Fences & gates · Charlotte, NC
Straight lines.
Posts that
don’t lean.
Privacy, board-on-board, shadowbox, picket, ranch rail and horizontal cedar — plus gates that still swing true in year five. Every post set in concrete, every top line run to a string.
Styles
Six fences.
Pick your problem.
Fence choice is really a choice about what you want it to do — screen a hot tub, keep a labrador in, mark forty acres, or make the front of the house look right. Tap through and see which one is describing your yard.
6ft · boards flush
Privacy (stockade)
Boards butted tight on one side of the rail. Maximum screening, lowest cost per foot, and the style most Charlotte HOAs default to.
- Best for: back yards, pools, hiding equipment
- Nothing sees in, nothing sees out
- Cheapest per linear foot of the timber options
- One ‘good’ side — agree with the neighbour who gets it
6ft · overlapped
Board on board
Boards overlapped so there’s no gap even after the timber shrinks. The upgrade over stockade, and it looks the same from both sides.
- Best for: privacy you want to still look good in five years
- No gaps when the boards dry and shrink
- Identical from both sides — no neighbour argument
- Roughly 20–30% more material than stockade
6ft · alternating
Shadowbox
Boards alternate front and back of the rail. Air passes through, so it survives wind better and looks finished from both sides.
- Best for: exposed, windy lots and corner plots
- Wind passes through instead of pushing it over
- Semi-private — you get glimpses at an angle
- Very common in newer Charlotte subdivisions
3–4ft · spaced
Picket
Spaced pickets with a shaped top. Defines a boundary and keeps a dog or a toddler in without walling off the street.
- Best for: front yards, cottages, historic districts
- Keeps kids and dogs in, keeps the view
- Gothic, dog-ear, French or flat top
- Usually the style HOAs allow in front yards
3–4 rail · open
Ranch rail
Two, three or four horizontal rails on heavy posts. Marks acreage and contains livestock without visually closing anything in.
- Best for: acreage, paddocks, long boundaries
- Cheapest way to fence a big perimeter
- Add welded wire behind it for dogs
- Split rail or milled — very different looks
6ft · slatted
Horizontal / modern
Wide boards run horizontally with a consistent reveal. The contemporary look, and the one that shows up bad workmanship fastest.
- Best for: modern homes, courtyards, screens
- Posts must be dead plumb — every error is visible
- Usually cedar for stability
- Premium look, premium price per foot
How we set posts
A fence fails
at the bottom.
Nobody ever says “those boards failed”. They say the fence is leaning. Leaning is always posts — too shallow, too little concrete, or water sitting against the timber at grade.
- NC811 located and marked before a single hole is dug
- Holes one third of post length, minimum 24″, three times post width
- Gravel base in the hole so the post end can drain
- Concrete poured wet and crowned above grade to shed water
- Corner, end and gate posts oversized — they carry all the load
- Posts braced and left to cure before any rail goes on
- Top line run to a string across the whole run, not eyeballed panel by panel
- Rails screwed, not nailed. Hot-dip galvanised or stainless fixings throughout
Gates
The part that
always breaks first.
A gate is a moving structure hung off a post in the ground, opened a thousand times a year, in weather. Build it like a fence panel with hinges on it and it will sag inside two summers. We build them like doors.
How we price
Measured first,
quoted second.
Every style below is quoted per job, including posts, concrete, materials and labour. Tear-out of an old fence, steep slope, rock and difficult access are quoted separately — and quoted before we start, not discovered on day two.
Fence questions
Asked and answered.
How do you know where my property line is?
We don’t, and neither does anyone who tells you they do by eye. We build to the line you establish — from your plat, your survey, or your surveyor’s pins. If there’s any doubt, get it surveyed before we start; it’s a few hundred dollars against the cost of moving a fence.
Standard practice is to set the fence a few inches inside your line so maintenance never requires stepping onto next door’s grass.
Do you call 811 before digging?
Always, on every job, without exception. NC811 is free, it’s the law, and the marks are good for a set window. Hitting a gas line or a fibre run to save two days is not a trade we make. We schedule the locate as soon as the contract is signed.
Do I need a permit or HOA approval?
Permits for residential fences are usually not required in Mecklenburg under a certain height, but zoning rules on height, corner-lot sight triangles and how close to the street you can build absolutely do apply — and pool fencing has its own code requirements.
HOA approval, on the other hand, is required almost everywhere in the Charlotte suburbs, and it’s the thing that most often delays a fence. We’ll help prepare the submission with the style, height and material spelled out the way boards like to see it.
How deep do the posts go?
A third of the post length in the ground as the rule of thumb, minimum 24″ and below the frost line, in a hole roughly three times the post width. Concrete poured around the post, crowned at the top so water runs away from the timber rather than pooling against it. Gate posts and corner posts go deeper and get more concrete because they take all the load.
The corner-cutting version — a shallow hole, a bag of dry mix, no crown — is why so many fences lean after three winters.
What does a fence cost?
Every fence is quoted individually. What moves the number is length, height, material (pressure-treated, cedar, board-on-board, picket, ranch rail or horizontal), gate count and hardware, and the ground itself — slope, rock, tree roots, access, and whether an old fence has to come out first.
We measure the run, walk the line with you and put a fixed price on paper before any work begins.
Can you build on a slope?
Yes, two ways. Racked follows the ground in a continuous line — better on gentle grades and leaves no gaps underneath. Stepped keeps each panel level and drops in increments — cleaner on steep ground, but leaves triangular gaps at the bottom that we can infill if you have dogs. We’ll walk the line with you and show you which suits your yard.
Free estimates · Fully insured
Walk the line
with us.
Tell us roughly how many feet and which style you’re picturing. We’ll measure it properly on site and quote it to the foot.