A fence that leans, wobbles or has a gate that drags looks like it is falling apart. Most of the time it is not. Most of the time two or three posts gave up, and the rest of the fence is fine.
This guide explains how we read your photos, the simple rule we use, and when we tell you that a new fence is the better deal.
It is about the posts
A wood fence is a row of posts with boards hung between them. The boards carry nothing but their own weight. The posts carry everything, and they are the only part of the fence that sits in the ground.
The ground is where wood fails. Our soil is red clay, which holds water, and our summers are wet. A post standing in wet clay rots at the ground line. When the post goes soft, the section leans, the rails pull loose, the gate hinge post tips and the gate starts to drag. From the yard it looks like the whole fence is going. Up close, it is one post, sometimes two.
Boards do break and rot too, mostly at the bottom where they touch the ground or where a sprinkler hits them. But a broken board is a cheap, quick fix. A soft post is the thing to count.
The three in ten rule
Here is the rule of thumb we use on your photos. Count the posts in the fence. Count the ones that lean, wobble, or are soft at the ground. If the bad ones are up to about three in ten, we repair. We replace those posts, set them in new concrete, and reattach the boards that are still good.
Past about three in ten, the math changes. The other posts went into the same clay in the same year, and they are not far behind. Fixing them one or two at a time, year after year, costs more than setting a new row of posts once, and the fence never looks straight. That is when we quote both ways and tell you which one we would choose for our own yard.
It is a rule of thumb, not a law. A fence with four bad posts out of forty is still a repair. A short fence with two bad posts out of five is close to the line, and the age of the boards decides it.
What a repair fixes
- A leaning post: dug out, replaced with a ground-contact rated post, set in concrete with gravel under it so it drains. The rails and boards go back on the new post.
- Broken or rotted boards: swapped for boards of the same size and profile. The color catches up in a few months of sun.
- Loose or cracked rails: replaced, and the pickets refastened to them.
- A sagging gate: re-hung on a sound post, braced the right way, with hinges that fit the weight. See why gates sag.
- A section down after a storm: the broken posts and panels replaced, the rest left alone. See what to do after a storm.
A repair visit is $225 to $600, installed, plus tax, confirmed after the final measure. Several repairs in one visit are quoted as one job, so it costs less to fix three things at once than three times.
When a rebuild wins
A new fence makes sense when most posts are soft, when the boards are thin and splitting along the whole run, or when you want something different: taller, a new style, vinyl or aluminum instead of wood. It also makes sense when the fence was built wrong in the first place, with posts set shallow or in no concrete at all, because every repair then is a repair of the same mistake.
New fences: wood $35 to $42 per linear foot, vinyl $69 to $76 per linear foot, aluminum $66 to $80 per linear foot, installed, plus tax. Before a new fence goes in, your HOA may need to approve it, and we call 811 so the utilities are marked. Read wood vs vinyl vs aluminum if you are choosing a material.
What to send us
Two or three photos: the whole fence line from a few steps back, so we can count the posts; a close-up at the ground line of a post that leans; and the gate, if it drags. Add the rough length of the damaged part in feet. Our 1-page guide shows what to measure.
Text them to (704) 750-9173 or upload them here. You get a free written quote, and a plain answer: repair, or replace.