Keeping safe during building work

[BugBugBug]

I need your wise words! But bear with me...

We are about to start a side extension into the garden. This will involve widening the entrance to the drive to allow easy access for deliveries etc. This is a handy coincidence - we were going to clear a bit of the hedge to make it easier to get out of the drive anyway. It's just brought it forward.

Our garden goes out to the side, and at the moment, there is no separation between where we park our cars and the garden. There is a gate at the front of the house keeping everything separated from the road. As soon as the extension is done, our plan is to fence off where the cars are parked and not have a gate across the front of the drive. The garden will be the garden, and the cars/access to the road will be blocked off from the garden.

The question is how to keep us all safe in the meantime. The current gate will have to go - it will be too narrow to meet. We are going to put fencing up as soon as we can but until the shell of the extension is up, it would just be in the way and get ruined. The extension is going to take up every penny we have, we're living on site and any temporary solution must be cheap.

The problem is DS (3y) is a bolter. He's better than he was but he won't stop running just because you ask or yell. Last summer, we put padlocks on the gates to stop him escaping when we were out in the garden. A great big open driveway will be too much of a temptation for him.

Any suggestions of how to temporarily, cheaply and securely gate the drive off would be very much appreciated. Either that or I just buy a great big rope and tether him to the middle of the garden

Can you use wooden picket fencing that can be lifted out of temporary holders at either side for deliveries but put back in place to stop your bolter. You can buy it ready made but we bought the parts from a timber yard and put it together ourselves (pretty easy just need a hammer and nails). It is still not cheap but you might be able to utilise it when you eventually get round to doing the garden for a veg plot?!?

I have a bolter too and we had an insecure garden for a good year. We used pallets with a couple of massive timber screws attaching them to the old fence posts which could be taken out quite easily and put in again. Our builder did it every morning and night. So if you bashed in some timber in those post spikes and then screwed pallets in as a fence that would be pretty cheap and I never found it a particular hassle to have to dig out the electric drill to move them.

Options! Lovely. I'll have a look into that. Builder has small children too so is luckily quite sympathetic! Actually I'll chat with him about it as well...

Thanks both. Food for thought!

assuming you are in the UK, it isn't going to be 'let's go in the garden' weather for a while. Of course you aren't going to stay indoors for three months but could it be temporary 'house only' unless it is an outing to the park etc?

our builders constructed various sizes of hoarding for different parts of our build. just some thick ply and sturdy timbers. not particularly attractive so I encouraged dc to paint, draw, scribble over the safe side. made it prettier and kept him occupied

That's a good idea with the painting of the boards. I like that.

Yes UK, and yes we will be constrained by the weather for a good bit of the build.

But there's always going to be times when I need the garden to be secure (eg putting the washing outside at the weekend). It's good to have options

you might also consider wire mesh fencing. It needs to be tightly stretched and staked, or it will be easy to pull it and climb underneath. Some people dig a small trench and bury the foot.

galvanised pig-fence or chicken wire is very cheap, and green-plastic coated mesh looks and lasts better. The stuff with welded squares is much stronger than the knitted stuff, but is easier to climb.

I like the idea of a ply hoarding affair. Ply usually comes in sheets 2400x1200 so is either four foot high or eight foot. You can use fence stain to make it presentable. It would however probably work out even more expensive than your eventual fence, and not last so long.

I especially recommend concrete posts, or at least concrete spurs, for fencing. It is very disheartening to try to break up and dig out a huge lump of concrete when a wooden post has rotted and snapped off. If you use slotted posts the builders can lift out a panel if they need large access, and you can have a combination of solid panels and trellis when the danger has passed.

Oh yes, what PigletJohn said! Hadn't thought of that! Our neighbours put in concrete slotted posts and nice panels with trellis and they look so lovely. The other two sides of our garden fence have wooden posts and they've totally rotted away. We're girding our loins to remove it all and replace with matching. Not. Fun. We also have a nice old chap out back who will not stop piling compost against our fence so we are going to do big ass concrete kick boards too.

Excellent! Thanks guys! I've got some chicken wire : ) I'm hatching a plan to section off part of the garden away from the build. Then we can leave the builders to it and still get outside without bothering anyone.

Definitely going to using some of these ideas, so thank you!