How to stop neighbour’s garden coming through fence plinth?

[JesseS6]

Hello,

So my fence shared with my neighbour looks like it should have a retaining wall installed, but only has standard plinths. Due to the height difference their garden bed and soil is coming through and broken the plinths. We plan to have a path to a deck, with boxed garden beds along the path
How can I stop this and also fix it aesthetically? 

 

 

 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @JesseS6,

You're absolutely right—a retaining wall is needed here. Plinths are only designed for aesthetic purposes to close gaps under a fence, not to hold back soil. Since the soil from your neighbour’s side is pushing through and has already damaged the plinths, the situation will only worsen over time. Installing a proper retaining wall now would be much easier than waiting for a complete failure, which would make the project far more involved.

As this is a shared fence and the issue is caused by soil from your neighbour’s side, it’s important to have a discussion with them about the best way forward. Retrofitting a retaining wall beneath the fence would be the ideal solution, but this may require excavation on their side. Without their cooperation, you may have to sacrifice part of your own property to build a retaining solution, which isn't ideal given that the problem isn’t due to any fault of your own. It’s best to raise the issue with them sooner rather than later to find a practical and fair resolution. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[JesseS6]

Thanks @MitchellMc

Could I Build a raised garden bed using 50mm sleepers at the same height. Using the galvanized sleeper posts concreted in. At the back, only have the top sleeper. and the bottom 1-2 sleepers install these between the fence posts and concrete them in using vertical cut offs. And fill in.

Aiming to support the plinths from further damage with the sleepers concreted in, also not making my neighbours situation worse.

But hidden aesthetically by soil.

Does that make sense?

[MitchellMc]

The plinths are almost destroyed and not long for this world @JesseS6. You could effectively build a raised garden bed directly in front of the fence, which acts as a retaining wall as well. 

I'm not sure if I entirely follow "At the back, only have the top sleeper. and the bottom 1-2 sleepers install these between the fence posts and concrete them in using vertical cut offs. And fill in.".

I'd created the garden bed directly in front of the posts. There will then be a void between the back of the raised garden bed/retaining wall and the plinths. I would simply pop a couple of sleeper behind the bed to take up that gap. The plinths/soil will push on these sleepers, which in turn are held in place by the back of the garden bed.

I've created the rendering below to illustrate.

Mitchell