This is fencing, obviously. Sturdier and much “larger” holes than you want. But you could easily adapt by using smaller framing and chicken, or something wire (paint if you want).
This is very difficult because I suspect, like me, you have the burrowing kind of wildlife like possum and armadillo in your area. We also have a lot of feral cats. I have put some skirting around my deck with a line of bricks in front to put them off. I have also planted flowers around the perimeter to hide the bricks, and spray more often with products made for this purpose.
You might also like to try wood or plastic lattice fencing with fine chicken wire inside of it to keep the critters out, but I suspect they will find a way around this hurdle.
You can place Low Guage Chickenwire within Small Frames made of either wood or copper pipe all around. And if you are not well with the look of galvanized steel, you can also spray paint [or dip-paint] the whole roll of chickenwire with a quality paint [Rust-o-leum], to mostly any color you like, by gently unrolling the entire roll only slightly, to give it slack enough for the paint to get through.
The actual materials you choose should not be made on a 'beauty' basis alone.
If you have hard soil or clay beneath the deck, you are best to go with copper pipe and rustoleum paint.
There are Pros to either Resource:
1. The pros of wood frames is that
A. If you do it right, it will look like the cleanest Double Paned Security Glass you can find and that makes they appear like very Expensive Windows whether you go all out routing the 4 tracks for sliding security glass windows or not.
B. You can design the frame as Doors that lift up to secret outdoor under deck storage, or that slide left to right. Tilt down design should avoid.
C. Leftover woods can be utilized for small projects.
D. Wood neither rusts nor does it tarnish.
2. The pros of pipe frames:
A. The never rot, nor do termites eat them
B. You can make these more sturdy by pouring a Sifted Quickrete or Topping Cement inside the pipes
C. It is easier to drive the pipe into clay or hard soils that might ordinarily Break a Wooden stake.
D. Unless you need more tiny Fences alike these, you will have to be creative in what you do with the leftover pipe.
E. With a hack saw to cut the pipe, or a pipecutter, [before filling those with concrete] you go through alot fewer blades than you do with wood.
If you do not like those two options, you yet have an option.
You can create a Doublebricked border all around the deck.
This however although longlived, has cons.
3. The cons of brick:
A. Snakes and burrowing pests as Muskrats, mice, rats, possoms, chipmunks, rabbits, groundhogs, all will yet find their way beneath the deck.
B. Not all pests find their way back out, and die and then stink beneath the deck too.
This can totally destroy the taste of a good steak, or barbcued ribs if you do not wholly accomodate for that removal of these by a Segmented design that allows you to at least broom these out from beneath the deck, now and then, after they're dead.
C. Even with a segmented design, people do gain weight or lose capability as they age, so if you do like the look of placed bricks as a border, you use those only in corners and midsections, as part of a mixed resource design that integrates either wood or pipe frames.
D. Children or Grandchildren, may or may not behave worst if you take a line out of the 80s film 'the Goonies' to inform these: 'You will lock them beneath the deck with the roaches if they do not behave'
E. You need to excavate slightly to place at least 5 bricks high stacks of 20 Bricks each, reliant on Geometry you want to sustain.
F. Each Stack, will need fill with concrete to make these durable, after the mortar is dry and fixed.
G. Stacks must place at the four corners and the four midways, and this is 160 bricks minimum.
Getting that to a number of bricks you need often confuses people. It is not technically 40 bricks per side but instead 60 Bricks on each of 2 opposing sides per Each 15 inches of Height, and 2 midways which use 20 bricks per each 15 inches of height, in between. So, on a 3 sided Deck, you only are not using 160, nor 120, but really only saving 20 bricks, as by excluding that one side, you yet need 140 bricks, as 4 corners+2 midsections.
H. Bricks although not nearly as costly as most do indeed fear, are usually a fine substitute for wood, but a very poor companion for wood. At that, without either
1. a Look like security windows, or
2. trellissing inside of a Wood Frame
3. Other designs enclosed in a Wood Frame
brick and Wood seldom blend better than: Brick with Pipe, without alot more effort in Labor and Design than Brick with Pipe.
