Fencing in Pickerington: flat clay lots, covenants and long rear lines

Graded subdivision ground digs nothing like a farm field

When a builder develops flat farm ground the topsoil comes off into a pile, the pad gets cut and filled so drainage works, and a thin skin goes back over the top. What sits under that skin changes inside one lot. Along a rear line you may hit ground nobody ever touched; thirty feet away an auger turns through packed fill, fist-sized clay and old construction gravel.

So hole depth is a measurement, not a guess, and it has to reach past the frost line -- usually somewhere around three feet here, though the number that governs is the one the building department gives for that address. Packed clay also holds the shape of a drilled hole beautifully, which is lovely for a clean set and terrible for drainage: the hole becomes a bucket. How posts get set belongs on the fence installation page.

Flat lots, slow drainage and the corner that holds water

Back yards here are generally flat, which homeowners like and water does not. After a hard rain one low spot stays soft for a day or two -- where a fence ages fastest, and where a gate first begins to drag. Walk the yard during a rain and mark it.

Subdivision drainage is engineered, not accidental. Along a rear or side line there is often a shallow swale carrying water from several lots toward an inlet, sometimes inside a recorded easement. A fence can cross a swale but cannot dam it, so the bottom of a solid run needs clearance there; otherwise leaves and mulch build a check dam and back water into the yard behind you.

The wet corner shapes the material choice too, since vinyl is indifferent to damp ground in a way wood is not.

The covenants come before the post holes

Nearly every subdivision built here in recent decades came with recorded covenants and an association enforcing them. What those documents cover is predictable even where the specifics are not: height in front of the house and behind it, which materials are allowed, color, style, and whether the finished face points at the street or at the neighbor. What any of those rules actually says is set by the association's own recorded documents and current guidelines, not by a neighbor's memory of them.

Most associations also want a written submission approved before work begins, reviewed by a committee meeting on its own schedule, so plan around that calendar. A submission usually asks for:

• A plat or survey with the fence line drawn on it
• Height, material, color and style, often with a product page or photo
• Which way the finished face points, and how the run meets a neighbor's fence
• Gate locations and widths
• Sometimes a neighbor acknowledgment where the fence runs near a shared line

Long straight runs and a rear line shared on both sides

The typical lot is a rectangle with neighbors left and right and another yard behind, so a fence has one long back run and two sides dead-ending at the house. A line pulled to a tight string looks right; a line set by eye telegraphs every quarter inch across a hundred feet, and flat ground gives it nowhere to hide. Figure section layout from both ends before the first hole.

Shared lines are a conversation rather than a trade problem. Decide whether you build to the boundary or a few inches inside it, find the corner pins if they can be found, and settle which way the boards face before material is ordered. Where a neighbor already has a fence you can tie into it, run parallel a few inches off, or leave that side open. A shared post becomes a shared argument later.

Dogs, young families and the gates used every day

Most fence calls out of these neighborhoods come down to a dog, or a back yard children can be turned loose in. That drives height, the bottom of the fence, and above all the gates, which homeowners think about last and use daily. Wood privacy fencing is the usual route where covenants allow it.

• A walk gate wide enough for a wheelbarrow, not just a person
• A wide single or double gate where a mower or trailer can reach it
• A gate hung on soft ground in the low corner sags by its second spring
• Around a pool, self-closing and self-latching hardware, latch height, spacing and footholds all matter, and the adopted local code sets the figures
• A digger needs a plan for the bottom -- a ground-level rail, a buried apron, or gravel

New-build lots: open access now, tight access later

On a lot the builder just finished, access is wide open -- no mature landscaping, no deck, no shed, often a gap between houses equipment can still drive through. In five years that is gone, so right after closing is the least disruptive time to fence a yard.

Two cautions ride along. The grade is still settling, and more is buried than it looks: downspout lines running out to a pop-up or a tile, irrigation, low-voltage lighting, a sump discharge. 811 is free and covers the utilities, but not a builder's drain line or a landscaper's wire, so say what you know about when the line is walked.

What to have in hand before asking for a quote

None of this asks you to become an expert -- only that a few facts are in hand, so every number coming back describes the same fence:

• The plat or survey, plus whatever covenants and guidelines the association publishes
• Rough footage, and where the line should run
• How many gates, how wide, and what has to fit through them
• The wet corner, the swale, and anything buried you know about
• What the fence is for: a dog, a pool, privacy, or a visible boundary

Sending the details over

Footage, height, gates and grade move the number more than the material does, and the job gets priced after somebody stands in the yard. What a complete proposal spells out is on the fence installation page, and the rest of the region is on the service area page. Send the address and a few photos from the contact page: the wet corner, the side access, the fences already standing.

Common questions here

The work, by type

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