What To Know Before You Build a Fence Around Your Home
Whether you got a dog, had a child, or just want to be able to relax in your backyard without your neighbors wandering over, a fence can be the answer to adding security, privacy, and equity to your home. However, while if you live in the literal middle of nowhere you might not need to worry about where you put your fence in, most people don’t have the luxury. Those that live in the suburbs or the city areas throughout Minnesota need to take quite a few things into consideration before they make the call to have a fence put in. So what needs to be done before your new fence can be installed?
Find Your Property Lines
Obviously the first thing you need to do when you decide you want a fence is to decide where you can put that fence in. You’ll need to know if it is within your property line, on it, or even impeding on your neighbor’s property. This is something you want to check first and not after since building a fence, then moving it, doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The most common way to find property lines is to have a survey done to mark them. This may have been done when you bought the house so the assessor’s office may already have a copy for you. If they don’t, it will be at least $500 out of your pocket to have a survey done. Yet, there is a cheaper way, especially if you live in a subdivision. You could always have a peek at your plat map that maps out the whole are of a subdivision and shows property lines. Plat maps can be found at the County Record’s office or even online for free.
Check Local or Homeowner’s Association Rules and Regulations
If you live in a subdivision, it is likely you will have to tangle with the local Homeowner’s Association before you put a fence in. However, even in areas not governed by an HOA, there still may be fence limitations. For example, an HOA may not allow privacy fences or any fences on corner lots for “beauty preservation” as stated in their bylaws, but the city may not allow corner lot privacy fences because it impedes the view of an intersection.
If you don’t have an HOA, finding out the rules in Minneapolis is pretty easy – they have a whole web page for it. Unfortunately, if you live in an HOA area, you have to find their bylaws and may even have to run your fence past the board for approval. Some Homeowner’s Associations can be a little more fickle than others, but while they can dictate the fence materials, typically they cannot prevent you from building on altogether.
Consult a Professional
At a glance, building a fence seems like something you can do yourself, and while possible, it is not necessarily recommended. The most difficult part is putting the posts in, making sure they are level, and making sure they aren’t crooked. To be honest, it is something best left to a fencing company. They turn what could be a self installation that takes several weekends and looks somewhat sloppy into something that can be done in a few days at most and looks beautiful.
Are you looking to build a fence around your home or business in the Minneapolis area? While you can definitely muddle your way through a fence installation yourself, why not leave it to the professionals? If you are looking to get a fence installed quickly, contact us today to see what Security Fence & Construction can do to secure your perimeter.
