition, like having a pool, pets can also subject homeowners to liability that can be avoided by having a good, sturdy fence. Sometimes, it is not keeping your pets in the safety of your yard that is the concern, so much as keeping pets out of a garden or other area. In that case, you may want to fence in a portion of your yard to keep it safe from your furry friends.

While fences may not seem to be much of a deterrent to your cat getting free to wander, there are actually a number of systems designed to work with a standard fence that can even keep your cat safe within the boundaries of your own property. The best news about cats is that while they may try to get out of a yard once or twice, if they fail to do so, they will generally start to think of the yard as their territory and will contain themselves to stay safely within its bounds.

4. New construction

When you first moved into your home, you may have had nothing but wide, open space behind it. Unless that wide, open space belongs to the government, however, the likelihood is that at some time it will become filled with more houses. When that happens, you may consider putting in a fence. Not only will a fence create a barrier between you and the new neighbors that will eventually live in the house behind you, but it will also help cut down on construction noise and help keep your home and yard safe from heavy construction equipment.

In addition, construction zones are generally high traffic areas with several different trades people constantly coming and going. Many construction workers are day laborers that may have very little oversight. This can also create the potential for higher criminal activity. Whether it is a day laborer wandering into a backyard to check doors and windows or a stranger taking advantage of the activity, you don’t want to leave the entire back of your home wide open and unprotected during construction of any kind.

5. Rising or falling economic levels

The truth is, neighborhoods change over time – sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Young couples may move into homes that are a bit of a stretch at first but then become well within their means as they climb the corporate ladder. In some cases, they may simply move into a more upscale neighborhood, but in other cases the neighborhood becomes more upscale around them. While you may have had nothing to protect when you first moved in, your means – and therefore your needs – may change over time. Putting in a good, strong fence and possibly even a security system may become more of a necessity as your home and belongings become more tantalizing to thieves. What’s more, you may want to move from a more open fence that allows a full view of the back of your home to a privacy fence that can deter intruders.

Conversely, you may move into a great neighborhood that deteriorates over time. Sometimes people can simply move but other times economic or other reasons keep them from moving. It may be your family home that you don’t want to part with or you may simply be unable to move into a better neighborhood. Putting in a fence can help keep you and your family stay safe from the kinds of activities that often start to crop up in neighborhoods experiencing economic downturns.

Whether you need to keep your backyard secure, simply create a boundary between you and your neighbors or keep children or pets safe, a new fence might be a necessity. While homeowners were once hesitant to put up fences that they felt might be an “eyesore,” in the modern world there are a wide range of fencing materials that add an attractive feature to your home. From white picket fences to distressed wood fencing to beautiful wrought iron fencing, there is no home that can’t be enhanced by attractive fencing from Hastie Fence.