Cost and Value

What a New Fence Costs Across Texas by Material

Installed cost per linear foot for pine, cedar, vinyl, composite, chain link and ornamental iron in Texas, and the site conditions that move the number.

August 5, 2026

Every published per-foot price for Texas fencing is a range, and the range alone will not tell you what your fence costs. The material sets the range. Who buys the lumber and who has a crew free the week you want it decides where inside that range your quote lands. Here is what each material runs installed across Texas, what pushes a number off that baseline, and why two bids for the same 200 feet of cedar can differ by hundreds of dollars.

Cedar Costs More Than Pine, and Iron More Than Both

A standard 6-foot residential fence on flat, clear ground runs $18 to $30 per linear foot installed in pressure-treated pine, with cedar at $25 to $45 and ornamental steel or iron reaching $90 at the custom end. Those are modeled planning ranges for the Texas market, materials plus labor, before old-fence removal, gates, permits, or hard ground.

Fence type (6 ft residential)	Texas installed cost per linear foot	What moves it inside the range
Pressure-treated pine privacy	$18 to $30	Basic grade at the low end; taller pickets and heavier rails higher
Cedar privacy	$25 to $45	Clear, knot-free western red cedar sits at the top
Chain link	$12 to $28	4 ft at the low end; 6 ft commercial-grade at the top
Vinyl (PVC)	$30 to $60	One price up front, with no stain cycle after
Composite (wood-plastic)	$30 to $55	Board grade and color selection drive the spread
Ornamental steel or wrought iron	$45 to $90	Custom welded panels and decorative tops at the top

Those numbers are set for Texas on purpose. Nationally, wood fence installs are published at $20 to $50 per linear foot (HomeGuide, 2026), and the Texas figure sits under it. A quote inside these bands is a normal quote. A quote well under the bottom of them is telling you something about the specification, and it is usually the posts, the rail count, or the picket grade.

Texas Wood Fencing Prices Below the National Average

Houston-area wood privacy fences are commonly quoted at $16 to $42 per linear foot, with 6-foot privacy landing around $19 to $26 per foot at the low-labor end (Angi Houston and HomeBlue, 2025 to 2026). Two things hold that down. Pine and cedar supply sits close to the work, and there are a great many fence companies in every Texas metro bidding against each other.

Cheap material nearby cuts both ways. It means a Texas homeowner starts from a lower baseline than a homeowner in Denver or Boston. It also means the low bid in your inbox is rarely low because someone found a secret source of lumber. It is low because of what got left out.

Five Add-Ons That Move a Quote Off the Baseline

37% of renovating homeowners went over budget on their 2025 project, and the leading cause was product or service costs coming in higher than expected (Houzz, 2026). On a fence, those costs are predictable, and there are five of them.

Old fence removal and haul-off. Fence companies in North DFW publish removal at $3 to $6 per foot. If a quote does not name a line for it, ask whether the old fence is going in someone’s trailer or staying in your side yard.
Gates. Published North Texas rates put walk gates at $250 to $500, double gates at $500 to $950, and drive gates with automation at $1,200 to $5,000. An automatic gate is a system of gate, operator, and sensors installed to UL325 standards, and it is priced that way.
Slope. Grade costs money in stepped panels, extra posts, and labor. North Texas contractors publish slope surcharges of $4 to $8 per linear foot depending on how severe the grade is.
Soil. The Houston Black clay that runs from Dallas south to San Antonio is 60% to 80% clay with very high shrink-swell potential (USDA NRCS, 2023). It heaves posts. Fence crews in North Texas set posts 30 to 36 inches deep for that reason, and deeper holes in clay are slower holes.
Permits and height. Houston requires a permit only when a residential fence goes over 8 feet, or at any height when it is built of masonry or concrete (City of Houston, 2026). Austin is permit-exempt up to 7 feet outside floodplains and requires one above that (City of Austin, 2025). Dallas and San Antonio each set their own front-yard and maximum heights.

Add-ons are where a $22-per-foot fence becomes a $31-per-foot fence. None of that is a surprise if someone measured the job and wrote it down first.

