How to build a fence

Plan the fence before you buy posts

A fence is a straight line of posts in the ground, and nearly every expensive mistake happens before the first post: the line is on the neighbor's land, the fence is too tall for the yard, or a post lands on a buried cable. Settle four things first.

1. Where the property line is. Waverly, Iowa, makes locating the property pins the owner's responsibility^[4]. If you cannot find the pins, a survey settles it before the posts go in.
2. How tall the fence may be, yard by yard. Zoning sets it. Cleveland Heights, Ohio, allows 4 feet in the primary front yard and 6 feet in side and rear yards^[5]; Duluth, Minnesota, allows 4 feet in front (6 feet if ornamental and at least 50% open) and 8 feet in side and rear yards^[3]. Corner lots and fences next to houses have their own limits, explained on the fence permit page.
3. What is under the ground and on the plat. Duluth bars fences from drainage easements and floodways^[3]; Waverly bars any structure from a utility or drainage easement^[4].
4. Whether you need a permit. The building code exempts fences up to 7 feet from the building permit^[6], but many cities require a fence permit anyway: Duluth for any fence 4 feet or taller^[3], Waverly before construction begins^[4].

Materials that last

Pick materials the local design is written for. San Diego's prescriptive fence design calls for boards and rails of Western Cedar No. 2, Redwood No. 2 or better, and posts of Redwood No. 2 or pressure-treated Western Cedar No. 1 or better^[1]. Parkland, Florida, requires lumber of No. 2 grade or better and corrosion-resistant fasteners for wood fences^[2]. Concrete for post footings in San Diego must reach 2,500 psi at 28 days^[1].

Step by step

Call 811 and mark the line

Have buried utilities marked before any digging. Duluth requires fence builders to call Gopher One Call before they dig^[3], and Waverly asks applicants to call Iowa One Call before contacting the city^[4]. Then drive a stake at each end and corner and pull a tight string between them, a little inside the property line if your city does not allow fences right on it. Duluth, for example, allows fences along or within the property line but at least 3 feet from a street or alley right of way^[3].

Space the posts

Mark the posts along the string. Gate and corner posts first, then line posts between them. Use the spacing your local design allows: under Parkland's Florida Building Code requirements, posts of a 6-foot wood fence are 4x4s spaced no more than 4 feet on center, 5 feet for a 5-foot fence and 6 feet for a 4-foot fence^[2].

Dig the post holes to the right depth

Depth grows with the fence height. San Diego's prescriptive footing depths^[1]:

Parkland's rule for fences up to 6 feet is simpler: posts embedded 2 feet into a concrete footing 10 inches in diameter and 2 feet deep^[2]. Holes must be in undisturbed natural ground or properly compacted fill in San Diego's design^[1].

Set the posts in concrete

In San Diego's design, posts sit in 12-inch diameter concrete footings placed over 3 inches of loose gravel, and wood posts extend through the concrete onto the gravel below^[1]. Set the corner and end posts first, plumb them on two faces, brace them, then pull a string along their tops to set the line posts at the same height. Let the concrete cure before you hang anything on the posts.

Attach the rails

Fasten horizontal rails between the posts. Parkland requires 2x4 members fastened with two 16d galvanized nails at each attachment^[2]. Check each rail for level as you go; a fence that steps down a slope needs each section level on its own.

Hang the boards or panels

Attach the boards to the rails. In Parkland, boards less than 8 inches wide get two 8d galvanized nails at each connection^[2]. Decide which side faces out before you start: Cleveland Heights requires the structural parts of a residential fence to face the owner's property^[5], so the neighbor sees the finished side.

Build and hang the gate

Gates take the most load. Hang them on the strongest posts, with a latch that lines up when the post settles. If the fence encloses a pool, the gate rules are stricter: Parkland requires pool barrier gates to be self-closing, self-latching and to open outward away from the pool^[2].

Mistakes that cost a fence

• Measuring from the sidewalk. Duluth warns that the street right of way often extends into the front yard beyond the sidewalk or curb, and requires fences to stay 3 feet from it^[3].
• The wrong height in the wrong yard. A 6-foot panel is legal in a Waverly back yard and 3 feet too tall in its front yard^[4]. On a corner lot, Duluth treats both street sides as front yards^[3].
• Posts too shallow for the height. San Diego's footing depth grows from 2 feet 3 inches for a 3-foot fence to 3 feet 6 inches for a 7-foot fence^[1].
• The good side facing in. Cleveland Heights requires the posts and rails to face the owner's side^[5].
• A tall fence on a simple permit. Above 7 feet, the building code exemption ends^[6], and Duluth requires a building permit in addition to the fence permit^[3].

Before you dig: do you need a permit?

Most fence trouble is not the carpentry, it is the paperwork that should have come first: a fence over the yard's height limit, across an easement, or past the line. Fixing that can mean taking the fence down. The permit itself is usually modest: Oakdale, Minnesota, charges $47.50 for a fence up to 6 feet and $58 over 6 feet in 2025^[7], and Waverly charges nothing^[4].

What the city wants to see is a site plan with the fence line, the height in each yard, the property line, easements and right of way^{[3] [4]}. That is the part we prepare: our permit team builds the file for your address with the zoning rule and its link. The All-in offer adds our review before you file and every round of city comments until the permit is issued.

Common questions