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Fence and the permit: the line is the bid, not the stain
A wood privacy fence is $20 to $50 a linear foot installed. Vinyl is $30 to $60. Angi 2026 averages $3,277 for a typical job. The permit is $40 to $150. The survey that keeps the posts off the neighbor's lot is $200 to $1,200. Call the city before you stain anything.
A fence is a line in the dirt with posts in it. The stain color is the last conversation. The first ones are whose dirt, how tall the town will allow, and whether the HOA even lets you put wood in the front.
This is a hire guide. Digging post holes on a guessed property line is how you pay twice. Deck vs patio is the floor in the yard. Driveway asphalt vs concrete is the path to the street. Stay here until the line is named.
A pool barrier is a different code conversation, and that page is still queued. Do not treat a backyard privacy run as a pool fence.
Wood, vinyl, or chain-link
HomeGuide’s 2026 wood-fence guide puts installed wood at $20 to $50 per linear foot. A 200-foot run is $4,000 to $10,000. Materials are $10 to $30 a foot. Labor is $5 to $20. Privacy is $25 to $50 a foot at 6 feet, and $50 to $75 at 8 feet. Picket is $20 to $40. Split rail is $15 to $35.
Vinyl on their vinyl page is $30 to $60 a foot installed, or $6,000 to $12,000 for 200 feet. A 6-foot vinyl privacy run is $40 to $60 a foot, 8-foot $60 to $85. A vinyl gate is $150 to $780 installed for a common 4- to 6-foot walk-through.
Chain-link is the cheap perimeter: $10 to $40 a foot installed, or $1,500 to $6,000 for 150 feet. Four-foot front-yard mesh is $10 to $20 a foot. Six-foot backyard is $13 to $30-plus. Eight-foot is $20 to $40-plus.
HomeGuide: chain-link fence cost
Angi’s 2026 fence-installation page, from 2,968 verified projects, puts the national average at $3,277. Most jobs land $1,860 to $4,844. They price $6 to $50 per linear foot, averaging $23. Privacy on their type table is $10 to $40 a foot. Those project totals mix short runs and cheap mesh with longer privacy jobs, which is why a 200-foot cedar bid can sit above their average without anyone padding it.
Angi: fence installation cost (2026)
If one bid is $2,400 and another is $9,000, count the linear feet, the height, and whether they are pulling the old fence. HomeGuide puts old-fence removal at $10 to $20 per linear foot on wood, including disposal. Chain-link removal on their chain-link page is $3 to $5 a foot. A $2,400 number that skips demo is not cheaper. It is incomplete.
The permit is small. Skipping it is not.
HomeGuide’s building-permit table lists a fence permit at $40 to $150, often same-day. They also write that many towns skip a permit under 6 feet. That is their national summary, not your ordinance. Call zoning and ask. Applications they describe take 1 to 28 days and often want a copy of the property survey. A completion inspection is $25 to $85.
HomeGuide: building permit cost
Angi’s permit explainer (updated July 7, 2026) puts fence permits at $20 to $60, and unpermitted work at fines of $50 on the low end, up to several hundred, plus forced removal or paying the permit after the fact. They tell you to check the local zoning or building desk for height, material, and location before you start.
Angi: do you need a permit to build a fence
Front yards are usually the short side. Back and side lots are where 6-foot privacy shows up. Historic districts and HOAs add a second desk. Get the board in writing, the same way a driveway color has to clear the architectural committee. A contractor who says “we never pull those” is volunteering you for the teardown.
Who pulls the permit should be on the bid. If you pull an owner-builder permit, you own the inspections. HomeGuide notes that contractors usually include the fee. Ask which version you are buying.
Whose dirt, whose posts
HomeGuide’s land-survey page puts a fence survey at $200 to $1,200. A boundary survey for a small lot is $300 to $900. A fence company that “follows the old posts” is following whoever guessed last time.
A handshake with the neighbor is not a survey. Pins in the ground from a licensed surveyor are. If the bid says “on the line” and nobody has a plat, you are gambling a teardown plus a lawsuit against a $400 survey.
Setbacks are a town rule, not a vibe. Some places want the face of the fence on your side of the line. Some allow it on the line if both owners sign. Easements for utilities and drainage are on the survey. Posts in an easement get cut when the utility shows up.
Call 811 before anyone digs. That is the free locate for buried gas, electric, and communications, not a survey of your lot line. A crew that skips the locate is a crew that can hit a service lateral.
Gates, slope, and rock are the other change orders. Vinyl and wood both need deeper posts on a hill. HomeGuide’s wood page puts yard grading at $500 to $3,000 when the ground is not already a line you can walk. Tree removal is $400 to $1,200 for a small tree, stumps $100 to $400. Those lines belong on the bid or they show up as extras on day two.
Two envelopes, same yard
A 150-foot backyard, 6-foot privacy, one walk-through gate, old chain-link to pull.
Bid A, wood. HomeGuide privacy $25 to $50 a foot is $3,750 to $7,500 for the run. Demo at $3 to $5 a foot on chain-link is $450 to $750. Permit $40 to $150. Stain $2 to $14 a foot if they leave it off the panel price. You are in the $4,500 to $9,000 neighborhood before rock or a second gate.
Bid B, vinyl. HomeGuide 6-foot vinyl privacy $40 to $60 a foot is $6,000 to $9,000 for the same 150 feet, plus the same demo and permit. No stain line. The extra money is the material, not a greedier crew.
Angi’s $3,277 average can still be honest if Bid A is a short picket or a 4-foot chain-link replacement. It is not a 150-foot cedar wall. Ask for linear feet and height on the first line of the quote, then the extras.
If Bid A is $2,200 and Bid B is $8,400, you are probably looking at chain-link vs privacy, or a missing demo line, not a bargain.
What usually blows the fence number
Building to the hedge because the hedge has “always been the line.” Hedges grow. Surveys do not. Pay for pins first.
Six-foot privacy in the front yard because the backyard quote used that height. Front setbacks and sight triangles at the driveway are why the town cares. Ask zoning for the front-yard maximum before you buy panels.
HOA “earth tones” that are not the cedar you already stacked. Get the architectural letter before the truck shows up.
Skipping 811 because the last fence was “right there.” New posts are new holes.
A $3,277 Angi average against a 300-foot cedar privacy run. HomeGuide’s 300-foot wood band is $6,000 to $15,000. The average is a mixed bag of jobs. Your linear feet win.
One gate in the quote, two gates in the yard. Vinyl walk-throughs start around $150. Drive gates are another number. Count openings on the sketch.
Stain left off a pine fence. HomeGuide puts stain or paint at $2 to $14 a linear foot, and untreated pine at a short life if you skip it. Cedar and vinyl change that math. Name the finish on the bid.
What the driveway questions sound like
Did you call zoning, and what height do they allow in the front vs the back?
Who pulls the permit, and is the $40 to $150 fee in this number?
Where are the survey pins, and is this a new fence survey or last decade’s mortgage sketch?
Did you call 811, and which day are the marks going in?
How many linear feet, what height, which material, and is demo extra at $10 to $20 a foot?
How many gates, and are they walk-through or drive-through?
Does the HOA have the style and color in writing?
How do I decide this week?
Call zoning and the HOA before you pick a stain. Height and front-yard rules kill more jobs than lumber prices.
Price the line, not the postcard. HomeGuide wood is $20 to $50 a foot. Vinyl is $30 to $60. Chain-link is $10 to $40. Angi $3,277 is a typical mixed job, not your 200-foot privacy run.
Pay for pins if the line is fuzzy. A fence survey is $200 to $1,200. Posts on the neighbor’s lot are the expensive version.
Put permit, locate, demo, gates, and finish on the same page as the panels. A cheap per-foot number that skips those lines is not cheap.
If the same crew wants to pour a patio or a driveway on the same visit, keep the fence bid as its own linear-foot job. The deck vs patio page and the driveway page are those floors. The fence is still the line.