What 100 Feet of Finished Fence Actually Comes To

A 100-foot pine privacy fence lands between $1,800 and $3,000 installed at the Texas baseline, and cedar the same length runs $2,500 to $4,500. North Texas fence companies publish comparable totals for a 100-foot run: $1,000 to $1,800 for chain link, $2,000 to $3,500 for 6-foot wood, and $3,800 to $6,000 for composite.

Then add the real yard. One walk gate, removal of the fence that is already there, and a corner or two on a graded lot can add $700 to $1,200 to that same 100 feet. The material picked half the number. The site and the scope picked the rest.

But Two Bids for the Same Fence Can Differ by Hundreds

The trades are built out of very small companies: about 599,000 specialty-trade-contractor establishments employ roughly 5.26 million workers, fewer than ten people per establishment on average (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). That average is the answer to why bids spread. A one-truck contractor buys pickets at retail-adjacent prices and schedules you around a single crew’s week. A high-volume buyer buys pickets by the truckload and schedules you around whichever of many crews is free.

IBISWorld puts U.S. fence-construction revenue at about $20.4 billion in 2026 and credits the growth to contractors passing higher material and labor costs through to customers (IBISWorld, 2026). Material cost is the pass-through, so material buying power is the discount. Last year we installed more than 2 million feet of fence across more than 20,000 projects, and we hold the 2026 Largest Volume Customer awards for the Southwest Region and the World, shown on our homepage beside the Master Halco logo. We run over 100 crews where most fence companies run one to three, which is why a crew losing a day to rain does not move your install week.

The buying power shows up on the quote. In a Google review, Rita S. wrote: “These guys are great 😊 👍 They charged almost $900.00 less than three other companies for the same metal, coating and paint for my black metal fence in Del Webb of The Woodlands…Thanks Matthew.”

Read the Quote Before You Sign It

A fence quote should name the material grade, the post spacing and footing depth, the gate count, and who removes the old fence. Anything left off the paper is a conversation you will have later, standing in the yard, with a crew waiting. Four terms carry most of the confusion:

Linear foot. The distance along the ground the fence covers. Not the number of panels, and not the perimeter of your lot unless the fence runs the whole way.
Installed cost. Materials and labor in one number. A material-only price looks 40% cheaper and is not comparable.
Footing depth. How deep the post sits in concrete. In Blackland clay this is the single line that decides whether the fence stays plumb.
Change order. A written price change after the quote. It should exist in writing before anyone builds to it.

What you weight depends on the yard you have:

If this is your situation	Weight this in the quote	Why it decides the outcome
Replacing a fence that failed in under 5 years	Post material, spacing, and footing depth	The pickets rarely fail first; the posts do
Sloped lot or heavy clay soil	Stepped panel plan and hole depth	Slope adds $4 to $8 per foot, and clay heaves shallow posts
Adding an automatic driveway gate	Operator duty class and UL325 sensors	A gate is a system of gate, operator, and monitored sensors
HOA or front-yard fence	Height and setback limits for your city	Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio each set different limits
A run over 300 feet	Material buying power and crew count	Volume pricing and crew availability compound over long runs

Working inside a number is a normal request, and it is a design conversation before it is a discount conversation. In a Google review, Celeste T. wrote: “Options were presented to work within our budget.”

So Ask Where the Lumber Comes From

Published per-foot ranges are real and worth using. Pine at $18 to $30, cedar at $25 to $45, chain link at $12 to $28, vinyl at $30 to $60, composite at $30 to $55, and iron at $45 to $90 will tell you which material fits the budget you have. They will not tell you your number, because the range is the material and the number is the company.

So when the bids come in, ask two questions past the price. Where do your materials come from, and how many crews can you put on my street next week. The answers to those explain the spread better than any cost table, and they explain why one quote holds on install day while another one moves.

Where We Sit Among Texas Fence Contractors

Most Texas homeowners collect three bids for the same fence and find they cannot compare them, because the companies behind the numbers are built to very different sizes. Each contractor here has at least a decade in its market, one from each of the four metros we work, compared on where they build, the scale behind the price, and what else they can build without a second contract.

