Keep the fence black if you want it to have less visual impact. Emergency access can be a problem; one very expensive house near where we used to live burned down because fire trucks could not access the property. It depends upon where you live, but some areas have a registration system to supply your access code to emergency vehicles. A KNOX box is the solution for others--it works like a master key system. You may have to research what is available in your area.

For package deliveries, a drop box is often constructed. Otherwise you will usually have to go to a distribution center to pick up your packages.

Our driveway is gated. I called the FD to give them our code. The mail lady and UPS gal both have our code. Mail lady always shuts the gate when she leaves. UPS never does, but most of the time one of us is home by the time she comes. Fed Ex tends to leave on column or, if small package, puts in plastic bag and ties to a gate. You could do a lock box kind of thing, but if you're like me, many boxes won't fit.

We have stained Kentucky 4 board fence - horse community. Gates are painted a bronze color. All blends in well with the trees.

fyi, our gate system has more than one code, so you can give one to family/friends and another to deliveries. Easy to change.

This post was edited by allison0704 on Sun, Sep 7, 14 at 21:29

Are you friendly with any neighbors who have such a fence that you can ask? I'd go with the black color. I think it's classier than green, although the green does seem to disappear when landscaping is green.

I have a friends with gates and they can give a guest code to people and then change the code afterward. Their own code doesn't have to change. Maybe that would work for you.

House near us is fenced, but they put cow catchers across the drive so no need for a gate...

How do cow catchers keep unwanted cars and people out?

So you live in an extreme high crime area and you want to lock yourselves up in a cage that will only keep the good people out, and are wondering how to not keep the good people out, and you're willing to bet your lives and your property that it's a good idea? Hmmmm.

If you "don't want to make any choices we'll later regret" then don't.

Have you looked into brown as a color for your fencing? We have a three board fence with massive 8" posts across the front of our property and when we bought the place it was painted black. We had it painted a sort of medium brown that looks a lot more friendly and natural, IMO. I think I know the kind of fence you are describing and in our area the posts are usually pressure treated pine with steel mesh panels between the posts. If you are referring to chain link fencing, black or dark brown is best over green, which does stand put in winter.

We also have an electric gate with brick piers on either side and a bricked station for the visitors' keypad, and considered a locked package station as well--- but in the sketches that additional structure was starting to look like Checkpoint Charlie, lol, so we nixed it. To be really useful it has to be big, as Allison points out----big enough for your largest packages.

FedEx are the worst offenders. They have the delivery code and never use it unless the thing has to be signed for (that's how we know they have it). Packages they leave behind the columns or they put smaller items in a bag and tie the bag to the gate, a sort of flag that proclaims HERE IS A DELIVERY! to all passersby. The worst recent offense, and after I complained they "opened a ticket" about it: some fedex guy in a hurry left a cardboard box containing about $1000 of wallpaper on the ground in no plastic bag, even though there was rain forecast that day. Luckily (for them) I got home before the rain.

UPS always delivers packages to our door, bless them! The Post Office never leaves anything, as the carrier refuses to use our gate code and that is apparently her right. She is an extremely lazy person. Our driveway past the gate is a half mile long, and it would take her an extra six or seven minutes to make that trip, so she brings the package in her truck and leaves a could-not-deliver slip. When we get the slips we can't pick up the package until the next day, so I asked the PO manager if our carrier could just leave the packages at the PO and put the slip in our mailbox, allowing us to pick it up that same day. Interestingly, the carrier gets paid EXTRA to carry those packages to our house in an "attempt to deliver" which she knows will not be possible. So we get them a day late so she can collect for doing a job she knows she won't actually have to do. When I had a meeting with the carrier and our PO manager, the carrier said that she took the pkgs "in case the gate is open." When we had the gate constructed we notified them it would be closed 24/7 and would never be open, so that explanation didn't make sense to me until I learned that she was paid for delivery of those packages and it was just free money.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I thought you should have the good, the bad and the ugly :-). We would not change anything though; the gate has been very helpful for a number,of different reasons amd we are very glad we put it up.

Well with the livestock fencing and living in the semi-country, I was presuming she wanted to keep animals in, not keep people out. Or as our neighbors with the cow catcher did, they want to keep the deer out. In my experience, if people with nefarious intent want to come in, they'll get in. All the gate will do is keep out the people (and packages) you don't want to keep out.

Annie, in our case there is no way for anyone to drive in without going through the gate. If someone went in on foot it would be a mile round trip to the house and back, and if burglary was the intent it would be a huge "opportunity cost" for a criminal.....imagine how tired s/he would be after just a few trips carrying stuff :-)

IME there is no way to keep deer out unless your fence is six or seven feet. They jump over our five foot fence as if it were a low footstool!

kswl, Yes, that's what we do around here...at least 6' fencing to keep the deer out.

You must have one heck of a driveway then...

When we were trying for our building permits, one wetlands guy wanted us to build the house up in the back which would've give us a very long driveway...ugh. We figured we'd need a retriever and train him to get the newspaper in the a.m. (and hope he wouldn't retrieve all the neighbors' papers too!) Neighbor behind us lives on a 2200' long private drive and he uses his back hoe to remove the snow...better him than us!

