Fence Installation & Repair Cost in Texas (2026)

Fence Installation & Repair Cost in Texas

Most Texas homeowners pay $25 to $55 per linear foot for a 6-foot cedar privacy fence installed. A standard suburban back yard of about 150 feet lands around $5,250 to $6,750 before gates, and a full perimeter on a quarter-acre lot commonly runs $8,000 to $14,000.

Pressure-treated pine drops that to $18–$35 a foot. Ornamental iron and composite push it to $65–$75. But the number that actually decides whether your fence lasts eight years or twenty is not on the picket — it is underground, and almost nobody asks about it. This guide covers the pricing, the post question, and three Texas-specific things that catch homeowners off guard: who pays, what the HOA controls, and what insurance will actually do after a windstorm.

The Short Version

• Cedar privacy fence, 6 ft, installed: $25–$55 per linear foot ($28–$45 in most of DFW)
• Pressure-treated pine: $18–$35 per foot — cheaper up front, shorter life
• Chain link: $15–$25 per foot at 4 ft, $20–$35 at 6 ft
• Gates: $150–$350 single walk gate, $400–$1,000 double drive gate
• Old fence removal and haul-off: $3–$6 per foot on top
• Steel posts instead of wood: $5–$10 more per foot, and the single best money you will spend
• In Texas your neighbor has no legal obligation to split the cost

Estimate Your Fence Cost

Fence pricing is almost purely linear — measure your run, pick a material, add gates. Use the calculator for a number specific to your yard, then read on for what separates a good quote from a cheap one.

Cost by Material

Installed price per linear foot, statewide Texas ranges, for a standard height in that material.

Material	Installed cost per linear foot	Realistic life in Texas
Pressure-treated pine, 6 ft privacy	$18–$35	8–12 years
Cedar, 6 ft privacy	$25–$55	15–20 years
Chain link, 4 ft	$15–$25	20–30 years
Chain link, 6 ft	$20–$35	20–30 years
Vinyl / PVC, 6 ft privacy	$28–$50	20–30 years
Ornamental iron or aluminum	$30–$65	25–40 years
Composite	$40–$75	25–30 years

Texas has a real cost advantage on cedar. We have access to both western red cedar and local Ashe juniper — sold here as Texas cedar — which keeps material pricing roughly 10 to 20 percent below states that ship everything from the Pacific Northwest. That is why cedar is the default privacy fence here and a premium upgrade elsewhere.

Cedar Fence Cost by Texas Metro

Cedar privacy pricing varies more by metro than most trades, mostly because of labor markets and HOA expectations.

Metro	Standard cedar privacy	Notes
DFW (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco)	$28–$45 / ft	Board-on-board $32–$50. Stone columns push it to $55–$80+
Houston	$26–$42 / ft	Humidity makes ground-contact treatment and steel posts non-negotiable
Austin	$30–$50 / ft	Highest labor cost. Horizontal cedar runs $40–$60
San Antonio	$24–$40 / ft	Typically 10–15% below DFW and Austin

Cost by Yard Size

Most homeowners are fencing a back yard, not a perimeter. Rough guides for standard cedar privacy at DFW pricing:

Project	Approximate linear feet	Installed cost
Back yard only, typical suburban lot	120–160 ft	$4,200–$7,200
Back yard, larger lot	180–220 ft	$6,300–$9,900
Full perimeter, quarter-acre lot	250–320 ft	$8,000–$14,400
Full perimeter, half-acre lot	380–450 ft	$12,000–$20,000

Add gates on top of every number above, plus $3 to $6 per foot if an old fence has to come out. A permit, where one is required, is usually only $25 to $75. A property survey, if you need one, runs $300 to $500 — and the next section explains when you do.

The Part Nobody Quotes: Posts

Wood fences in Texas almost never fail at the pickets. They fail at the posts, and they fail in one of two ways: the post rots at the ground line, or the post moves.

Rot is the humid-climate failure, worst on the Gulf Coast but real everywhere in the state. A wood post buried in concrete sits in a cup that holds water against the grain. Ten years later the pickets are fine and the fence is leaning.

