Fence Building in Carrollton

Off Topic
#1

Recently, with all of the storms we’ve had, I’ve had some fence damage. Since the fence is a number of years old, I’ve decided to replace it. It is a typical wood slat fence on galvanized steel posts. The posts are all in great shape, but the rest of the fence needs to be replaced.

I’ve had several vendors come out and provide me with quotes. ALL of them want to pull the posts and drill new post holes and put in new concrete and posts. One even said they use a larger post than “what you can get at Home Depot”. All of them have said it is to allow them to honor a 10 year warranty on their work. Essentially, that means I have to pay to have the old posts removed and the new ones put in.

I’m curious if anyone else has had fence work done recently? Was it your experience that the posts had to come out? One vendor told me that the soil in Carrollton moves and therefore they use a special type of concrete to resist this movement. As a result the posts must come out so that they can put there own posts down. None of my posts have moved that I’m aware of in years.

Lastly, the vendors I’ve had come out are Texas Best Fence and Texas Backyard Living as well as AGM fences. Do any of you have a fence builder you’d recommend?

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#2

The City of Carrollton requires a Fence Permit. On the form there is a required contractor ID number. All contractors must be registered with the City, there is no cost to register. Whomever you choose to build your fence, make sure they have the Fence Permit before construction begins. It prevents the fly-by-night contractors and protects you in the process.

#3

Ping Greg at Fencescape in Flower Mound. He’s my neighbor and has done fence work and poured a new front walk for us.

http://fencescapedesign.com/

#4

Wait, does that mean Carrollton doesn’t allow people to do the work themselves? Or just that if you want to use a contractor they have to be registered?

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#5

Call the City of Carrollton Permit Department yourself at (972) 466-3225. There you will get the straight answer. Please respond back with the answer for others watching this thread.

#6

Spoke with somebody, they stated that as a homeowner you would need a permit if the repairs/replacement are over 20 feet… You would not have to have a contractor nor register as a contractor, if you are doing the work yourself :slight_smile:

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#7

This is similar to what Richardson told me when I called about replacing my water heater. They said the homeowner (if they’re claiming homestead exemption) can get the permit, do the work, and they’ll come inspect the work when you’re done.

Edit: which is great, because some plumbers charge an outrageous install fee for a water heater, and mine won’t even require breaking out the torch.

#8

Most cities will allow homeowner fence REPAIR without permit, I did that in Arlington. Replaced 1/3 of the wood panels each weekend and left most of the posts alone, replaced a couple that had issues as needed.

I didn’t like the build quality of the ready built panels, so I bought sticks and put them together with screws. Much nicer, MUCH sturdier.

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#9

In Dallas, the permit process is a bit more onerous. Any “repair” over 4’ requires a permit, and the permit requires a survey/plat if adjacent to a neighbor. Yay!

#10

I wonder if that rule applied in 2002. Oops…

Oh well, NVM, that house was razed for a McMansion in 2014 so the evidence is gone!!!

#11

I would bet like any other permit thing in Dallas…if a nosy neighbor didn’t turn you in, what they don’t know won’t hurt you.

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#12

Typically, you’ll need to turn in a drawn plan with your permit application, and they will require a plat or survey lines to prove you aren’t building onto a neighbors property - which is way more common than you might think.

#13

I can tell you from experience that if you’re doing major fence work - anything beyond simple repairs - you’re going to need a survey in Lewisville. What a PITA that was.

#14

In a another galaxy, far far away, you would wait for a 3 day weekend when code enforcement wasn’t roaming around and magically the fence got repaired by the fence fairies.

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#15

That happens too. But fences have often been built on the wrong side of the property line, or on a neighbors property. When you start changing things around, it all to frequently provokes a nasty neighborhood battle.

#16

I just had my fence replaced by Fence Renovators in Garland. I went from a wood fence (that had been screwed together in the early 1990’s) to a 6’ black chain link. I live in an older neighborhood where there is still a lot of original chain link in place. I don’t need no stinkin’ privacy fence. I just need my dog to be contained.

But I digress… last time I did any fence permit queries in Garland, the rule was that if you were changing the fence line, a new permit was required. All outbuildings had to be three feet away from the fence line.

As it happens, my crew ended up moving the back line in a foot, because of damage done to the topsoil be the city to the easement. As in bulldozing away about eight inches of topsoil just inches away from the fence line. Grrr.

I’ve gotten no further hate mail from the city since the installation was completed, so I assume they are happy. They were more concerned about the fact that a section leaned more than 10 degrees, hence the demand for repair/replacement.

#17

The builder here was sloppy. When the neighbor on one side had their fence done, I got back 6 inches on that side of the yard. But one of my front yard sprinklers is still 6 inches into their front yard. I’m a little worried how much I’ll loose when we replace our fence.

For reference, in The Colony, you can replace up to 50%, as existing, without a permit.

But when we get to it, we will likely have a company do the full job, upgrading to 8 foot fence, and rolling driveway gate.

#18

Texas Best Fence build my fence and drive way gate several years ago and I’m still happy with their work. They’ve also done quite a few fences and other projects around me, all first class work, and their prices were on par with other reputable builders I found.

Yes they put in new poles and concrete, they put in 12 foot poles for an 8 foot fence, yup 4 feet into the ground this baby isn’t going anywhere… The poles the original fence builder were only feet into the ground, probably why I had to replace my leaning fence.

on a side note, you can build fence without a permit in Carrollton as long as you only replace 15 feet at a time.

#19

And thus the contractor protection racket that is so much permitting regulation continues.

#20

My neighbors fence is about a foot over one my property line. My former neighbor told me when he had his survey done when they bought the place.

I told him it was one more reason to be nice to me. Lol.