Natural, Green Bamboo
If you’re looking for an affordable, natural-looking environmentally friendly, easy to install fence, bamboo could be your answer.
This framed, eight-foot fence by Bamboo Fencer is elegant, yet natural looking, while offering great privacy with a clean, solid look. The framing gives it an extra level of detail to engage the eye in along a vast sea of wood.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: Shovel, circular or hand saw, drill, two-inch deck screws
Cost: $18 per linear foot.
For more info: Bamboo Fencer
Bamboo: Taste of the Tropics
For this hot tub setting, the client was looking for a very inexpensive solution that was also easy to install. This unframed bamboo “Friendly” fence, by Bamboo Fencer did the trick since it can be wired to an existing chain length fence. The tall and sleek bamboo, which transformed the shabby chains, now gives a tropical look to the patio/hot tub and the six-foot height provides the privacy the homeowners desired.
Tools needed for a DIY install: Shovel, circular or hand saw, drill, two-inch deck screws. You can install supporting posts or just wire the bamboo fence to an existing chain length fence.
Cost: $10.75 per linear foot
For more info: Bamboo Fencer
White Spindle Fence
A popular New England style, the white picket fence has grown national acclaim over the years. The classic look is given a strong square picket in The Chestnut Hill Spindle by Architectural Fence Plus Inc. Composed of cypress, this fence is available in the company’s “Good Neighbor” style, which gives both homeowners a beautiful view.
Tools needed for DIY-install: post hole digger, shovel, crowbar or prybar, tamper, screws and screw gun, stringline and level, tape measure.
Cost: $150 per linear foot, including $12-$15 a foot installation.
For more info: ArchitecturalFence.com
The Scoop
Red Cedar is a popular option in fencing because it’s affordable, environmentally friendly, bug and rot-resistant and beautiful. Left natural, it will turn a lovely soft silver color. You can also add paint (prime first with an alkaloid oil – never latex – primer), then add one or two coats of finish color. Or, you can stain the fence to maintain the original color (count on re-staining every two or three years).
In this picture, the Cottage Style fence by Sound Cedar Company was given a scoop top finish by the homeowner. However, since this is such a popular design — especially with gardeners — the company has DIY directions to walk you through the scalloping process, which can be done with a saber saw.
Sound Cedar, a member of the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association, harvests wood on a 200-year cycle with less than ½ of 1 percent allowed to be harvested annually.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: post hole digger, stakes, two-by-fours for bracing posts, saber saw to create scoop, crushed rock or concrete
Cost: $8.82 per linear foot
For more info: SoundCedar.com
Learn more about Western Red Cedar
Labor-Saving Lattice Fence
This Estate Style Lattice fence by Sound Cedar Company features a heavy-duty grid made with a ¾-inch 1×2 lattice. This resilent lattice is especially helpful in areas with strong winds and storms which typically punishes a thinner 1/4-inch design, explains company owner Mike Woods.
The six-foot tall fence, all western red cedar, is a labor-saver because it comes in pre-made eight-foot wide panels. It features a good neighbor design with the same look on both sides – so maybe you can get your neighbor to share the cost.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: post hole digger, string, screw gun and 2 ½-inch timerberlock screws
Cost: $9.87 per linear foot
For more info: SoundCedar.com
Learn more about Western Red Cedar
Traditional Farm Fence
The traditional farm fence, three-rail post and rail design, has long been used for horse pastures. Because it’s comparatively inexpensive, has no-to-low maintenance in vinyl, and easy to install, this fence has been gaining in popularity for use at the entrances to high-end neighborhoods as well as for private homes, says Chad Hoover, owner of Hoover Fence Company. The three-rail design works well with automated gates. Vinyl, once available only in white, now comes in darker colors as well and with surfaces resembling wood grain.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: posthole diggers, shovel, small power augur (often rentable), wheelbarrow, saw with a reverse blade for cutting vinyl
Cost: $7.32 per linear foot
For more info: HooverFence.com
Aluminum Fence for Pools
If looking to showcase your pool — and protect kids from it — an aluminum fence allows you to highlight your splash-zone as well as the surrounding landscaping. This black aluminum fence by Fence Center nicely blends into yards but is also appealing in a water setting because it doesn’t rust.
Tools needed for a DIY install: Post-hole diggers or rented gas-powered digger, tamping/digging bar, shovel, level, hacksaw or reciprocating saw, screw gun.