I. In addition, to those 8 cons, 'if you have plans to run wiring and outlets to that deck, the time to do that is now, before you have less room to work' much more applies to Permanent Brick than to the Impermanent Design in wood or as applies to the Semipermanent Design, in Pipe.
I am sure whatever you select will look alot better than groundhog holes and garter snake eggs, in the long term.
After you have chosen your barrier wall, consider adding an additional anti-digging fence. Use chicken wire or hardware cloth and bend length wise at 90 degrees. The foot should be a minimum of 20" and the rise should to about the same or higher depending on the barrier wall you make. (Some critters will climb the wire rise and chew through wood lattice). Place the rise against your barrier with the corner butted against the base of the barrier wall and the ground. The foot will lay on the ground and extend 20" in front of your barrier wall. Attach the rise securely to your barrier wall so that critters can't pull the whole thing away and dig past it. You can hide the foot with mulch. Now when a critter digs down at the base of the wall it will hit the wire barrier instead of easy digging dirt. Most animals aren't canny enough to dig 20" in front of a wall in order to get under it but some squirrels just might figure it out.
You need to "skirt the deck. I've used sheets of exterior plywood-painted, and I've used screen with strips of wood nailed to top and bottom rows of boards. Each was for a specific look. The open area under a deck seems to draw "wild life". You'll have to close off the open areas.
use something that will let air in but keep critter out. Secure it all around the perimeter of property and then pour a cup or glass of your favourite beverage, and enjoy a job well done!
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You need to attach a barrier. Lattice is a common material to use. You can also look into various fencing materials like chicken wire, etc.
This is fencing, obviously. Sturdier and much “larger” holes than you want. But you could easily adapt by using smaller framing and chicken, or something wire (paint if you want).
https://brwarrickengineering.com/replace-chain-link-fence-with-wood-fence/
Your frames needn’t be as substantial, but can be built exactly to your needs. Personally, I’d hinge one or two for access to under-deck storage.
Stain frames to match your deck. Frames hung with steel plate brackets. https://www.marshfasteners.com/services/brackets-angles-and-plates/
Or you can just use standard trellis panels, available anywhere, but “line” them first with mosquito screening.
This is very difficult because I suspect, like me, you have the burrowing kind of wildlife like possum and armadillo in your area. We also have a lot of feral cats. I have put some skirting around my deck with a line of bricks in front to put them off. I have also planted flowers around the perimeter to hide the bricks, and spray more often with products made for this purpose.
You might also like to try wood or plastic lattice fencing with fine chicken wire inside of it to keep the critters out, but I suspect they will find a way around this hurdle.
Hey Harold!
You can place Low Guage Chickenwire within Small Frames made of either wood or copper pipe all around. And if you are not well with the look of galvanized steel, you can also spray paint [or dip-paint] the whole roll of chickenwire with a quality paint [Rust-o-leum], to mostly any color you like, by gently unrolling the entire roll only slightly, to give it slack enough for the paint to get through.
The actual materials you choose should not be made on a 'beauty' basis alone.
If you have hard soil or clay beneath the deck, you are best to go with copper pipe and rustoleum paint.
There are Pros to either Resource:
1. The pros of wood frames is that
A. If you do it right, it will look like the cleanest Double Paned Security Glass you can find and that makes they appear like very Expensive Windows whether you go all out routing the 4 tracks for sliding security glass windows or not.
B. You can design the frame as Doors that lift up to secret outdoor under deck storage, or that slide left to right. Tilt down design should avoid.
C. Leftover woods can be utilized for small projects.
D. Wood neither rusts nor does it tarnish.
2. The pros of pipe frames:
A. The never rot, nor do termites eat them
B. You can make these more sturdy by pouring a Sifted Quickrete or Topping Cement inside the pipes
C. It is easier to drive the pipe into clay or hard soils that might ordinarily Break a Wooden stake.
D. Unless you need more tiny Fences alike these, you will have to be creative in what you do with the leftover pipe.
E. With a hack saw to cut the pipe, or a pipecutter, [before filling those with concrete] you go through alot fewer blades than you do with wood.