Contractor	Where they build	Scale behind the quote	Beyond fencing
Johnson Services Company	42 cities across Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio	Over 100 crews; 2 million-plus feet installed last year	Gates and operators, decks, gazebos, masonry, landscaping, irrigation
Texas Fence	Houston and surrounding areas	Over 20 crews; 30,000-plus fences since 2003	Driveway gates and access control
Austex Fence & Deck	Austin metro and Central Texas	30-plus years; full materials showroom	Decks, pergolas, porches
Quality Fence & Welding	San Antonio and South Texas	In business since 1980; 29,000 sq ft steel fabrication shop	Custom metal fabrication, gates, masonry, decks
Kodiak Fence Company	Flower Mound and North DFW towns	Family-owned for 10-plus years	Gate repair, fence staining

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a fence installation take in Texas?

Texas fence companies publish typical installs at 2 to 5 days, with chain link at 1 to 2 days, wood at 3 to 4, and vinyl or composite at 4 to 5. Many of our residential fences are scheduled quickly and finished in as little as a day, and larger commercial runs take longer.

Is cedar worth the extra cost over pressure-treated pine?

North Texas fence companies report cedar fences lasting 15 to 25 years against 10 to 15 years for pressure-treated pine. Cedar costs roughly $7 to $15 more per linear foot installed, so on a 150-foot fence you are paying about $1,000 to $2,250 more for years you will actually get.

Does staining a wood fence save money over time?

Texas fence companies publish staining or sealing at $1.50 to $3.00 per linear foot per application, every 2 to 3 years, and report it extending fence life by 30% to 50%. On a 150-foot fence that is $225 to $450 each time, against the several thousand dollars a full replacement costs.

Do I need a property survey before a fence install?

You need one when the property line is genuinely unclear, when a neighbor disputes it, or when your HOA or city requires it with the permit. Published rates put property surveys at $300 to $600, and it is cheaper than moving a finished fence.

Does an 8-foot fence cost twice as much as a 6-foot fence?

No. North Texas fence companies publish 6-foot wood at $26 to $32 per linear foot and 8-foot at $32 to $38, so the jump is roughly 20% to 25%, driven by taller pickets, heavier rails, and longer posts. Height above 8 feet can also trigger a permit depending on the city.

Should I repair a fence or replace it?

Repair when the posts are still plumb and solid and the damage is limited to pickets, rails, or a gate. Replace when posts are leaning, rotted at grade, or shifting with the soil, because new panels bolted to failing posts fail on the same schedule the posts do.

Can I finance a fence?

Yes. We offer financing with manageable monthly payments on both residential and commercial projects, and the on-site estimate that sets the price is free.

How Johnson Services Company Prices 42 Texas Cities From Over 100 Crews

The spread between two quotes for the same fence comes down to buying power and crew capacity, and both are things we built on purpose over two decades. We measure your job, specify the materials, and load the crews before install day, which is the expensive, unglamorous way to make sure the number on your quote is the number at the end. We call back the same day, we quote 95% of real leads the same day we see the yard, work starts within about 4 days of signing, and most jobs finish in a day. Customers rate us 4.9 stars across 60 Google reviews, and we have held an A+ BBB rating since 2003.

What they name most often is the price against the other bids and the person who answered the phone. In a June 2026 Google review, Randy R. wrote: “Their price was competitive and lower than the other 2 but what sealed the deal was Matt called back the same day I initially contacted them for an appraisal.” In a June 2026 Google review, Carmen G. wrote: “The crew at Johnson Services Company provided outstanding service at a very competitive price.”

Every job carries a one-year warranty on craftsmanship; not material, just our labor and how the work holds up. Here’s the record behind that warranty: across more than 20,000 jobs last year, we had zero craftsmanship warranty callbacks. That’s a 100% record, not a promise about what happens next; it’s what already happened, job after job, crew after crew.

We build in wood, iron and aluminum, chain link, vinyl, Trex composite, fiber cement, and brick and stone, plus driveway gates with operators, decks, masonry, and landscaping, from a single backyard in Katy to an entire subdivision. One contract, one accountable partner, seven offices across Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio.

Johnson Services Company is what a per-foot range looks like when someone has actually measured your yard and priced the materials before quoting it. Get a free on-site estimate for your fence, gate, or deck, with financing available in monthly payments.

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