California residents call on contractors to fix fences after storms. Here are tips for repairs

Days of heavy rain and strong winds knocked down countless fences across the Sacramento region. Now comes the challenge of getting them all repaired.

Lulette Infante heard a loud crash outside her Orangevale home in the early hours of Jan. 5. The boom was so close to her bedroom, she knew immediately it was her fence coming down in the severe storms that ravaged parts of the region

Saturday night, another section was toppled.

“The howling winds were reminiscent of Hurricane Sandy when it felt like my house was going to fly away with the wind back in New York,” Infante said.

Infante survived the hurricane in New York in 2012 and had just moved to Orangevale one year ago.

“It was almost like PTSD,” Infante said.

When Infante assessed the damage she found that a large stretch of her fence was down. Repairs to fix more than 186 feet of fencing will cost $12,000. She will be responsible to pay for half, and the rest will be split among three neighbors.

It’s unclear how many residents in the Sacramento area lost their fences during the storms, but contractors have been receiving dozens of calls to address repairs.

And due to that demand, many residents haven’t been able to find hired help.

Matt Grimm of Total Landscape Concepts said his company has seen a significant increase in fence repair requests in recent weeks. Some have been for small repairs; other jobs have been complete rebuilds.

And these repairs can impose significant financial burdens out of nowhere on families who otherwise didn’t budget for such damage. Grimm, who has been serving the greater Sacramento area for more than 25 years, said insurance doesn’t always cover the costs.

“Costs can vary significantly based on material type, size of the fence, style and other factors,” he said.

Some contractors estimate fence costs can run anywhere from $20 to $65 per foot depending on the quality and style.

Jill Crichton of Folsom has a pool in her backyard, and she worries about her adjacent neighbors who have young children. After the storm caused her fence to fall down, Crichton said she has been struggling to find someone to come out to her house to repair it.

“We are working rain or shine to get these new fences quoted and installed for them,” said Raymond Ortega, a licensed contractor who owns O&U Fencing.

Splitting the costs

Residents who share a fence with neighbors can split the costs.

In fact, the Good Neighbor Fence Act of 2013 states that “adjoining landowners shall share equally in the responsibility for maintaining the boundaries and monuments between them.”

Landowners have 30 days to send written notice to other affected neighbors and include an estimate of maintenance costs to address the problem.

Craig Walker of El Dorado Hills reached out to both of his neighbors after a couple of sections of their fence fell. The Blackstone neighborhood resident said his project will cost less than $1,000.

“Living where I do, the ground is rock and doesn’t drain well with a lot of moisture,” Walker said. “The posts rot away quickly.”

Ortega recommends contacting neighbors before reaching out to contractors for the project.

“Know what type of fence style they will like, and when they want to do the job before calling a company for a quote,” he said.

The repairs need to be reasonable, according to the Good Neighbor Fence Act. One neighbor can decline an over-budget repair that uses pricey wood and expensive aesthetics.

Anthony Buffum, owner and CEO of Western Crown Construction, said with such a variation in pricing, neighbors are sometimes not on the same page.

“We end up trying to do a repair for them just to be able to keep pets in until they come to an agreement,” Buffum said. “This storm caught a lot of people off guard when it comes to home maintenance.”

Advice moving forward

Repairs take time for some residents.

Neighbors often want to compare prices. Others are concerned that back-to-back storms — like the atmospheric rivers that Northern California has been experiencing — will hinder the work that needs to be done in their yards.

And many residents, who had trees crash down as well, need to clean up debris before building a new fence.

Ortega said it’s almost always best to replace a fence, rather that just trying to patch up the damage.

“If you repair a 20-year-old fence, then you’ll be repairing it every other year in different spots,” he said. “If you get a new fence, you’re good for 20 or more years.”

The deductible required by insurance companies at times can be more than the cost of the actual repair. If the repair costs around the same as the deductible, some residents worry that their annual rates will increase and do more financial damage.

Finally, Ortega recommends to never plant trees near a fence line to ensure a fence lasts longer.

“The trees push the fence once they grow bigger and break it quicker,” he said.

This story was originally published January 12, 2023 at 2:36 PM.