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
Fence installation in Los Altos typically runs $3,500-$9,000 for a standard 150-180 foot lot line, with most wood privacy fences landing in the $58-$130 per linear foot range. That’s the number to anchor on before you call anyone. We’re Barrett & Sons Construction, and we’ve been setting posts and hanging gates in Los Altos long enough to know that the city’s Adobe clay, protected oaks, and aging ranch lots change the math on every job. If you want a straight answer about what your fence will cost and what the city will require, call (877) 610-1318 and ask for Tom.
Why Barrett & Sons Construction Is Los Altos’s Preferred Fence Installation Company
Tom Barrett founded this company in 1998, and his sons run the crews. That’s not marketing speak. The people who show up at your Los Altos property are the same names on the contract, and Tom is the one who answers the phone when you call to ask about a quote. We publish our name, our address, and our license number. Look us up before you sign anything. That’s the point.
Los Altos homeowners tend to ask harder questions than most. They’ve usually been burned once already, often by a big outfit that quoted one number over the phone and showed up with a change order as soon as the first post hole was dug. We operate differently. Every price change at Barrett & Sons arrives in writing before any work happens. Not after. Not verbal. On paper. That’s why so much of our fence work in the 94022 and 94024 zip codes comes from repeat clients and referrals from neighbors on the same block.
We also carry the materials that make sense for Los Altos lots. Cedar and redwood privacy fences, steel-frame gates that won’t sag in five years, and pressure-treated posts set deep enough to survive the shrink-swell cycle of the local clay. Our crews work in Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale too, but this city has its own set of rules, and we know them cold.
Our Fence Installation Services in Los Altos
Wood Fence
Wood is the most common fence material in Los Altos for a reason. A 6-foot cedar or redwood privacy fence fits the scale of a 1950s ranch home and gives you a real property line that looks like it belongs there. We build them with steel-reinforced corners, pressure-treated posts set below the clay’s active zone, and pickets screwed, not nailed, so they don’t cup and pop after two seasons. A typical 6-foot wood privacy fence in Los Altos runs $58-$130 per linear foot installed.
Fence Gates
A gate that drags or won’t latch is the first thing you notice every time you come and go. In Los Altos we regularly see gates racked out of square because the original posts were barely two feet deep in expansive clay, and the whole assembly shifted as the ground moved. We frame our gates with steel and skin them in matching cedar or redwood. A single 4-foot walk gate runs $600-$1,500 depending on hardware and finish. If the old gate is salvageable but the posts are heaved, we’ll tell you that too. We don’t replace what doesn’t need replacing.
Fence Repair
Fence repair in Los Altos usually comes down to two things: heaved posts and rotted rails. Resetting four to six heaved posts with new concrete footings typically costs $900-$2,200. The bigger issue on older lots is what’s underground. Original 1950s ranch properties often have undocumented irrigation lines or shallow electrical conduits running just inside the property edge. No as-built drawing shows them. We hand-dig near old foundation lines and post holes rather than trenching blind. It takes longer. It also means we don’t sever a line that’s been feeding your lawn since Eisenhower was president.
Aluminum Fence
Aluminum works well on Los Altos lots where you want the boundary marked but don’t need full privacy, especially around pools, side yards, and street-facing frontages. It won’t rust, it doesn’t warp, and it handles the clay movement well because the panels float in their brackets. Aluminum fence installation in Los Altos typically runs $4,000-$10,000 for a standard lot line depending on panel style and gate count.
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
We’re picky about materials because we guarantee the finished job in writing. On hardscape-adjacent and fence projects across Los Altos, we regularly install Belgard and Techo-Bloc products alongside our fencing work, and we spec pressure-treated posts rated for ground contact. When a Los Altos customer needs a match on an existing gate or rail we keep common profiles in local stock so we’re not waiting two weeks on a special order. You can look up every brand we install. We’d rather you do.
Common Fence Installation Problems We See in Los Altos Homes
- Posts set too shallow in Adobe clay. Los Altos sits on expansive clay that swells and shrinks with the rainy season. Posts set at 18-24 inches will heave within two wet-dry cycles, cracking the concrete footings and throwing gates out of square. We set posts below the active zone and use concrete collars that move less.
- Protected oaks and heritage trees on the fence line. Los Altos’s tree-preservation ordinance is unusually strict. A single unpermitted root cut or canopy disturbance can trigger a stop-work order. We check the protected-tree map before we dig, and when a line runs near a mature coast live oak, we install canopy-protection fencing and wait for city sign-off.
- Undocumented lines under the old fence line. 1950s ranch lots often have irrigation pipes and shallow electrical conduits that nobody mapped. Hand-digging near the old post-and-pier foundation is the only safe approach. A trencher through a buried line turns a $3,500 fence into a $8,000 repair.