Cost: : $14-$25 per linear foot depending on grade and height
For more info: FenceCenter.com
Durable and Maintenance Free
These Florida homeowners were looking for a long-lasting, maintenance free fence that could stand up to Florida’s humidity and hurricanes. With the goal of creating a backyard oasis, this six-foot Simulated Rock fence also achieved a level of privacy (it comes in a four- and eight-foot heights too) blocking 98 percent of direct sound in their small yard. Made of very durable polyethylene that comes in six designer granite colors (shown here in Brown Granite), it is reinforced with galvanized steel in the top and bottom rails as well as with every post, qualifying it for hurricane winds of 110 mph constant with gusts up to 130 mph.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: shovel and/or post hole digger, tape measure, spray paint to mark holes before digging, post level, twine and stakes, straight level, screw gun with 3/8-inch socket driver, circular saw or Sawzall
Note: Eight-foot height should be professionally installed, because of the height of posts and the need for exact spacing. Installation $15 per linear foot for eight-foot height.
Cost: from $29 a linear foot for three feet, $39 per linear foot for six feet, $59 per linear foot for eight feet
For more info: Simtekfence.com
Classic Split Rail Fence
A split rail cedar fence can define areas and even keep horses in the field. This classic design offers a choice between a two-rail or a three-rail fence. Most are built with sharp edge crushed rock placed around the post. Gravel holds the post firmly and allows for drainage.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: post-hole digger, crushed rock
Cost: two rail: $2.90-$2.98 per linear foot; three rail: $3.85-$4.10 per linear foot.
For more info: SoundCedar.com
Learn more about Western Red Cedar
White Picket Fence
Nothing says home like a white picket fence. This vinyl Cape Cod Concave fence offers the traditional New England picket appearance in low-maintenance vinyl. Popular for containing small pets and children, this version also offers a distinctive scalloped top, while the Gothic post caps shaped like arrow heads are modeled after the conventional wood style of fence.
This high-end vinyl fence offers true four-inch or five-inch square posts, pre-routed posts for attaching horizontal rails (as opposed to brackets or screws) and pickets that are attached to the rails using a socket and ratchet system as opposed to welded or glued in.
Tools needed for a DIY install: ratchet with deep weld socket, stakes, sledge hammer, masonry string, upside down marking paint, long tape measure, short tape measure, spud bar, post hole diggers, manual post hole augers, post hole auger shovels, torpedo fence post level, wheelbarrow, pointing trowel.
Cost: $23.15 per linear foot for three-foot height, $26.56 per linear foot for four-foot height, $29.57 per linear foot for five-foot height
For more info: HooverFence.com
Vinyl-Electric Combo Fence
Have a horse? In that case, two fences might be better than one. Keeping horses contained and safe as well as maintaining your gorgeous property and fence is a big challenge. Horses will chew, rub and bump a conventional fence – creating the need for constant maintenance and vigilance. This option is the Three-Rail Vinyl Electric Combo and combines your beautiful traditional farm fencing with the hidden protection of electricity. Ouch, right? “The main reasons to use electricity are to protect the fence and for the safety of the horse,” says Chuck Huseman, owner of FFC Fencing. The current adds a psychological barrier to the physical barrier of the vinyl or wood fence. Vastly improved fence chargers also make this fence work better. Although you can buy a charger for $30, the higher-end $200 chargers offer more volts at a very short duration. That gets the message to the horse better and faster, without creating the risk of a grass fire.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: post hole digger, a tape measure, a level, a saw, and a heavy hammer.
Cost: $10-$14 per linear foot with electrical wire installed; around $200 for charger
For more info: FFCfencing.com
Heavy and Strong
Though not ideal for coastal or pool settings (due to rust), wrought iron can be a beautiful strong option that will hold up in windy conditions and sustain other strong impacts such as a large dog running into it. You can choose between rackable welded steel, which can follow a slope, and rigid steel, which must be installed in a stair-step fashion on a slope.
Note: the brick dividers in this picture were designed, built and priced separately.
Tools needed for a DIY-install: post hole digger, shovel, level, hacksaw, tape measure, electric screwdriver, hammer, string line, wheelbarrow, Quickrete, ground stakes
Cost: $22 per linear foot for rigid wrought iron in six-foot height (this photo); $15 per linear foot for rigid wrought iron in a four-foot high fence, the most common height; $19 per linear foot for rackable wrought iron in four-foot height
For more info: Fence-Depot.com (this is option #RPF102)