ᐅ Terrace Wall Adjacent to Neighbor – What Should We Consider?
Created on: 10 Jul 2025 18:48
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Bauherrin123
Hello forum members,
We want to separate our terraces from the neighbor, who without our consent poured a concrete base on the property line, about 17.5cm (7 inches) wide, and built his terrace there. Now it is basically possible to build a wall right on the boundary, with a maximum thickness of 17cm (6.7 inches).
The wall will be 180cm (71 inches) high and 3m (10 feet) long. It will be anchored to the house. I don’t have more details at the moment.
My questions:
Is the wall too thin at 17 or 17.5cm (6.7 or 7 inches)?
What do we need to consider? Alternatively, we could build a proper wall only on our property, or place it partly on the boundary but mostly on our land, using 24cm (9.5 inches) wide bricks. I have zero experience—does anyone have advice? The whole wall will be rendered white.
Is 180cm (71 inches) a sufficient height? I would appreciate any tips.
I will send pictures tomorrow. We have an end-of-terrace house and want to separate our terrace from the neighbor’s. Now he has already built his terrace and laid the foundation for the wall. The foundation is about 17cm (6.7 inches) wide and exactly on the property line, so it lies partly on his and partly on our property. The wall is going to be built on this foundation. What should be considered in this case? I will gladly share pictures tomorrow—it’s too dark now.
Kind regards,
Bauherrin123
We want to separate our terraces from the neighbor, who without our consent poured a concrete base on the property line, about 17.5cm (7 inches) wide, and built his terrace there. Now it is basically possible to build a wall right on the boundary, with a maximum thickness of 17cm (6.7 inches).
The wall will be 180cm (71 inches) high and 3m (10 feet) long. It will be anchored to the house. I don’t have more details at the moment.
My questions:
Is the wall too thin at 17 or 17.5cm (6.7 or 7 inches)?
What do we need to consider? Alternatively, we could build a proper wall only on our property, or place it partly on the boundary but mostly on our land, using 24cm (9.5 inches) wide bricks. I have zero experience—does anyone have advice? The whole wall will be rendered white.
Is 180cm (71 inches) a sufficient height? I would appreciate any tips.
I will send pictures tomorrow. We have an end-of-terrace house and want to separate our terrace from the neighbor’s. Now he has already built his terrace and laid the foundation for the wall. The foundation is about 17cm (6.7 inches) wide and exactly on the property line, so it lies partly on his and partly on our property. The wall is going to be built on this foundation. What should be considered in this case? I will gladly share pictures tomorrow—it’s too dark now.
Kind regards,
Bauherrin123
C
chand198620 Jul 2025 07:56Instead of cherry laurel, local shrubs also work.
The whole “privacy fence all around the garden” thing is completely foreign to me. We have 90cm (35 inches) fences between the gardens and only the terrace is enclosed with a wall. With such narrow gardens, anything else would just look awful.
Generally, it’s agreed that you can have shrubs and fruit trees as pillars or espalier plants right along the property line fence. That’s it.
This is how townhouses work when the gardens aren’t 10m (33 feet) or wider. Like a garden plot next to your own terrace.
Everything else applies to large gardens of detached houses or semi-detached houses.
I find the whole situation where everyone wants privacy screens starting at 1.8m (6 feet) just to move around invisibly in their own garden to be very odd.
Is the Ruhr area really that different?
The whole “privacy fence all around the garden” thing is completely foreign to me. We have 90cm (35 inches) fences between the gardens and only the terrace is enclosed with a wall. With such narrow gardens, anything else would just look awful.
Generally, it’s agreed that you can have shrubs and fruit trees as pillars or espalier plants right along the property line fence. That’s it.
This is how townhouses work when the gardens aren’t 10m (33 feet) or wider. Like a garden plot next to your own terrace.
Everything else applies to large gardens of detached houses or semi-detached houses.
I find the whole situation where everyone wants privacy screens starting at 1.8m (6 feet) just to move around invisibly in their own garden to be very odd.
Is the Ruhr area really that different?
