Fencing · Service

Fence installation, starting from the property line

The material is the easy decision. Where the fence goes, who approved it and who owns it afterwards are the ones that cost money to get wrong. We match you with vetted local fence companies and tell you what to settle before anyone digs.

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In short

What is fence installation?

Fence installation is the setting of posts into the ground along a defined line, and the hanging of panels, rails or mesh between them. The physical work is straightforward and the crew is usually on site for one to three days. What makes fence projects go wrong is almost never the build — it is the paperwork and the boundary. Confirm where your line is, and who has to approve the fence, before any material is ordered.

Triggers

Signs you need fence installation

You have just bought the property and there is no boundary marked at all
The existing fence leans, sags between posts, or moves when you push it — post failure, not panel failure
You need to contain a dog or a small child and a gate is currently the only barrier
A neighbour has removed a fence you were relying on, or is about to
You are overlooked from a new build, a raised deck or a road that was quieter when you moved in
You are installing a pool, a hot tub or a trampoline and a barrier has become a condition of your insurance or your permit
The current fence is a patchwork of three previous owners' repairs and no two sections match

Seeing something not on this list? Browse fencing problems by symptom →

The job

How fence installation actually works

Establish the line before anything else

Find your survey pins, or have a licensed surveyor locate them. The recorded plat and the fence you inherited are frequently not in the same place, and the old fence is not evidence of the boundary.

Watch for: A contractor who offers to "just follow the old fence line". That is the cheapest sentence in this trade and the most expensive one to accept. If the old fence was in the wrong place, you have just paid to rebuild someone else's encroachment in permanent materials — and reset the clock on any adverse-possession argument. Where there is any doubt, pay the surveyor. It is a fraction of the fence.
Approvals, in the right order

Zoning or building permit, then HOA or architectural committee, then deed restrictions if your title carries any. Some jurisdictions want a site plan showing the fence relative to the line; some want nothing at all.

Watch for: Ordering material before the HOA has approved it in writing. Committees meet on their own schedule, they routinely restrict height, style, colour and which side faces out, and custom-ordered panels are not returnable. Get the approval, in writing, with the specification attached to it.
Utility locates

A free locate request marks buried public utilities before digging. Privately owned lines — an irrigation main, a gas run to a detached garage, a pool pump feed, a low-voltage lighting circuit — are usually not covered and are your responsibility to identify.

Watch for: Locates being treated as a formality. Post holes are exactly deep enough and exactly frequent enough to find things. Walk the line and tell the crew about anything you have ever had installed.
Layout and grade

The crew strings the line, marks post positions, and decides how the fence deals with slope. Panels can step down in level sections or rack to follow the ground, and the two look completely different when finished.

Watch for: Nobody discussing slope with you. On sloping ground, stepped fencing leaves triangular gaps under each panel — fine for a boundary marker, useless for containing a small dog. Decide this on site, before it is built.
Setting the posts

Posts are the fence. Depth, backfill method and drainage at the base of the hole are set by your frost depth, your soil and the fence's wind load, and they vary enormously by region.

Watch for: A one-size answer to post depth. Frost heave, expansive clay and sandy soil all want different things, and a privacy fence catches far more wind than a picket. Ask what the depth is here and why. Also ask how the base drains — a post sitting in a concrete cup that holds water is a rot clock.
Panels, rails and hardware

Panels, boards or mesh go up between the posts, followed by caps, trim and gate hardware. Gates are hung and adjusted last, because they need the posts either side to have cured and settled.

Watch for: Gate posts treated like line posts. A gate hangs its whole weight off one post and swings against another, and the single most common fence complaint is a gate that dragged within a year. The gate posts should be heavier, deeper, or braced — ask which.
Which side faces out, and the handover

Most fences have a finished face and a structural face. Which one faces the street or the neighbour is sometimes set by ordinance, sometimes by HOA covenant, and otherwise by custom.

Watch for: Assuming. Check the rule where you are before the crew arrives, because reversing a built fence is a rebuild. Get your material and workmanship warranties in writing at handover, and note that they are usually two separate documents from two separate parties.

Money

What does fence installation cost?

Fencing is priced by the linear foot and the range is enormous — material, height, terrain and gates move it far more than labour does. Gates, corners and slope cost disproportionately more than straight run. Get quotes broken out by line footage and by gate, not as one number.

See the full fence installation cost guide — by material, size and region →

Fence planning and estimating tools → Work out linear footage, post and panel counts and gate placement before you take quotes.

Straight answer

When fence installation is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

You have not established the boundary. Building a permanent structure on a line you have assumed is the single most expensive mistake in this trade. It surfaces years later when a neighbour sells and the buyer's survey shows your posts on their land, and the remedy is removal at your cost. Settle the line first, every time.
Your HOA has not approved it in writing. A verbal yes from a board member is not an approval. Unapproved fences get violation notices, and the resolution is usually modification or removal — after you have paid for the fence.
You are fencing to solve a drainage problem. A fence does not redirect water, and a solid fence across a natural drainage path can dam it and push water toward a structure. If water is the actual complaint, that is a grading job, not a fence job.
The neighbour dispute is the real issue. Fences do not settle disputes, they document them in wood. If there is an active disagreement about the line, resolve it — with a survey, in writing — before you build, because a fence built during a dispute becomes the exhibit.
You need it for pool safety and you are treating it as a general fence. Pool barriers are life-safety work governed by specific requirements for height, gaps, gate hardware and what can be climbed. A standard boundary fence does not automatically qualify.
You are selling within a season and expect to recover the spend. A new fence helps a listing photograph and removes an objection. It is not usually a project that returns its own cost, and buyers rarely pay a premium for one.

