Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
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AfterBest Fence Installation When Los Angeles Homeowners Need It Most
Barrett & Sons Construction has earned a reputation across Los Angeles for fence work that actually holds up - through Santa Ana winds, hillside soil shifts, and the kind of sun that warps cheap cedar in two summers. Homeowners from Highland Park to the San Fernando Valley call us because the fence we build in year one still looks right in year ten. Tom Barrett leads every project personally, which means the person who walks your property line is the same person accountable for the finished job. If you’re comparing fence contractors in LA right now, we’ll make that decision easy.
What Makes a Fence Installation Company the Best in Los Angeles?
Most fence companies can dig a post hole. Very few can do it on a hillside lot in the Santa Monica Mountains where the Hillside Ordinance governs every inch of grading and drainage. Los Angeles is not a flat, predictable market - it’s fault lines, wildfire zones, and pre-war housing stock, and your fence has to survive all of it. Here’s what actually separates a great LA fence contractor from the rest.
- Licensing and insurance that check out. Any contractor working in Los Angeles should hold a California state contractor’s license in good standing - you can verify it yourself on the CSLB website in about thirty seconds. Equally important: verify their liability and workers’ comp coverage before anyone sets foot on your property. Barrett & Sons Construction is state-licensed and fully insured & bonded. We’re happy to show you our documentation before we quote, not after you ask twice.
- Reviews from actual Los Angeles homeowners. A fence company might have great reviews from three towns over, but LA-specific reviews tell you whether they can handle your actual situation - a 1960s stucco house in the Valley with rotted redwood posts, or a Spanish Colonial in Los Feliz that needs a front fence matching the original character. Our clients talk about fences that look period-appropriate, stay plumb on sloped lots, and outlast their neighbors’ fences by years.
- A warranty that means something in writing. “We stand behind our work” is not a warranty. A real warranty is a written guarantee covering materials and labor for a defined period, with a company that’s been around long enough to honor it. Barrett & Sons Construction provides workmanship warranties on every fence we build. If something moves, leans, or fails because of our work, we fix it.
- Pricing that’s a line item, not a guess. The best fence companies give you a written estimate with materials, labor, permits, and disposal listed separately. You should never get a one-line “total” with no explanation. Our estimates are free and itemized, and we don’t play the game where the price suddenly changes once the post holes are dug. Fixed pricing means fixed pricing.
- Familiarity with LA’s specific conditions. A fence in Tarzana faces different demands than one in Highland Park. Hillside lots need proper retaining and drainage planning. Wildfire-adjacent properties in VHFHSZ zones may need fire-resistant material choices. Soft-story apartment buildings in East LA have entirely different fencing and security requirements. We know the difference because we work these neighborhoods constantly.
Barrett & Sons Construction’s Credentials & Proof
We’re not asking you to take our word on any of this. Here’s what you can verify before you ever pick up the phone.
Licensing: We hold a current California contractor’s license for Licensed Fence Installation in Los Angeles, CA. You can look up Barrett & Sons Construction on the Contractors State License Board database anytime - we encourage it.
Insurance & bonding: Fully insured and bonded. We carry both liability coverage and workers’ compensation, which protects you if anything goes wrong on your property. If a contractor can’t produce a certificate of insurance, that’s your cue to end the conversation.
Experience: Tom Barrett has led Barrett & Sons Construction for years, working across Los Angeles’s diverse housing stock - from 1920s Craftsman bungalows in Highland Park to 1970s stucco homes in the San Fernando Valley and everything between. A fence is not a one-size-fits-all product, and after this many LA fence installations, we’ve seen nearly every condition this city can throw at us.
Reputation: We’ve built a strong local reputation across Los Angeles. Our clients refer us to neighbors, and we regularly install fences on streets where we’ve already done two or three homes. That kind of word-of-mouth doesn’t happen when posts start leaning after the first rainy season.
What Los Angeles Customers Say
A Los Angeles homeowner in Silver Lake told us the fence we built on his sloped backyard “hasn’t moved a millimeter” after two full rainy seasons - and that his previous fence, installed by another company, started leaning within eight months. He specifically mentioned that Tom walked the property line three times before quoting, flagging a drainage issue the previous contractor never mentioned.
Another client, a homeowner in Sherman Oaks with a 1960s ranch house, wrote that she’d gotten four quotes before calling us. Two contractors never pulled permits, one pushed vinyl even though the HOA required wood, and the last one quoted a number that ballooned by 30 percent “once they saw the soil.” She said Barrett & Sons Construction was the only company that gave her an itemized, fixed-price estimate and stuck to it from start to finish.
A Woodland Hills property owner told us he needed a fence fast because his property line bordered a busy footpath, and he’d had a break-in attempt. We were straightforward about timeline expectations, ordered materials the day he signed, and he said the finished fence “looks like it’s been there since the neighborhood was built” - which, given his 1950s ranch, was exactly the goal.