Movement is the clay-soil failure, and it is the North and Central Texas version. Expansive clay swells when it rains and shrinks when it does not, and a post set too shallow gets levered up and over a few seasons at a time. It is the same soil behavior that drives foundation repair in this part of the state, working on a much smaller object.

The fix for both is the same: galvanized steel posts instead of wood, set deep in concrete. It costs $5 to $10 more per linear foot and it roughly doubles the service life of the fence. On a 150-foot run that is $750 to $1,500 to turn a ten-year fence into a twenty-year fence. Nothing else on a fence quote returns that well.

What to require in writing:

• Galvanized steel posts, not wood, especially on the windward and wettest runs
• Post depth of at least one-third the fence height — on a 6-foot fence that means 24 to 30 inches, and deeper is better in clay. Two feet is a floor, not a target
• Concrete crowned above grade and sloped away, so water sheds off the footing instead of pooling at the post
• Post spacing of 6 to 8 feet, tighter on exposed runs that catch straight-line winds
• Rot board or kickboard at the bottom, which is a cheap sacrificial part that keeps pickets out of the dirt

Your Neighbor Does Not Have to Split the Cost

This surprises almost everyone, because plenty of states do have fence-splitting statutes. Texas does not. The Texas State Law Library puts it plainly: a landowner in Texas has no legal obligation to share in the cost or future maintenance of a fence built by a neighbor on the dividing property line unless they have agreed to.

Texas fence law lives mostly in the Agriculture Code — Chapters 142 and 143, which deal with livestock and range restrictions — not in a residential cost-sharing statute. Between two suburban neighbors, there is no state rule making anyone pay half.

Practically, that means the conversation with your neighbor is a negotiation, not a claim. Have it before the crew shows up, get any cost split in writing even if it is just a text message, and be specific about which side of the fence gets the finished face. A neighbor who agrees to pay half and then does not is a small-claims matter, not something the city will help with.

Know Where the Line Is Before You Dig

Building a fence on the wrong side of the property line is the most expensive mistake on this page, because the remedy is tearing it out and doing it again. Texas allows adverse possession under Chapter 16 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, so a long-standing encroachment is not automatically something you can just correct later.

Do not assume the old fence was on the line. Fences get replaced in the same holes for decades, and the original may never have been surveyed. If you are replacing an existing fence in place, that is usually fine. If you are moving it, extending it, or you have any doubt, a $300 to $500 survey is cheap insurance against a $7,000 rebuild.

Also call 811 before anyone digs. It is free, it is required, and irrigation lines, gas service and low-voltage runs are all sitting at post-hole depth in a typical Texas yard.

The HOA Usually Has More Say Than the City

In most Texas cities, a residential fence under 8 feet either needs no permit or needs a $25 to $75 one. Some cities require a permit for any fence, so call your building department, but the municipal side is rarely the obstacle.

The HOA is. In master-planned DFW suburbs — Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney and their equivalents around Houston and Austin — the covenants routinely dictate the height, the material, the picket style, the stain color, which direction the finished side faces, and whether stone or brick columns are required. Those requirements can add 20 to 30 percent to the project.

Get the architectural guidelines in writing and submit for approval before you sign with a contractor, not after. An HOA can require you to tear out a non-conforming fence at your own expense, and a contractor’s assurance that “we build these all over the neighborhood” is not approval.

Will Insurance Pay After a Windstorm?

Sometimes, and usually for less than you expect. Fences sit under the other structures part of a Texas homeowners policy rather than the dwelling coverage, and that part is typically capped at a percentage of your dwelling limit.

Two things then cut the check down. First, fences are commonly settled at actual cash value rather than replacement cost, meaning depreciation comes off the top — a twelve-year-old cedar fence is not worth much on paper even though replacing it costs today’s prices. Replacement-cost coverage on other structures is usually an available endorsement, but you have to have bought it before the storm.

Second, your wind and hail deductible applies, and in Texas that is normally a percentage of your dwelling coverage limit rather than a percentage of the loss. On a home insured for $400,000 with a 2 percent wind/hail deductible, the first $8,000 is yours — which is more than most fence claims are worth by themselves. The same math is laid out in our roof replacement cost guide, and it is exactly why a fence claim usually only makes sense bundled with roof or siding damage from the same storm.