Your options

Types of fence installation

Material guides

Wood, vinyl, aluminium, steel, chain link, composite, cedar boards, pressure-treated and concrete posts, hardware and caps — each covered on its own terms rather than as a sales ladder.

Style guides

Full privacy, semi-privacy, traditional picket, modern horizontal, ranch rail, ornamental metal, farmhouse and coastal, with what each does for sightlines and wind.

Head-to-head decisions

Wood versus vinyl, vinyl versus aluminium, composite versus wood, chain link versus privacy, privacy versus semi-privacy — resolved side by side.

Layout planning

Property-line runs, front-yard and corner-lot rules, backyard privacy layouts and where the gates should actually go.

Permits and HOA

What gets approved, by whom, and in what order — the part of a fence project that governs the calendar.

Compare fencing options side by side →

Straight answer

Can I do this myself?

Fence building is genuinely within reach for a determined homeowner, and it is also the home project most likely to end in a legal letter rather than an injury. The risk here is not the tools. It is building something permanent, in the wrong place, without permission.

Reasonable to DIY

Locating your own survey pins with a metal detector before you commit to anything
Reading your own municipality's fence ordinance and your own HOA covenant — both are usually published
Requesting the utility locate, which is free and required of you as well as of a contractor
Choosing the material, the style and which way the finished face runs
Removing an old fence yourself to take that line item out of a quote

Call a licensed pro

Anything where the boundary is uncertain — that is a surveyor, not a fence crew
Pool barriers and any fence serving a code-mandated safety function
Long runs on slope, where racking and stepping decisions compound over distance
Setting gate posts for heavy or wide gates, including double drive gates
Ground with rock, high water table or known frost heave, where post technique is regional knowledge

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for fence installation

How will you determine where the property line is?

The most important question here. "We follow the existing fence" and "we go off the plat" are different answers with different risk. If there is any ambiguity, you want a surveyor named.
Who pulls the permit, and who submits to the HOA?

It should be the contractor, and the approval should exist before material is ordered. If they want you to handle it, the delay and the liability are yours.
How deep are the posts going, and why that depth here?

You want an answer that references your frost depth, your soil and the fence's wind load — not a habit. A privacy fence and a picket do not want the same post.
How are the gate posts different from the line posts?

If the answer is "they are not", expect a sagging gate. Gate posts carry a swinging load the line posts never see.
How does the fence handle the slope on this run — stepped or racked?

This decides whether there are gaps under the fence, which decides whether it contains a dog. Settle it on site.
Which side gets the finished face, and what determines that here?

Ordinance, covenant or custom, in that order. It is not reversible once built.
What is included for removal and disposal of the old fence and the spoil?

Post holes generate soil and old fence generates a dumpster. Both should be priced rather than discovered on the last day.
What do you warrant, and what does the manufacturer warrant separately?

Two documents. The material warranty almost never covers the labour to put the material back up, which is the part you would actually be paying for.

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Local pros

Fence Installation near you

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Related work

Often done at the same time

Fence Repair

When the posts are still sound

Fence Gate Installation

The part that fails first

Fence Removal

Taking the old one out

Pool Fence Installation

Barriers with a safety function

All fencing services →

FAQ

Fence Installation — questions people ask

Still have a question? Talk to our team →

How do I know exactly where my property line is?

From a survey, not from the existing fence. Your recorded plat describes the boundary, and a licensed surveyor locates it on the ground and marks it — often by finding the original iron pins already there. An inherited fence is evidence of where a previous owner thought the line was, which is a different thing. If your neighbours are amicable, walking the marked line with them before you build costs nothing and prevents the version of this conversation that involves lawyers.

Do I need a permit to install a fence?

It depends entirely on your municipality, and the honest answer is to ask rather than assume. Many places require a permit above a certain height, or for any fence in a front yard, or for anything on a corner lot where sight-line rules apply at intersections. Some require nothing. Separately from the permit, your HOA or your deed may impose its own restrictions that are stricter than the ordinance — those are not enforced by the city and are entirely your problem to comply with.

Who owns the fence, and who has to maintain it?

That depends on where it sits and where you live, and it is worth establishing before you build rather than after. A fence wholly inside your line is generally yours to maintain. A fence built on the line is often treated as shared, and a number of states have specific statutes about cost-sharing between adjoining owners — with real variation in whether a neighbour can be required to contribute. Get any cost-sharing agreement in writing, signed, before work starts.

How tall can my fence be?

Set locally, and it commonly differs between the front yard and the back, between a side lot line and a corner, and between a residential and a commercial parcel. Your HOA may cap it lower than the ordinance does. There is no national number and anyone who gives you one has not looked yours up. Your planning or zoning department will tell you in a phone call, and it is the call to make before you choose a style.

How long does fence installation take?

The build is usually one to three days for a typical residential run, and occasionally split across two visits if posts are set in concrete and given time before panels go on. The calendar is dominated by everything either side: HOA review cycles, permit processing, utility locates, and lead times on anything custom-ordered or non-stock. Ask for a timeline that shows those gaps rather than just the crew days.

Should I replace the whole fence or just the failing section?

Look at the posts rather than the panels. Panels are replaceable and posts are the fence — if the posts are sound and a few boards have gone, that is a repair. If posts are rotting at grade or moving in the ground across the run, section repairs will keep chasing the failure down the line, and you will pay for mobilisation each time. The other constraint is matching: weathered wood and sun-faded vinyl do not match new stock, so a partial replacement is visible.