The #1 fence company in Texas
What You Are Paying For in a Wood Fence
A wood fence is five parts, and a cheap bid saves its money on the two you never see. Each part costs a crew something to get right, and that is where the twenty-year fence and the eight-year fence part company.
Same-day quotes. The estimate is free and there is nothing to sign.
- 24Years in Texas
- 20K+Fences installed yearly
- 4.9Google rating
- A+BBB rating
A fence is three things: what holds it up, what carries the load between the posts, and what you see from the street. You choose the last one. The first two decide how long the fence lasts, and they are where a cheap bid saves its money, because nobody looks at a rail.
Johnson builds the first two the same way on every job, which is how twenty thousand fences last year produced not one callback. Each part costs a crew something to get right, and each one is below.
The post is the fence, and it dies from the ground up
Every fence that leans, leans at the post. Treated southern pine carries a ground-contact rating, UC4A in the wood preservers’ standard, for exactly this job, and a decades-long federal study found correctly treated wood lasting more than sixty years in the ground against a year or two for untreated stakes in the same soil.
The treatment is only half of it. Texas clay swells through a wet spring and shrinks through a dry August, and a post set shallow leans in three summers. The crew digs to depth for the height you picked, wet sets the post in concrete and leaves it to cure. A cheap bid sets it shallow and dry, and you find out in year three.
The frame you never see, and the first thing a cheap bid lightens
Rails carry your fence between the posts. Two rails on a six-foot fence sag; three hold the line straight through a Texas summer. Treated pine makes the rail, because it sits behind the pickets and holds water, and the pickets are what you look at.
We do not build a frame lighter than the job needs to make a number look better. A bid that comes in well under the rest usually found its saving here, in the part you cannot check from the street.
Cedar or pine, at a grade named on the quote
Western red cedar heartwood rates as decay resistant on its own in the Oregon State durability checklist, and southern pine rates as moderately resistant to nonresistant, which is why pine pickets want a stain and cedar can go bare and silver. Cedar costs more on the day. Pine costs less and asks for the stain every two to three years.
The grade matters as much as the species. Pickets run #1 through #3, and the quote names yours, so the boards that turn up are the boards you paid for. Nobody buys more fence pickets than Johnson, which is why nobody in Texas sells you a wood fence for less.
Price a fence before you call
See what a fence costs before anyone quotes you.
Pick the material, the height and how many feet of fence, and the calculator shows the market range for a fence like yours in Texas. Then a salesperson measures the real one in your yard and the number comes back the same day.
The estimate is free and there is nothing to sign.
A cap rail sheds the rain, and it is where the fence reads as finished
A two-by-six cap along the top with a trim board under it covers the end grain of every picket, which is where water gets in first. It also turns a row of pickets into a line, the thing you notice from the street without knowing why.
Board-on-board and board-and-batten fences get the same cap. On a sloped lot the cap follows the ground in one unbroken line, which a panel fence cannot do.
Hardware that never bleeds rust down your new fence
Fasteners, hinges and latches match the material, so nothing streaks. A gate carries the most weight and the most use on the whole fence, so its hardware follows the leaf rather than the price, and the crew swings, squares and latches every gate before the job ends.
Posts set to depth in concrete, below the ground that moves.
Three rails on a six-foot fence, never lightened to win a quote.
Cedar or pine pickets at the grade named on the quote.
A cap rail and trim over every picket’s end grain.
Hardware that matches the wood and a gate hung to its weight.
Tear-out, haul-off and the walk-through, all in the one price.
Nobody buys more pickets
Nobody buys more fence pickets than Johnson, so nobody in Texas sells you a wood fence for less.
Master Halco named Johnson its largest volume customer in the world, and a picket costs us less than it costs a three-crew shop. That difference goes straight into your quote.
Two million feet of fence last year, and the same picket price on every foot of it.
Customers
Twenty thousand fences last year, and not one callback
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.
Rita S., The WoodlandsGoogle review, Houston North office, October 2024 Great work. We had two gates installed in the back yard and all fence posts wrapped in cedar. Turned out amazing. Great communication and pricing was fair. I’d use Johnson Services Company again.
Travis H.Google review, Houston North office, August 2025 Options were presented to work within our budget. Supervisor confirmed timeline, crew arrived promptly, confirmed work scope, worked efficiently and left the property clean.
Celeste T.Google review, Houston North office, August 2025
Common questions about what you are paying for in a wood fence
What are the parts of a wood fence called?
Posts hold it up, rails run between the posts and carry the pickets, pickets are the boards you see, a cap rail and trim finish the top, and the hardware is the fasteners, hinges and latches. A gate is its own frame hung on the posts.
How many rails does a six-foot wood fence need?
Three. Two rails sag on a six-foot fence through a Texas summer and the line goes wavy. The third rail is the cheapest part of the fence and the first thing a low bid leaves out.
Should the posts be cedar or treated pine?
Treated pine, in the ground. It carries a ground-contact rating for the job and lasts decades in soil when correctly treated. Cedar goes above the ground, where its heartwood resists rot on its own.
What does a cheap fence bid leave out?
Usually depth on the posts, a rail on the frame and the tear-out of the old fence. Each one is invisible on the day and shows up in year three. Our quote names the depth, the rails, the grade and the haul-off.
What does the warranty cover on a wood fence?
Every job carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty on our work: how the posts sit, how the frame hangs, how the gates swing and latch. Not one customer needed it across more than 20,000 jobs last year.
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Get your estimate from the largest fence company in Texas
Tell us what you need and where the fence goes, and a salesperson will come out and measure the line before anyone writes a number. You get the picket grade and the total in writing, the visit costs nothing, and there is nothing to sign.