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99 Posts
Brethren,
My mom lives in a small town in Central Texas that fancies itself the most very special of towns in the land. From dictating which plants shall and shall not be allowed to determining that the unsightliness of a clothesline far outweighs the energy savings of drying clothes outside, there is an ordinance to cover every aspect of life in Lakeway save for the manner in which one wipes.
Anyhow, enough of my opining the grrrrrr-ness of Lakeway. You probably know of a similar place in your neck of the woods.
The reason I'm posting is that the builder who constructed the home did exactly as the city required and built a solid masonry wall completely enclosing both compressors on 3 sides. According to ordinance, the masonry wall should completely obscure the entire compressor assembly and exceed the height of the assembly by 1 foot. I never paid particularly close attention to the situation until I was asked to check out the issue with the house not cooling down. I then took notice of the Bin-laden-like compound walls that encased the compressors. They are less than 8" from the sides of the compressors and thus would appear to be affecting the efficiency of (and one would think load on) the HVAC system. In an area where we regularly see 110+ degree temps for 4-6 hours a day, the last thing the HVAC system needs is more to work against while cooling the home.
Now the rub. I have little in the way of creativity when it comes to artistic design. I am going to knock out a couple bricks on the bottom row of the wall to help the airflow in the near term, but I need a longer term solution. One that will not only meet city ordinances, but ideally, that will not create another issue with the HVAC system and might look better than a 15' long 6' high solid masonry wall.
Does anyone with more creativity or experience in this type of ordinance have any ideas or thoughts? I've come up with a few by just browsing around and they are linked below, but I wanted to see if anyone had other ideas.
In addition to the ordinance the screen must pass HOA approval. I don't have their guidelines around, but I would imagine if they liked it we could get something approved more easily by the HOA than the city.
The actual city ordinance relating to the screen reads thus:
Joe
a) Like the design of the boards. Would need to do in wood and match the house, but overall looks ok and isn't a concrete curtain.
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b) Plain Jane, but the louvered slats would seem to allow good air flow. Also, looks pretty easy to knock out one weekend.
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c) Isn't fully masonry or wood, but not only screens, but has some pizzaz.
![]()
d) Really like this because it can be covered with an evergreen vine. Not sure that would fly though. Maybe if I put wood slats hanging behind the screen?
![]()
e) whatcha got?
My mom lives in a small town in Central Texas that fancies itself the most very special of towns in the land. From dictating which plants shall and shall not be allowed to determining that the unsightliness of a clothesline far outweighs the energy savings of drying clothes outside, there is an ordinance to cover every aspect of life in Lakeway save for the manner in which one wipes.
Anyhow, enough of my opining the grrrrrr-ness of Lakeway. You probably know of a similar place in your neck of the woods. The reason I'm posting is that the builder who constructed the home did exactly as the city required and built a solid masonry wall completely enclosing both compressors on 3 sides. According to ordinance, the masonry wall should completely obscure the entire compressor assembly and exceed the height of the assembly by 1 foot. I never paid particularly close attention to the situation until I was asked to check out the issue with the house not cooling down. I then took notice of the Bin-laden-like compound walls that encased the compressors. They are less than 8" from the sides of the compressors and thus would appear to be affecting the efficiency of (and one would think load on) the HVAC system. In an area where we regularly see 110+ degree temps for 4-6 hours a day, the last thing the HVAC system needs is more to work against while cooling the home.
Now the rub. I have little in the way of creativity when it comes to artistic design. I am going to knock out a couple bricks on the bottom row of the wall to help the airflow in the near term, but I need a longer term solution. One that will not only meet city ordinances, but ideally, that will not create another issue with the HVAC system and might look better than a 15' long 6' high solid masonry wall.
Does anyone with more creativity or experience in this type of ordinance have any ideas or thoughts? I've come up with a few by just browsing around and they are linked below, but I wanted to see if anyone had other ideas.
In addition to the ordinance the screen must pass HOA approval. I don't have their guidelines around, but I would imagine if they liked it we could get something approved more easily by the HOA than the city.
The actual city ordinance relating to the screen reads thus:
Thanks!
Joe
a) Like the design of the boards. Would need to do in wood and match the house, but overall looks ok and isn't a concrete curtain.
b) Plain Jane, but the louvered slats would seem to allow good air flow. Also, looks pretty easy to knock out one weekend.
c) Isn't fully masonry or wood, but not only screens, but has some pizzaz.
d) Really like this because it can be covered with an evergreen vine. Not sure that would fly though. Maybe if I put wood slats hanging behind the screen?
e) whatcha got?
