Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
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AfterFast, Reliable Fence Installation Across Los Altos Hills
Fence installation in Los Altos Hills typically runs $3,500 to $9,000 for most residential projects, and the biggest cost driver isn’t labor or materials. It’s the town’s fire code. Los Altos Hills sits almost entirely inside California’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, which means your fence has to meet CAL FIRE ember-resistant standards that simply don’t apply over the line in Los Altos or Mountain View. We’re Barrett & Sons Construction, and we’ve been running crews on these hillside lots long enough to know exactly what the building department will ask for before we ever dig the first post hole. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll walk your property, check your slope and soil, and give you a written estimate that matches what the permit office will actually approve.
Tom Barrett started this company in 1998, and his sons run most of the crews you’ll see here. That matters in Los Altos Hills because the guys quoting your fence are the same ones who’ll be setting posts on your hillside two weeks later. No franchise, no strangers off a van.
Why Barrett & Sons Construction Is Los Altos Hills’s Preferred Fence Installation Contractor
Los Altos Hills homeowners call us because we already know what their lot will throw at us. The town enforces a one-acre minimum lot size, so we’re not squeezing a 40-foot fence line through a side yard in a tract neighborhood. We’re running 150 to 400 feet of fencing across cut-and-fill slopes, around heritage oaks, and over expansive clay that moves more in one rainy season than most soils move in a decade. Our Fence Installation team has set posts on Moody Road, Page Mill Road, and off Elena Road, and we’ve learned the same lesson on every job: the soil report matters as much as the material list.
Tom publishes his name, his address, and his license number. You can look it up before you sign anything. That’s not a marketing line, it’s how he’s done business here since 1998. When you call, a live person answers, day or night. When a question comes up mid-job, Tom’s sons are the ones on-site, not a call center in another state. Ask anyone on your street, or look up the license number yourself.
Our Fence Installation Services in Los Altos Hills
Wood Fence
Wood fences in Los Altos Hills need to do double duty: hold up on steep ground and resist ember ignition. We install fire-retardant treated redwood and cedar with post depths calculated to get below the shrink-swell zone of your particular slope. A standard 24-inch post hole that works fine in Palo Alto will heave out of the ground here after one wet winter if the clay expands. We go deeper, set in concrete with drainage, and use hardware rated for ground contact.
Aluminum Fence
For homeowners who want a clean sightline without the upkeep of wood, aluminum is the strongest play in Los Altos Hills. It’s non-combustible, which makes it an easy pass with the fire marshal, and it handles slope changes gracefully with racked panels. A typical aluminum fence installation in Los Altos Hills runs $4,000 to $10,000 depending on lineal feet and gate count. We recommend powder-coated aluminum for this climate, because the marine layer that sneaks over the coastal hills will pit cheap steel hardware fast.
Fence Gates
Gates get abused harder than any other part of a fence. On hillside properties, a 14-foot driveway gate that’s out of square by an inch will sag, bind, and eventually pull its own hinge posts out of the ground. We square gates to the actual grade, not the property line, and we set gate posts in deeper footings than the adjoining fence line. That prevents the slow lean that turns a functioning gate into a shoulder-shoving match in three years. If you’re adding an automatic opener, we’ll rough in the conduit and coordinate the electrical with the town’s requirements before the fence inspector signs off.
Chain Link Fence
Chain link isn’t the prettiest option, but it’s the right call for some Los Altos Hills properties, especially where you need to keep deer out of a garden or secure a steep drop-off without blocking the view. Galvanized frame and 9-gauge fabric hold up better in this climate than vinyl-coated, which gets brittle after years of UV and salt air. We’ll give you an honest recommendation on whether chain link fits your lot, and if it doesn’t, we’ll say so.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Los Altos Hills
We don’t install mystery materials off a van in the Bay Area. When a Los Altos Hills job calls for concrete footings or retaining coordination alongside a fence line, we use Quikrete and Oldcastle products that are stocked locally and have spec sheets the building department recognizes. For hardscape that ties into a fence project, like a paver walkway along the new fence line, we run Techo-Bloc and Cambridge Pavers, brands you can research and confirm yourself. If something fails, the warranty trail is clean and the materials are replaceable from a distributor down in San Jose, not shipped from overseas.
Common Fence Installation Problems We See in Los Altos Hills Homes
- Expansive clay heaving posts. Los Altos Hills is draped over shrink-swell clay that expands dramatically when the rain comes back after a dry stretch. Posts set at standard depth will lean or lift within one winter. We dig to below the shrink-swell zone and use concrete collars that let the soil move without taking the post with it.