What is not covered anywhere: rot, termites, and posts that simply gave out. Those are maintenance, and every standard policy excludes them.

Repair or Replace?

A leaning fence is not automatically a replacement. Sort the damage first.

Worth repairing:

• A handful of cracked or missing pickets — typically $5 to $15 each installed
• One or two failed posts on an otherwise solid run; a fence company can reset or sister them
• A sagging gate, which is almost always hardware or a missing diagonal brace rather than a rebuild
• Graying and surface checking, which is cosmetic — clean and re-seal instead

Worth replacing:

• More than about a third of the posts are rotted at grade or moving
• The whole run leans consistently in one direction, which means the posts lost the fight, not the pickets
• Pine fence past roughly ten years with soft, punky posts
• You are patching it more than once a year

The rule of thumb: pickets are cheap, posts are the fence. If the posts are sound, repair. If the posts are gone, you are paying most of the labor of a new fence to keep old wood, and that is rarely worth it. Our repair or replace decision tool can walk you through the call.

What the Quote Usually Leaves Out

• Old fence removal and disposal: $3–$6 per foot, and dump fees are real
• Gates, which are priced separately from the linear-foot number every time
• Staining or sealing: $1.50–$3.00 per foot, and new cedar should weather 30 to 60 days first
• Grade changes and slopes, which require stepping or racking the panels and add labor
• Rock, a real cost in Central Texas limestone where post holes may need coring
• Tree roots and irrigation lines rerouted or repaired
• Survey, $300–$500, if the line is uncertain
• HOA-required upgrades: stone columns, specific stain, or a required cap-and-trim style

Questions to Ask a Fence Contractor

• Are the posts steel or wood, and how deep are they set?
• How is the concrete finished at grade — crowned and sloped away, or flush?
• What is the post spacing?
• Is the price per linear foot inclusive of removal and haul-off, or added?
• Which side gets the finished face, and does that match the HOA requirement?
• Is there a written labor warranty separate from any material warranty, and for how long?
• Do you carry general liability and workers’ compensation? Ask for the certificate from the agent
• Who calls 811, and when?
• What happens if you hit an irrigation line or a root that changes the layout?

Get three quotes on the same written spec — same material, same height, same post type and depth, same gate count. A $22-per-foot bid and a $38-per-foot bid are usually not the same fence, and the difference is almost always underground.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a fence installation take?

A typical 150-foot back-yard cedar fence is a one- to two-day job for a full crew, sometimes split across two visits if posts are set and allowed to cure before panels go up. Removal of the old fence adds most of a day.

How long should a cedar fence last in Texas?

Fifteen to twenty years with steel posts and periodic sealing. Eight to twelve with wood posts and no maintenance. Pressure-treated pine sits at the lower end of both. The post decision moves that number more than the picket grade does.

When should I stain a new fence?

Let new cedar weather 30 to 60 days so the mill glaze and surface moisture are gone, then seal. After that, re-seal every two to three years in Texas sun. This is the cheapest thing on this page that meaningfully extends the life of the fence.

Do I need a permit for a fence in Texas?

It depends on the city. Many Texas municipalities require a permit only above 8 feet; some require one for any fence. Fees are typically $25 to $75. Call your building department — and check the HOA, which usually has stricter rules than the city does.

Can I build the fence right on the property line?

You can, but understand what you are doing: a fence centered on the line is generally treated as jointly benefiting both properties, and your neighbor still has no obligation to pay for it. Some homeowners deliberately set the fence a few inches inside their own line to keep ownership and maintenance unambiguous.

The Bottom Line

Budget $25 to $55 per linear foot for cedar privacy fencing in Texas, or roughly $5,250 to $6,750 for a typical 150-foot back yard before gates and removal. Then spend the extra $5 to $10 per foot on steel posts. It is the highest-return line item on any fence quote in this state, because in Texas soil and Texas humidity the posts are what fail.

Before you sign: confirm the property line if there is any doubt, get HOA approval in writing, and settle the cost conversation with your neighbor knowing that Texas law does not require them to contribute a dime.