If you do not like those two options, you yet have an option.
You can create a Doublebricked border all around the deck.
This however although longlived, has cons.
3. The cons of brick:
A. Snakes and burrowing pests as Muskrats, mice, rats, possoms, chipmunks, rabbits, groundhogs, all will yet find their way beneath the deck.
B. Not all pests find their way back out, and die and then stink beneath the deck too.
This can totally destroy the taste of a good steak, or barbcued ribs if you do not wholly accomodate for that removal of these by a Segmented design that allows you to at least broom these out from beneath the deck, now and then, after they're dead.
C. Even with a segmented design, people do gain weight or lose capability as they age, so if you do like the look of placed bricks as a border, you use those only in corners and midsections, as part of a mixed resource design that integrates either wood or pipe frames.
D. Children or Grandchildren, may or may not behave worst if you take a line out of the 80s film 'the Goonies' to inform these: 'You will lock them beneath the deck with the roaches if they do not behave'
E. You need to excavate slightly to place at least 5 bricks high stacks of 20 Bricks each, reliant on Geometry you want to sustain.
F. Each Stack, will need fill with concrete to make these durable, after the mortar is dry and fixed.
G. Stacks must place at the four corners and the four midways, and this is 160 bricks minimum.
Getting that to a number of bricks you need often confuses people. It is not technically 40 bricks per side but instead 60 Bricks on each of 2 opposing sides per Each 15 inches of Height, and 2 midways which use 20 bricks per each 15 inches of height, in between. So, on a 3 sided Deck, you only are not using 160, nor 120, but really only saving 20 bricks, as by excluding that one side, you yet need 140 bricks, as 4 corners+2 midsections.
H. Bricks although not nearly as costly as most do indeed fear, are usually a fine substitute for wood, but a very poor companion for wood. At that, without either
1. a Look like security windows, or
2. trellissing inside of a Wood Frame
3. Other designs enclosed in a Wood Frame
brick and Wood seldom blend better than: Brick with Pipe, without alot more effort in Labor and Design than Brick with Pipe.
I. In addition, to those 8 cons, 'if you have plans to run wiring and outlets to that deck, the time to do that is now, before you have less room to work' much more applies to Permanent Brick than to the Impermanent Design in wood or as applies to the Semipermanent Design, in Pipe.
I am sure whatever you select will look alot better than groundhog holes and garter snake eggs, in the long term.
Enjoy your Project.
After you have chosen your barrier wall, consider adding an additional anti-digging fence. Use chicken wire or hardware cloth and bend length wise at 90 degrees. The foot should be a minimum of 20" and the rise should to about the same or higher depending on the barrier wall you make. (Some critters will climb the wire rise and chew through wood lattice). Place the rise against your barrier with the corner butted against the base of the barrier wall and the ground. The foot will lay on the ground and extend 20" in front of your barrier wall. Attach the rise securely to your barrier wall so that critters can't pull the whole thing away and dig past it. You can hide the foot with mulch. Now when a critter digs down at the base of the wall it will hit the wire barrier instead of easy digging dirt. Most animals aren't canny enough to dig 20" in front of a wall in order to get under it but some squirrels just might figure it out.
You need to "skirt the deck. I've used sheets of exterior plywood-painted, and I've used screen with strips of wood nailed to top and bottom rows of boards. Each was for a specific look. The open area under a deck seems to draw "wild life". You'll have to close off the open areas.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=prevent+wildfire+from+going+under+deck&qpvt=prevent+wildfire+from+going+under+deck&FORM=VDRE
https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Wildfire-safety-tips
Hello,
use something that will let air in but keep critter out. Secure it all around the perimeter of property and then pour a cup or glass of your favourite beverage, and enjoy a job well done!