Hide Ugly Outdoor Units

Here’s an easy way to hide ugly outdoor units.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Freedom Outdoor Living. All opinions are 100% mine.

We have a pool heater, pool filter, and two air conditioning units on the side of our home.  They are along the sidewalk that everyone uses to walk around our home, and there is nothing pretty about it.

Even my flowers could not make that ugly pretty.

I was excited to partner with Freedom Connections Decorative Fencing and fence everything in!  Freedom Connections™ is a flexible, decorative fencing product available exclusively at Lowe’s. It’s easy to install with materials you can find at Lowe’s (requires no hardware or glue) and can be reconfigured as your needs change. It can be installed without digging holes, which is often the toughest part of installing a fence.

The vinyl fencing is available in three heights, three decorative panel options, and a two-sided solid panel that can be mixed and matched, stacked, staggered, used in straight runs, or joined to form corners.  For my project, I used 10 3-tier posts (you always need one more post than panels to finish your design).

I also used 20 plain panels.

And finished the fence with 5 circle panels.

To begin, you take out the stake stored in the post and pound it into the ground.

I marked off the halfway point on the stake, and we drove them into the line.

The stakes are put 37 1/4″ apart.  It’s very important you get the link of stakes and straight as possible.

Once the stakes are down, you can add the posts.  Then, you simply begin sliding the panels in.

The bottom panels require removing the top.

 I used two solid panels and finished with the decorative panel.

Once the side was complete, we worked on the other side repeating the process.

And she looked great.

Until we realized our mistake.

The fence went beyond the house which meant this panel would be set back further than the other side since it had to be in front of our house.

So, I pulled down the panels we had just installed (which was really easy), and I began working on the other side first.

We had trouble with the wall being unlevel on our first attempt, so I leveled the ground before I installed the panels this time.

Steve was gone, but I was able to install everything completely on my own.

Unfortunately, we have high winds in Indiana, and there is no windbreak coming from the field behind us.  After a storm and some higher than normal winds, one of the panel’s end stakes bent.

We added a 2×2 to the end post of both sections of the three-paneled fencing.

We made sure the post was level, and my husband drove it into the ground and secured the fencing post to the 2×2 with screws.

If you need to reinforce the fencing, an easier option I just discovered is the Blue Hawk Steel rebar, available at Lowe’s in a .75″ X 36″ Size that would be long enough to support three Connections panels. The rebar is available in stores for $4.88 per stake. Lowe’s also has a Blue Hawk Steel rebar that is even stronger and it is available online.

This fencing is really easy to install (one person can do the installation), and the sides which only have two panels are very secure.  If you go longer than two panels on the three-tier fencing, you may want to secure using the suggestions I mentioned.

I love how tidy the side of the house looks with all the ugly units tucked away inside the fence.

And my boys love their new nerf gun war fort.

Love outdoor projects?  Check out how we added curb appeal to our home HERE.  

Go create something!

Are you new to my blog? Go HERE to see my home tour and HERE to shop for items I use in our home.

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