M
motorradsilke20 Jul 2025 08:15nordanney schrieb:
Keep the shared fence at 120cm (4 feet). Get large cherry laurels and plant them in front (I really dislike these plants, but in your case, they make sense).
It’s thousands of euros cheaper and will be reasonably dense in about a year.
I would prefer photinias. They look much better and also grow quickly.
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wiltshire20 Jul 2025 08:46Copper beech hedge. It contributes to a pleasant microclimate in summer and remains sufficiently dense in winter.
Tall boundary fences in terraced house gardens are well known to me from England. There are many ways to create an attractive environment.
Tall boundary fences in terraced house gardens are well known to me from England. There are many ways to create an attractive environment.
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Bauherrin12320 Jul 2025 09:51On the street side, the situation is that there is a strip full of trees, with branches even extending onto our property, followed by a strip of grass and then the road. I don’t think I need to maintain any setback there. On the boundary with the street, the neighbors have already built a 1m (3 ft) high wall to support the slope. I also like planting along the boundaries, but it involves a lot of work. I want to build a large terrace with a fence around it and have grass in the rest of the yard. I still need to plant two trees and create a vegetable bed.
For now, I am waiting to see how things develop here, but after many bad experiences with Mr. Müller, I’m reluctant to share another fence with him. It will only lead to problems later if something happens to the fence. I prefer one that is entirely mine so I can repair, move, or remove it whenever I want. Mr. Müller also tends to move out of homes every five years; there was even a rumor that there were conflicts with neighbors, but I don’t know the details. He has already announced that he plans to stay only 10 years here and then sell the house. Who knows who will move in afterward. I want to avoid having to coordinate or share anything as much as possible. This means:
If he insists on a boundary fence, it must be built on the property line, and I would have to pay half. How tall can it be then, given that locally all kinds of fences exist? 120cm (4 ft) or 180cm (6 ft)?
I would like to build a 180cm (6 ft) fence on my property. I need to check exactly how much distance this fence must have from the boundary line. His house is 7.30m (24 ft) wide. These are very large terraced houses, so no one should feel cramped. I am currently rereading all your suggestions and need to look up the plants you mentioned, as I’m not very familiar with them.
For now, I am waiting to see how things develop here, but after many bad experiences with Mr. Müller, I’m reluctant to share another fence with him. It will only lead to problems later if something happens to the fence. I prefer one that is entirely mine so I can repair, move, or remove it whenever I want. Mr. Müller also tends to move out of homes every five years; there was even a rumor that there were conflicts with neighbors, but I don’t know the details. He has already announced that he plans to stay only 10 years here and then sell the house. Who knows who will move in afterward. I want to avoid having to coordinate or share anything as much as possible. This means:
If he insists on a boundary fence, it must be built on the property line, and I would have to pay half. How tall can it be then, given that locally all kinds of fences exist? 120cm (4 ft) or 180cm (6 ft)?
I would like to build a 180cm (6 ft) fence on my property. I need to check exactly how much distance this fence must have from the boundary line. His house is 7.30m (24 ft) wide. These are very large terraced houses, so no one should feel cramped. I am currently rereading all your suggestions and need to look up the plants you mentioned, as I’m not very familiar with them.
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nordanney20 Jul 2025 09:58wiltshire schrieb:
Copper beech hedge. It contributes to a pleasant microclimate in summer and remains dense enough in winter.
I’m familiar with tall fences in terraced house gardens from England. There are many ways to make it look nice. Yes, but it grows too slowly for the original poster. I also find it much nicer.
Bauherrin123 schrieb:
If they insist on a fence, it has to be on the boundary line and I have to pay half. How high will it be then? 120 cm (47 inches). As stated. No need to ask repeatedly. That doesn’t change from post to post.
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Bauherrin12320 Jul 2025 10:13nordanney schrieb:
Yes, it grows but too slowly for the original poster. I also find it much nicer.
120. As written. No need to ask repeatedly. That doesn’t change from post to post. Understood, thanks. I can’t say much about the plantings yet; I’ll have to wait and see how it looks. I’ll also take a look around the neighborhood to see what people have. There are many townhouses here, but you only really start noticing these things when you’re at the point of building yourself.
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