Fence colour problem

[gdbrook]

All 3 of our boundaries are shared in my back garden, as written in our deeds. When we moved into the house 4years ago we had a 4ft panels down one side. the lady on the other side was in hospital when we moved in and was there for 9 months. during this time the fences needed to be repaired or replaced. We spoke to her father to ask he if she minded us putting up 6ft panels to gain extra privacy. She had no objections but would not contribute to the cost. I put them up and paid for them, and treated them with a green stain.

In Feb this year one panel blew out and smashed beyond repair, someone gave us a free replacement panel to put up, the problem is it was brown not green. the neighbour has just been round saying that she has tried to paint the pannel green but it wont go over the brown and Demands that it is replaced.

Can she do this, we put the fence up paid for it and replaced the damaged panel.

My wife is 6months pregnant and does not need the agro, im tempted just to do it, but then she wins and it cost us money we dont want to spend

[WendyS]

I wonder if the brown stain is waterproofed which is preventing the green wood stain from being absorbed? Could the provider of your fence panel tell you where it was originally purchased, B & Q, Wickes, etc? They might be able to tell you how it was originally treated and how to overcome the problem? If this isn't possible, I suspect that she would be on difficult territory expecting you to replace the panel at your own cost when you've already replaced it once. However, she does live next door and relationships may be strained if she's eternally looking at one mis-matching panel in her garden. (To be honest, I wouldn't like it either). So could you compromise and splt the cost between you? I'd be inclined to offer this and if she doesn't accept, tell her this is as much as you can afford. You've gone more than halfway by replacing the whole fence and she will have to decide what is her priority - to remove the problem of a mismatched fence or to avoid paying anything towards its replacement).

[gucciman]

i cant be doing with aggro so if it was me i would just buy a fresh panel, there only 10 to 20 quid.

[Max Wartberg]

Does the fence panel have a waxy feel? If so it will be this that is preventing the new colour taking.

The answer is (according to Tommy Walsh, who addressed this problem on TV) is to add some washing up liquid to the paint. This apparently breaks down the wax like coating and allows the new paint to penetrate.

Hope it works.