How We Compare to Other Fence Installation Companies in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has no shortage of fence contractors. A quick search for our Fence Installation services or any fence company in Los Angeles returns dozens of results, and on the surface they can all look the same. Here’s how to tell the difference before you sign a contract.
The bad: A contractor who gives you a price before ever visiting your property, or over the phone in two minutes flat. A contractor who won’t show you a license or insurance certificate. Someone who says “we don’t need permits for this” when your fence runs along a hillside or exceeds city height limits. A quote that’s one number with no breakdown. A crew that shows up without the person who quoted the job ever setting foot on site again. These aren’t hypothetical red flags - they’re patterns we hear about constantly from LA homeowners who hired the wrong company first and called us to fix it.
The good: A company that walks the property line before quoting, asks about your HOA rules and property boundaries, pulls permits when required, and writes a fixed-price estimate you can actually understand. That’s how Barrett & Sons Construction operates on every single job. Tom Barrett is on-site for the install, not just the sales pitch. The crew you meet is the crew you get. And the price on your estimate is the price you pay.
We’ve also taken over jobs from other contractors mid-project. It’s not a part of the business we advertise, but it happens often enough. What we typically find: posts not set to the right depth, no concrete footings, corners that were already out of square on day two. Fences are simple structures, and simple structures fail predictably when corners get cut. We don’t cut them.
Frequently Asked Questions - Best Fence Installation in Los Angeles
In most Los Angeles neighborhoods, fences under a certain height (typically 3.5 feet in front yards and 6 feet in backyards, but this varies by zone) don’t require a building permit - but fences on hillside lots, properties in special districts, and anything over height limits do. HOA rules add another layer entirely. When you call Barrett & Sons Construction, we check all of this for your specific property before we quote, and we pull permits whenever they’re required. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll walk you through what your exact situation needs.
Fence installation in Los Angeles typically runs from about $45 to $120 per linear foot for most materials, with wood on the lower end and custom steel or composite on the higher end. A typical 100-foot backyard fence in the San Fernando Valley usually lands somewhere around $6,000 to $12,000 including materials, labor, and basic site prep. Hillside work, retaining walls, old fence removal, and premium materials add to that range. We provide free itemized estimates so you know exactly what drives the cost on your specific property - call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll schedule a walkthrough.
Most straightforward fence installations take two to four days from post-hole digging to final walkthrough, with materials ordered beforehand. Hillside properties, long property lines, or fences requiring custom fabrication can extend the timeline. We’ll give you a clear schedule before we start and stick to it. If another company promises next-day completion on a 150-foot fence, check the fine print - that timeline usually means corners were cut. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll give you a realistic timeline for your specific project.
The short answer: it depends on your property. Redwood and cedar perform well with proper sealing because they resist rot and insects, and they age beautifully on older homes in Highland Park and Los Feliz. But in VHFHSZ hillside areas like Bel Air or Tarzana, fire-resistant materials become the priority. Composite and vinyl stand up to intense sun without the annual maintenance wood requires, though they can look out of place on 1920s architecture. At Barrett & Sons Construction, we match the material to your house, your neighborhood, and your fire zone requirements. Call (877) 610-1318 for a material recommendation specific to your street.
No, and that’s non-negotiable for us. We quote fixed pricing with line items. The only time a price changes is if you ask us to expand the scope, and even then we’ll provide a written change order before any additional work begins. The “post-hole surprise” - where a contractor discovers “unforeseen soil conditions” and doubles the price after the fence is halfway up - is a well-known LA contractor tactic. We’ve fixed enough of those jobs to know how it works, and we won’t do it. Ask any other company you’re considering whether their price is fixed in writing. If they hesitate, that’s your answer. Then call us at (877) 610-1318.
Get the Best Fence Installation Service in Los Angeles - Free Estimate
You’re comparing fence contractors because you want the best, not the cheapest. Barrett & Sons Construction gives you licensed, insured, warrantied fence work with a fixed written price and Tom Barrett on-site. There’s no pressure and no obligation. Call (877) 610-1318 to schedule your free estimate - we’ll walk your property line, answer every question, and give you a number you can hold us to.
Written by Tom Barrett, Owner at Barrett & Sons Construction, serving Los Angeles since the company’s founding.
What Our Customers Say
"Tom Barrett was on our job most days himself, not just at the quote and then never again. When something needed deciding there was an actual person to decide it with."
- Rosalie Pemberton"Came back a year later to sort a door that had dropped as the frame settled. No charge and no argument about whether it was covered."
- Thaddeus Oyelowo"Addition over the garage matched the original roofline and brickwork so closely that visitors do not realise it was added. He tracked down the closest brick he could find rather than settling."
- Gideon Stroud