- Gates that don’t hang straight after one season. In Los Altos we see this most often when the original posts were set in undersized concrete or no concrete at all. The fix is steel-frame gates with adjustable hinges and posts deep enough that the gate doesn’t move when the ground does.
Pricing for Fence Installation in Los Altos, CA
A full fence installation in Los Altos runs $3,500-$9,000 for a typical lot line, and here’s the line-item breakdown so you can price the work before you call:
| Line Item | Price Range |
|---|---|
| Wood Fence (per linear foot, typical 6-ft privacy) | $58-$130 |
| Fence Gate (single 4-ft walk gate, steel frame + cedar pickets) | $600-$1,500 |
| Fence Repair (resetting 4-6 heaved posts with new concrete footings) | $900-$2,200 |
What moves the price on a Los Altos fence more than anything is the tree ordinance. If your line runs within the root zone of a protected oak, expect an arborist report and canopy-protection fencing before we can dig. That’s city-required, and it adds cost but it’s not optional. We include it in the written quote so the number we give you is the number you pay. Call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate. Tom will put the scope in writing, line by line.
We Also Serve Cities Near Los Altos
Our crews work regularly in Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Stanford, and Sunnyvale. If you’re just over the border in any of those towns, we handle the same fence styles and the same tree-protection and clay-depth issues. Fence Installation is one of our core trades. And if you’re in Los Altos, you’re already in our backyard. We also coordinate from our San Francisco Bay Area office, with local crews serving Los Altos directly.
Serving Los Altos, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Los Altos 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
In most cases, no. Los Altos generally treats like-for-like fence replacement at the same height and location as exempt from a full building permit. But the city’s tree-preservation ordinance changes that if your fence line runs near a protected oak or heritage tree. That may require an arborist report and city sign-off even if the fence itself doesn’t. We check the protected-tree map on every Los Altos quote so there are no surprises. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll tell you what applies to your specific lot line.
Posts need to go below the active shrink-swell zone of the clay, typically 30-36 inches in Los Altos flatland soil, with a concrete collar that tapers at the bottom so the ground can’t grip and lift it. Eighteen to twenty-four inches is not enough. We see heaved posts from that shallow depth all the time. Call (877) 610-1318 for an exact assessment of your soil and fence line.
If the fence line runs within the root protection zone of a protected oak or heritage tree, the city requires an arborist report before you dig, canopy-protection fencing around the tree for the duration of the work, and a city inspection sign-off before any excavation in that zone. Miss it, and the city can issue a stop-work order that delays the job for weeks. We handle this on every Los Altos fence quote. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll walk you through your specific property.
Yes, and we do this regularly. The old footings may still be sitting below grade even if the posts are rotted or the fence is gone. We remove the old concrete, re-excavate the holes to the proper depth for Los Altos clay, and set new pressure-treated posts with new footings. Leaving the old footings in place saves no real time and creates a hidden obstacle for the next owner. Call (877) 610-1318 for a free quote on removal and replacement.
You’ll get a written, line-item quote that includes the fence material, post depth and spacing, gate hardware, tree-protection compliance if it applies, and the permit scope. If anything changes once we open the ground, you get a written change order before we touch it. A handyman estimate is usually a number in a text message. Ours is a document you can hold us to. Call (877) 610-1318 for a free estimate from Tom or one of his sons.
What Opening Up an Older Los Altos Home Actually Turns Up
Los Altos is dominated by single-story ranches and split-levels built between 1950 and 1975. The dirt under them is now worth more than the structure on top, and when you start digging along a fence line or near the house for a gate post, you find what sixty years of clay movement leaves behind: undersized footings, rotted posts, and the occasional undocumented line that nobody flagged on the original drawings. The single biggest reason a fence quote moves on these lots isn’t the wood or the labor. It’s what’s underground. So here’s how we handle it. We inspect first, we write allowances into the contract for the known unknowns, and if we open the ground and find something that wasn’t there on paper, you get a price in writing before we go further. Not a surprise invoice at the end.
We saw exactly this on a 1963 ranch in the Country Club neighborhood off Covington Road. The original post-and-pier foundation had shifted enough to rack three gates, and our crew was hired to replace a 180-foot cedar privacy fence. The scope included removing 14 old concrete footings that had heaved on the Adobe clay, setting new pressure-treated posts below the shrink-swell zone, and reframing two gates with steel adjustable hinges. Because the property line ran within six feet of a mature coast live oak, we installed canopy-protection fencing and waited for the city’s inspection sign-off before any excavation. Same quarter-inch tolerance we’d use on a custom-home rough-in. That’s the difference between a fence that lasts twenty years in Los Altos and one that’s leaning before the next rainy season.
Call (877) 610-1318 to schedule your free estimate. Ask for Tom. We’ll walk the line with you, check the protected-tree map, and put the number in writing before you decide anything.
Written by Tom Barrett, Owner at Barrett & Sons Construction, serving Los Altos and surrounding Bay Area communities.