If you want to install a fence on top of a retaining wall or garden wall, help is at hand. The experts at Contemporary Fencing have devised a simple 4-step guide to make this process as seamless as possible. With our help, you’ll soon learn that building a fence on a retaining wall needn’t be such a daunting task.
If you still need help, we can arrange for professional fencing contractors to come and fit your wall top fencing panels for you. Simply get in touch for more information.
1. Assess the condition of your wall
The first consideration is the condition of the wall that the fence will be sitting on top of. Are you building a fence over a retaining wall? Or is your wood fence on top of a concrete block wall? Whichever wall you choose to build on, it’s imperative that your garden wall is structurally sound and stable.
Ideally your wall should be a double brick or rendered block wall with a thickness of 215mm or more and built on a sound, solid foundation. Fixing top of wall fencing to an unstable wall could cause the wall to fail and topple over in high winds.
2. Check the fence height and length of posts
We recommend that the fence on top of wall does not exceed 1.2m (4ft) height when using our top of wall posts. If you want fencing higher than this, then fixing to the face of the wall or into the ground would be a better option to ensure stability. For more advice on this, get in touch.
If your wall is in an exposed area that’s prone to high winds, you may need to add extra support posts to ensure the stability of the fence. This can be done by adding a post midway on your fencing panel. At Contemporary Fencing, all of our fence posts are hidden so they will not be visible from the front.
3. Ensure that your fence posts are properly fixed to the wall
Your most important consideration when building a fence on top of a retaining wall or garden wall is how well your fence posts are fixed to the wall.
All of our Sequence fence posts which are used for wall top fencing are made from Western Red Cedar and have a 20mm Galvanized Threaded bar inserted in the bottom that protrudes 30cm.
A hole is drilled in the top of the wall using a 24mm masonry drill bit and 2 Part Resin anchor glue is pumped into the hole. The bar can then be inserted into the hole, the glue sets very quickly fixing the post in position. This is an extremely strong fixing and a very neat and tidy way of fixing posts.
4. Fit a capping rail to the top of the fence
Once posts are in position on top of the wall, our panels fix neatly to the front of the posts using the special powder-coated screws (which are cedar-coloured screws).
Finally, the capping rail can be fixed to the top of the fence. Once again, this is fixed in place with our special powder-coated screws.
The finished article is a neat and tidy fence that has no visible fixings front or rear. Best of all, when you choose a Contemporary Fencing wall top fence, it’s guaranteed to last for twenty years.
Double sided fencing on top of a wall
We also offer Double sided fencing for top of walls just in case both neighbours want the slatted panel finish with no visible posts.
The diagram below shows our hidden double sided posts, these can be fixed to the top of a wall using the same method as our standard top of wall posts or there is an option to have a post with a footplate that can be bolted to the wall.
*Double-sided post with bar fixing:
*Double-sided post with a foot plate:
Fixing panels to double sided posts
Our double sided fencing comprises of two special panels that fix back to back. Once your posts are fixed in position one panel can be attached to the post by attaching through the predrilled holes on the post lugs. The second panel is then fixed in place by screwing the vertical rear supports into the back of the first panel. Thus the post is neatly sandwiched between the two panels. The diagram below shows the main components of a double sided fence.
*Double-sided fencing panels suitable for the top of the wall:
Full instructions are sent with each double sided fence.
*Double-sided fencing panels suitable for the top of the wall:
