When part of your fence wears out or breaks, you usually don't need a new fence. San Antonio Expert Fence repairs wood, chain link and vinyl fences and gates across San Antonio and the cities around it, and keeps the parts that are still sound.
San Antonio Expert Fence starts every fence repair by looking at the ground, because in San Antonio that's where a lot of fence problems begin. Across the middle of Bexar County, fence posts stand in black clay that shrinks and cracks open when it dries out, then swells again after a good rain. Over a few seasons that movement can work a post loose and start a whole section leaning. North of the Balcones Escarpment the ground is different, often thin, stony soil over limestone, and resetting a post there is a different job than it is in clay.
The weather adds to it. Long, hot summers dry out wood boards and turn them gray. Spring storms and hail can take out a section in one afternoon, and the live oaks that shade so many fence lines here drop a limb on them now and then.
The good news is that a lot of this can be fixed with a repair: a few posts, some boards or one gate, with the rest of the fence still in good shape. We'll look over the whole fence with you and tell you what actually needs fixing.
These are common fence repairs around San Antonio. Your fence may have one of them or a couple at once, and most can be fixed without touching the sections that are still standing straight.
A leaning section is a common fence problem here, and in the middle of the county the clay is often behind it. When it's only a post or two doing the leaning, we can reset or replace those and stand the section back upright without rebuilding the fence.
Hail is part of living in San Antonio. The April 2016 storm that came across northwest San Antonio and the Northeast Side was one of the costliest hailstorms in Texas history. A storm like that can split older boards, crack vinyl panels and pull a gate off its hinges, and strong wind can push over a section whose posts were already loose. Storm damage often looks worse from the back door than it turns out to be. In many cases the posts are fine, and what needs replacing is the boards or panels that took the hit.
Boards crack, split and pull loose for all kinds of reasons: a dog that leans on the same spot every day, a stray ball, a mower, or years of San Antonio sun drying the wood out. If the posts and the rails behind the boards are still sound, replacing boards is one of the simpler wood fence repairs. We match the width, height and style of your boards so the new ones line up with the rest.
A gate that drags on the ground or won't latch anymore usually comes down to worn hinges, a frame that has sagged out of square, or a gate post that has started to lean. In clay, that post can shift with the seasons, so a gate that latched fine in the spring may start catching by late summer. In many cases we can rehang the gate, add bracing or new hinges, or reset the post, and get it swinging and latching again without replacing the gate.
Wood posts usually give out right at the ground line, where the wood stays damp after every rain. The fence can look fine from the yard while the post has gone soft where you can't see it. When that happens we take the old post out along with the concrete it was set in, and set a new one in its place. The boards and rails above can usually go right back on.
Chain link holds up well, so the repairs tend to be small: a bent top rail, a post pushed out of line, a gate that sags, or a stretch of mesh that has come loose at the bottom where a dog has worked at it. Chain link posts sit in the same clay as wood ones and can lean the same way. The parts come in standard sizes, so in most cases we can match what you have. New mesh is brighter than old at first and dulls down as it weathers.
When we look at a fence, the first thing we check is the posts. Boards, pickets and hardware are fairly simple to replace. The posts are what hold everything up, so how many of them are still solid tells us most of what we need to know.
If a few posts have moved, a storm took out a section, or the gate has started to drag, and the rest of the fence is standing straight, a repair is usually the better value. There's no reason to replace a fence that still has good posts and good boards. We'll fix what has failed and leave the rest of it alone.
The City of San Antonio draws a clear line here. On a fence 6 feet tall or less, replacing up to 25% of the fence's overall continuous length counts as a minor repair and needs no permit. Once a repair goes past that, it needs a permit, the same as a new fence does. A few storm-damaged sections usually stay under that line, while redoing one whole side of the yard often doesn't. When your repair needs a permit, we pull it, so the paperwork isn't something you have to think about. Leon Valley, Converse and other nearby cities write their own fence rules, and we check those too.
Sometimes starting fresh gives you a better result. If most of the posts have worked loose or gone soft at the ground, a repair would mean resetting nearly every one of them, and at that point a new fence usually gives you better value. The same is true if you've been wanting a taller fence or a different material anyway. If replacement really is the better choice for your fence, we'll explain why, and when a repair will do the job just as well, we'll tell you that too.
We want a repaired section to stay as straight as the fence beside it, and two things here take extra care.
A post in clay and a post in rocky ground on the north side need different handling. In clay, we set the new post solid so it has the best chance of riding out the wet and dry seasons. Where limestone sits close under the surface, setting a post takes more work, and we plan for that when we look at your fence. Either way, the new post goes in straight and in line with the rest of your fence.
Plenty of San Antonio fences run right past a live oak, and we lay out the repair to work around the trunk and roots where we can. If a limb has to come off to get a section back up, the city's oak wilt ordinance requires every cut on an oak to be painted within 30 minutes, and the city arborist advises keeping oak pruning out of late winter through early summer. We plan the timing of the repair around that whenever we can.
If your home is in King William, Monte Vista or one of San Antonio's other historic districts, a fence repair needs the approval of the city's Office of Historic Preservation, called a Certificate of Appropriateness. That includes fences in side and back yards that can't be seen from the street, and it applies even when the repair is small enough to need no building permit. Smaller projects can usually be approved by the office's staff.
The city's fence guide for these districts favors painted wood pickets, black wrought iron and garden-loop fences out front, and wood privacy fences no taller than 6 feet in the back, set back from the front of the house. When we repair a fence in a historic district, we prepare what the review asks for and build the repair to what the office approves.
In an HOA neighborhood, your association may have its own rules about the type and look of your fence. If it wants to see the plans before a repair goes ahead, we can put together a drawing and a materials list for it to review.
Fence repair is usually priced by the job, by the post or by the gate. These are typical Texas prices for each, with labor included, and the number of posts that need resetting or replacing usually has the most to do with where your repair lands.
| Item | Typical price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Fence repair, typical job | $190–$870 | per job |
| Fence post replacement | $150–$390 | per post |
| Gate repair or rehang | $97–$390 | per gate |
Your own price comes once we've seen your fence: how many posts are involved, how much board or mesh needs replacing, and whether the gate is part of the job. Try the cost calculator.
Send the form with a line or two about it, whether it's a leaning section, a broken gate or storm damage, and we'll call you back to set a time to come out.
We check the posts on either side of the damage as well as the damaged section itself, along with the boards, rails and gates.
We tell you what we found, what needs fixing and what doesn't, and give you a price, and nothing starts until you've said yes to it.
If your repair needs a permit, we pull it, and in a historic district we prepare what the city's review asks for.
New or reset posts go in first, then the boards, pickets or mesh go back on, and the gate is hung and adjusted to match.
We haul off the old posts and boards, clean up the yard, and go over the finished repair with you.
Usually not. In the City of San Antonio, replacing up to 25% of a fence's overall continuous length counts as a minor repair and needs no permit, as long as the fence is 6 feet tall or less. If the work goes past that, it needs a permit just like a new fence, and we pull it for you. On a fence taller than 6 feet, the city's no-permit allowance for small repairs doesn't apply, so we check with the city before the work starts. If your home is in one of the city's historic districts, a repair also needs the historic office's approval, even when no permit is needed, and we prepare what that review asks for. Nearby cities set their own fence rules, and we check those for you as well.
Texas doesn't have a state law that settles it. According to the Texas State Law Library, a neighbor generally has no legal obligation to help pay for or maintain a fence the other neighbor built, unless the two of them agreed to share it. That's general information, not legal advice. When it comes to the repair itself, if you and your neighbor decide to split the cost, we're happy to go over the work with both of you.
Usually, yes. We match the height, board width and style of your fence, and wood pickets, chain link and its fittings mostly come in standard sizes, so the new pieces line up with the old. Color is the part that takes time. New wood starts out paler than boards that have weathered through a few San Antonio summers, and it grays toward them as it ages. If you'd like them to look alike sooner, staining the fence once the new wood is ready for stain brings the old and new boards much closer together.
Yes. We repair wood, chain link and vinyl fences, whoever put them up. The first thing we do is look at how your fence was built, how the posts were set, what the boards are and how the gate is hung, so the repair goes back the same way and holds up alongside the rest of it.
We take fence repair jobs across San Antonio and in the nearby cities below.
Leaning post, storm damage or a gate that won't close: tell us which, and we'll call you back to find a time to look at your fence.
San Antonio Expert Fence is a fence company in San Antonio, Texas, for homes, businesses and HOAs. We repair fences and build new ones, and every job starts with a free visit and a written price.
Each city around San Antonio writes its own fence rules, and we plan every fence to the ones where your home is.
