If your home is situated in the middle of a city, near a train track, or downwind of an industrial center, you may find that you end up with a lot of noise pollution in your yard. You don't want your yard to become unusable, and being woken up in the middle of the night by city noise can be extremely annoying. Fortunately, fencing can help to block a considerable amount of noise.
While you could just put up a tall wood fence and call it good, choosing a more solid fence or a fence supplemented by privacy berms could provide a lot more success. Here are some of these less common options to consider to increase your privacy with sound deadening.
1. Gabions
Gabions are sort of like a cross between a fence and a wall. They typically have a stiff wire construction for their exterior and are filled with something solid and inert like rock or concrete. Gabions are extremely solid and can block a lot of sound, making them a great option for privacy and noisy cities.
2. Fences combined with privacy berms
In many residential yards, a simple fence around your garden may not provide enough privacy. Whether you want to block out the sound of a busy road or the exhaust fumes coming into your yard, a privacy berm can be a great feature. Often, you can simply use topsoil to create these large mounds and then place sod over the top. You can either place the berm on the outside of your fence or install the berm first, then put a fence on top.
3. Double fences
Another strategy is to place a double line of fencing along your property line so that the interior fence blocks sound that gets through the exterior fence. One drawback is that installing a double fence can be more expensive. However, this fence construction can also serve other purposes. For instance, double fences can protect deer that jump over fences and eat your landscaping and garden vegetables.
4. Add-on panels with mass loading or sound-absorbing properties
Although designed with the express purpose of deadening sound, these fence add-ons are a relatively modern product so they aren't as common as you might think. These are modern panels engineered to include mass-increasing materials like metal or sound-absorbing materials like fiberglass. In some cases, you may be able to upgrade your entire fence by adding sound-deadening panels.
These are some of the types of fencing you should think of installing if you need more noise control, even though they may not be the most popular and ubiquitous types of fencing. Talk to companies like Gatlin Fence Company about types of fencing that can help your yard stand out and protect you and your family from excess noise at the same time.
Hiring a fencing contractor can be a bit challenging. You have to decide what type of fencing you want, consider several estimates, and then get on a sometimes-busy schedule to have your fence installed. If you're stuck at any point of this process, perhaps you could use some advice. Find it here! We have compiled all sorts of articles about fencing contractors and fencing in general. We are not in the fencing industry ourselves, but we are really passionate about these barriers and have done our research. We're confident the information we offer will help you pick a contractor, choose the right fence, and more forward with the project.