Fence Installation

Before anything else we find out where the line actually is. A fence set eighteen inches onto a neighbor's property is a legal problem that lands on you, not on us, and the cheapest moment to discover it is before the holes are dug. If you have a survey we work from it. If you do not, we will tell you when one is worth the few hundred dollars — and along a disputed line it always is.

Posts carry the entire fence. We dig 36 inches minimum for frost, set the post on a few inches of gravel so the end is not sitting in a bowl of standing water, and set it in concrete crowned above grade so water runs away from the wood. A post set in bare dirt, or in concrete poured flat to grade, rots at the ground line and takes its panel down with it.

Wood fences move. Pressure-treated pickets shrink as they dry, so a fence built board-tight in June shows gaps by October. We space according to how wet the material is when it arrives. Cedar is more dimensionally stable and holds a stain better. Vinyl and aluminum do not move and need no maintenance, but vinyl turns brittle in a hard freeze and aluminum will never give you privacy.

Gates are where a fence gets judged. A gate that drags in August was built without a diagonal brace or hung on a post that was not set deep enough. We brace every gate frame corner to corner, hang on three heavy hinges instead of two, and set gate posts deeper than line posts because they carry a swinging load rather than a static one.

Most towns around here cap a residential fence at six feet in a rear yard and four feet in a front yard, and a number of them require the finished side to face out. We read the local ordinance before we quote, so the fence you are picturing is the fence you are allowed to have.