Concealing a neighbours boundary wall and fence

Not_so_green_fingers

Hi all, newbie to the forums here!

Hubby and I recently moved house and have a garden for the first time ever! As exciting as this is, it has really made me realise how useless I am at garden related stuff! So I have a garden design problem that I was hoping one of you creatives could help me with, perhaps this is something you have dealt with yourself in the past?

Our neighbour's property to the right hand side (we are both detached but still close to eachother) has a higher ground level to ours, therefore, our properties are separated by a boundary wall supporting the chaning in ground level with a wooden fence on top supported by concrete posts for privacy. Over time, the effects of the weather and water damage have caused the brick wall to deteriorate making it look very tired and crumbly and in need of a refresh.

Here are some photographs of the wall and fence in question:

As you can see, it's a very tight space as well at only 790mm wide wall to wall on our side, so I would not want to make this passage way any narrower.

I am very fond of modern, architectural style gardens so would love to give our garden a makeover like this. In an ideal world I would like to render the wall, paint and then cover the top half with cedar slatted fencing to cover up the existing wall and fence. Below are some examples of the style I would like to achieve:

Example of wall with cedar fencing on top:

General look and feel:

Rendered wall example:

I was hoping one of you guys could give me some advice as to the construction and feasibility of something like this. Is this design achievable? How would the fence be constructed without encroaching too much on our already tight passage way? (we need to be able to still squeeze our big bins and a bike through). I also don't want to undermine the strength of my neighbours fence in any way, so am mindful of the fixings that would be made to this. To clarify, both the wall and the fence belong to our neighbours, (and we own the fence to the left) which is why I can't just replace the one that is already there.

Or even, do you have any other better solutions than what I have proposed?

We are very friendly with our neighbours, so once I have a better idea of what would need doing, I will speak to them first to get their input / agreement for any changes we make that might impact their fence or wall.

Thank you in advance for any advice or recommendations you guys have!

hogweed

As you say the wall and fence belongs to your neighbour, so it would be difficult to do anything permanent to it without their permission. You also have the constraints of a narrow passage and what looks like a concrete path. I think the wall just looks a bit tired. You could just try to power wash it, although be prepared to repoint some of it, or take a wire brush to it. The white colour is I think just the salt coming out of the bricks. 
In your top pic of cedar fencing on top of a wall, the fixings for the fence are on the other side of the wall and that would not be possible in your case. You would need to fix the fence posts on to the top of the wall...…………..or fix them onto/into the ground and cover up the whole wall.....but that would narrow your passage by just under a foot. 

I would go for cleaning up the wall first and then rethink the situation. 

Not_so_green_fingers

Hi Hogweed, thank you so much for your advice, the brickwork will most definitely need repointing, you're right; the grey areas crumble away when you just scrape it with your shoe! Perhaps I could ask my neighbour permission to paint our side once it's cleaned up to see how it improves things. Thanks again.

BobTheGardener

The grey areas look like salts coming out which you won't be able to do much about if the ground is higher on the other side of the wall or the damp-proof course or membrane (if it had one) has been breached.  You can power-wash it off and re-point but likely to come back and if it does it will undermine any rendering or masonry paint which would eventually fall off.

You could research cladding the wall with something like 'fibre cement cladding' which would give you that kind of 'modern' look.

Not_so_green_fingers

BobTheGardener said:

The grey areas look like salts coming out which you won't be able to do much about if the ground is higher on the other side of the wall or the damp-proof course or membrane (if it had one) has been breached.  You can power-wash it off and re-point but likely to come back and if it does it will undermine any rendering or masonry paint which would eventually fall off.

You could research cladding the wall with something like 'fibre cement cladding' which would give you that kind of 'modern' look.

Hi Bob - great shout - I'll look into these cladding products you suggest to see what the thickness is like. Thank you for the helpful advice.

Fairygirl

I'd agree with Bob - if the wall is supporting ground/garden on the other side, there's no point in doing anything to the wall, even with permission, as the issue will only come back. 
Assuming you can achieve a good result with that [perhaps an arrangement with the neighbour about having the wall redone?] doing the the timber struts is an easy job for anyone with a drill/screwdriver and some battens. Again, you would need the permission of the neighbour if it's their fence. They might consider something new and going halves on the bill.
It's always tricky with that sort of thing, but if your neighbours are nice friendly ones, you should be able to come to a good arrangement.