We moved into a newly built house and I had a large clearing done. I was short sighted and had the loggers clear too much. Now we have a big very windy yard. I am going to plant trees and put of feces and over time try to build more of a fortress for wind around the house because now the house has no trees around it and big wind. So right now I want to put up a 6 ft fence, 48 feet wide, on a north facing hill that sits above our house. It is right behind the house and wide open from the north and the wind when it is from the north or northwest just rips right down. I don't know much about physics and this type of thing. But I read on one website that a fence with gaps will be better for wind blocking than a solid fence. I guess it defuses it or something? But if we are trying to block wind from our back yard, is it better o do a solid fence or one with gaps? We will plant some small trees in front of the fence. And over time we will plant an evergreen hedge ( maybe spruce trees) to make more of a wind blocking thing behind the fence. I am most concerned with putting the right fence in for the purpose of wind blocking. And also I am wondering if a fence wood can handle a lot of wind on I until the evergreen hedge matures in a few years. thanks
Asked
Active
Viewed 8,055 times
1 Answers
1
As a rule of thumb, tall objects can cast a wind shadow about three to six times their height which diminishes with distance. However, turbulence dominates close to the ground so don't plan on getting 18' of wind shadow from a fence.
In addition, clearing the land means that the wind will have additional velocity...blowing across 600' of open space actually moves the wind exposure class of a structure from B to C under ASCE-7.
The long and the short is that if you sit next to the fence you can probably create a localized effect, but you cannot use a fence to significantly alter the wind effect across an entire three acre site.