Our local paper publishes things after everybody knows them already, lol. Basically its function is to confirm rumors and flesh them out with a little detail. We used to get home delivery of the NYT and I collected it in the golf cart. Now it comes by mail absurdly after the fact, but DH likes holding it and the rest of us read the digital version. No snow to plough down here, and the distance gives us privacy at the back end of 12 acres. We put up the gate when we were burgled twice and the last time the electricity was pulled out of the alarm wiring in the basement. We have had so much work done here over the years that many people, their workers and the workers' helpers have traipsed in and out and we just wanted to limit the access in the most effective way possible.

I had a gated driveway in my last house. Smaller items would go in a plastic bag tied to the gate, for midsized lighter stuff they lifted it over the fence near the gate column and left it on the ground. Large items were left in front of the driveway columns. I had one fedx guy that I introduced to our Rottweiler and gave a command that he was a friend, when he was on my route he just flipped the inside latch and came in property with the package. Usually though the driver would honk a few times until I came out. All front fencing was Echelon plus aluminum power coated black. The two 6’h double gates were another brand and not power-coated aluminum but painted black. Those were horrible maintenance with pealing black paint. Even the newer Benjamin Moore paint primer all in one for metal was subpar. I do like plain ole black though.

We've been here almost 8yrs and only 1 FedEx package has disappeared. Said it was delivered, but nowhere to be found. Not even the neighbors house. FedEx used to call me from the gate, and I'm usually home. But they've stopped calling and just leave, which is fine.

Our mail lady gets paid extra for houses with gates - they have to get out or up from seat to open. She couldn't be nicer and has my cell number. Often sends a text before getting to our house to see if we are home.

I don't know where "cold weather is evil" gets the idea OP lives in a high crime area. We don't, but want to keep looky loos out - you'd be surprised at the number of people that think a long driveway where you can't see the house from the street is open for anyone to drive up and take a look! We also want to let our dogs have the run of our 5acres and not worry about them getting in the street or running after something.

Around here, people need to build fences eight feet tall to stop deer. Yesterday, I watched a juvenile moose casually hop over a six foot fence. Of course, deer can easily scale that, too.

OP: Stick with black. That will disappear to the eye relatively well, particularly from a distance.

We have field/livestock fencing, but we do not have livestock. It's just common here and economical to be able to fence a large area. There are many reasons we have considered adding a gate. Adding it to deter crime doesn't mean one lives in a high crime area, necessarily. It just means your head isn't in the sand about crimes that can and do happen across rural America. It is true that if a perpetrator wants in badly enough, they'll get in. However, if you have a fence and a gate, but your neighbor doesn't, why would they pick your house for a smash and grab crime? It's just a deterrent. Not perfect, but it helps.

Another reason.... to keep out solicitors. The Kirby salesman? The weekly visit from missionaries? The sketchy magazine salesman without a permit who looks over your shoulder into the house? Whomever. Those types of visitors might not bother everyone, but for a shift worker (DH,) the doorbell ringing in the middle of the day can be rough.

Around here, people need to build fences eight feet tall to stop deer. Yesterday, I watched a juvenile moose casually hop over a six foot fence. Of course, deer can easily scale that, too. Our fence does deter most dogs, though, and a gate would add to that. (I am probably in the minority here where there are lots of nosy dogs that roam around.)

I could list more reasons we considered one, but we ultimately decided against the gate because of package deliveries. I get packages very often for work, and I didn't want those packages easily accessible to people driving by.

Cold_weather....wow. That was pretty snarky. No, I don't live in a high crime area, and no, there's no people we're trying to keep out. Never assume that the guy delivering your package is "good" BTW.

We live in the country, where we have on more than one occasion had stray livestock in the yard. A number of my neighbors allow their dogs to roam. Aside from being annoying, they can be destructive. We have two new puppies that need the run of the yard. Coyotes are frequent. People like to use the front of our drive to try and turn around because ours is paved and none of the neighbors are, but they miss the pavement edge and end up in the ditch. We'd like to have a chicken coop, and maybe a cow. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

We are currently debating the gate across the driveway, but we'll probably do it, as there are utility lines and the siting of the house that could make another placement unreasonable or awkward.

Thanks for all of the stories and suggestions. It's still a lot to consider. I'll try and talk to some of the neighbors, but of course, they've got a gate at their driveway, too. :)

I'm so not a country girl! Cow catchers are the grating on the front of trains. That I know of. What kind of fencing is a cow catcher?

Where I live it's very common for homes on acres to fence and gate their property, and it's not because of crime. I don't think there is anywhere in the county (not in city limits) that has a high crime rate. But crime can happen anywhere.

This post was edited by marti8a on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 18:34

rob: it's this metal grate in a road:

Actually, what is shown in the photo is a cattle guard; like rob said a cow catcher is on a train. Enough folks switch the terms that most are able to get the intention.

When we lived in a rural area where range cattle roamed, cattle guards were common on the access roads. Occasionally you would get a talented cow that could navigate the flat-topped type--dry. There was one that would still give it a go during rainy weather--she had to be rescued frequently because she would slip and get stuck.

In later years, on some paved roads, they would paint fake lines on the road to try to make the cows think it was a cattle guard. The number of cow pies on top of the painted lines never failed to make me laugh.

Yes, my bad...cattle guard, not cow catcher...

OH! I get it now. Really, I wasn't trying to correct. I literally had no idea. Thanks for the answers.