- Non-compliant materials in the fire zone. The town’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone classification means your fence has to meet CAL FIRE ember-resistant standards. Standard wood pickets or a vinyl privacy system from a big-box store might get flagged during permit review, or worse, installed and then failed at inspection. We spec fire-retardant treated lumber and non-combustible options from the start.
- Lot-coverage surprises. Los Altos Hills caps impervious surfaces based on your parcel size. A new fence itself doesn’t typically count, but if you’re replacing paving or adding a motor court alongside the fence, you can accidentally push over your allowance and trigger a redesign. We audit existing hardscape before we submit anything, so the permit office doesn’t bounce the application after you’ve already started demolition.
- Steep access and equipment limits. Many Los Altos Hills driveways are narrow, winding, and steep enough that a concrete truck won’t make the turn. We’ve got smaller mix trailers and hand-carry equipment for the last stretch, but if we don’t plan for it, the fence job grinds to a halt on delivery day. That’s why we walk the site before we quote, not after.
Pricing for Fence Installation in Los Altos Hills, CA
Most residential fence installations in Los Altos Hills land between $3,500 and $9,000. The spread is driven by lineal footage, grade change, gate hardware, and which material passes the fire code on your particular lot. Aluminum runs a bit higher than vinyl on average because the material costs more, but it’s non-combustible and often the better long-term value in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Here’s where the numbers sit for the two most common options in Los Altos Hills:
| Fence Type | Typical Los Altos Hills Cost |
|---|---|
| Vinyl Fence Installation | $3,500 - $9,000 |
| Aluminum Fence Installation | $4,000 - $10,000 |
The estimate we hand you is the price you pay, unless you approve a change order in writing first. Every allowance, every scope change, every surprise we find in the ground gets priced on paper before we spend your money. That’s the way Tom’s run this company since 1998, and it’s the reason a lot of Los Altos Hills homeowners who got burned by a national outfit end up calling us.
We Also Serve Cities Near Los Altos Hills
Our crews are based in the broader Bay Area and serve Los Altos Hills along with Los Altos, Mountain View, Stanford, and Palo Alto. If you’re on the edge of town in 94022 or just across the line, call us and we’ll let you know straight up whether your project is in our wheelhouse.
Serving Los Altos Hills, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Los Altos Hills area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Fence Installation in Los Altos Hills
Yes. Los Altos Hills reviews fences through the lens of fire code, not just height. Even a fence under 6 feet can require a permit when it sits inside the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, because the town checks material ignition resistance and ember-resistant detailing as part of the approval. We pull the permit on every eligible job and we’ll tell you before we dig whether yours needs one. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll check your address against current town standards.
It depends on the product and its fire rating. Some vinyl systems meet CAL FIRE ember-resistant standards and some don’t, and the town’s building department will ask for documentation either way. We source vinyl specifically rated for wildland-urban interface zones, and if the style you want won’t pass, we’ll show you aluminum or fire-retardant wood alternatives that give you the same privacy without the permit headache. For an exact material recommendation on your lot, call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate.
We set posts below the shrink-swell zone, which on most Los Altos Hills slopes means going 30 to 40 inches deep instead of the standard 24. We also use concrete collars with drainage so the clay can expand and contract without grabbing the post and heaving it out. On the steep parcel off Moody Road where we replaced 180 feet of failing cedar, we coordinated with the town’s geotechnical requirements, set posts below the shrink-swell zone, and used fire-retardant treated redwood with ember-resistant venting at the base, which satisfied both slope-stability and fire-zone standards before the building department would sign off. Your soil report drives the depth, not a rule of thumb.
A fence alone usually doesn’t count against your impervious-surface cap, but it can trigger a review if you’re replacing hardscape or adding paving at the same time. Los Altos Hills enforces strict lot-coverage and impervious-surface limits keyed to parcel size, and homeowners who don’t audit their existing hardscape before a project often find themselves over the allowance and forced to remove or redesign existing paving. We check your coverage math against the town’s development standards before we finalize any fence design. If you’re not sure where you stand, call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll walk it with you.
You get a written change order before we touch the old footing. Rotted posts and abandoned concrete under a fence line are common here, especially on older estate builds from the 1960s and 1970s where the original fencing was never permitted. We price the removal and any new soil work as a written change order, you approve it on paper, and then we proceed. Nothing gets added to your invoice that wasn’t priced in writing first. For a fence estimate on your Los Altos Hills property, call (877) 610-1318.
Written by Tom Barrett, Owner at Barrett & Sons Construction, serving Los Altos Hills and the surrounding Bay Area hills communities.