Backyard Fence Installation in Anderson, SC

Backyard fence installation is the most common job we do, and the layout is the part people underestimate. Material gets decided in ten minutes. Where the line runs, how it meets the house, what it has to clear and how wide the gates need to be takes longer and matters more.

We enclose back yards across Anderson County and Greenville County in wood, vinyl, aluminum, chain link and combinations of those. Every one starts the same way, with a walk of the yard and a free on-site quote, no deposit.

What our backyard fence installation includes

A back yard quote from us covers the enclosure as a finished thing, including the parts of it that are not fence.

• A walk of the full perimeter with you, including the return runs up each side of the house
• Layout against your survey pins or plat where they can be found
• Tie in points at the house corners, detailed so there is no gap at the siding or the brick
• Gates sized to what has to pass through, with at least one wide enough for your mower
• Working room left around HVAC pads, meters, well heads, pool equipment and crawl space doors
• Drainage kept open where downspouts, swales and low corners carry water off the lot
• Corner, end and gate posts set in concrete, heavier than the line posts
• Grade followed by stepping or raking, depending on the material and the fall
• Standard utility locate request before we dig, plus marking of irrigation and low voltage lines
• Tear out and haul away of the old fence, and the old concrete footings with it

The return runs up the sides of the house are where quotes differ most. Some companies stop at the back corners and leave you to figure out the sides. We price the whole enclosure so the number you compare is for the same job.

When fencing the whole back yard is the right call

Plenty of yards only need one run of screening. A full enclosure is the right spend when you need the yard to actually contain something or shut something out:

• A dog that needs the run of the yard rather than a pen
• Young children, where an enclosed yard changes how much supervision the afternoon takes
• A pool, which in South Carolina brings a code requirement rather than a preference
• A new build or a new addition going up next door, changing what your patio looks at
• A corner lot, where two sides face the street and neither has any privacy
• Road noise or headlights sweeping the back of the house at night
• A back line that opens onto woods, a field or a common area with foot traffic
• Resale, since a fenced yard is one of the first filters buyers with dogs or kids apply

If your pool is the reason, the fence has code attached to it. South Carolina builds to the International Residential Code, which sets a minimum 48 inch barrier and requires self closing, self latching gates around residential pools. Our pool fence page covers that in detail.

Three ways to lay out a back yard enclosure

Before any material gets picked, the line has to be decided. These are the three layouts almost every back yard ends up using.

Tying into the house corners is what most subdivision lots should do. It shortens the run, it keeps the fence off the far corners where the mower rarely goes, and it puts the gates where you actually walk. The tie in detail is the thing to get right: the fence should meet the wall cleanly without trapping water against the siding or blocking a crawl space vent.

How we install a backyard fence

A full enclosure has more decision points than a straight run, so we settle them in order and in front of you.

1. Walk the whole perimeter, locate pins or work from your plat, and mark the proposed line
2. Agree the tie in points at the house and the swing direction of every gate
3. Note every obstacle in the line: meters, HVAC pads, downspouts, well heads, septic lids, trees
4. Request utility locates and mark private lines, which no locate service covers
5. Set gate, corner and end posts first in concrete, since the whole enclosure hangs off them
6. Set line posts to a string line, adjusting spacing to land cleanly at the house and at corners
7. Let the concrete cure before panels, rails or fabric are pulled against anything
8. Build the runs, stepping or raking with the grade and keeping the top line straight
9. Hang gates, set latches, check the swing through the full arc, then clean up and walk it with you

Most back yards are two to three days on site depending on material and length. Rain is the usual delay here, because setting posts in a hole full of water is how you get a fence that moves in year two.

What Anderson County back yards throw at a fence

Anderson County has around 203,718 people and Greenville County about 525,534, and the growth between them has filled the corridor with subdivisions built on cut and fill lots. That construction history shows up in the back yard: a flat pad near the house, a slope at the back of the lot, and fill that digs differently from the undisturbed Cecil clay two feet away. We plan post depth for the worst of it rather than the easiest hole.

Water is the second thing. Around 48 inches of rain a year falls here, and on a graded suburban lot it moves in defined paths: down the swale between houses, off the downspout at the back corner, across the low point you already know about. A solid fence set hard on grade across one of those paths becomes a dam, and the water finds your neighbor or your crawl space. We keep the drainage routes open, either by holding the panel up or by detailing the crossing point.

The third is visibility rules on corner and driveway lots. City of Anderson development standards protect sight triangles, keeping anything that blocks visibility out of the zone between 42 inches and 10 feet above roadway grade near driveways and intersections. If your back yard fence returns to the front corner of the house next to a driveway, that rule decides how far forward it can come. It is easier to lay out around than to move afterward.

42 inches to 10 feetCity of Anderson sight triangle standards keep that band clear near driveways and intersections, which sets how far forward a yard fence can run.

What drives the price of a backyard fence

Two yards of the same square footage can differ by thousands, and it is rarely the material that explains it. What moves the number:

• Total linear feet, which depends on the layout you choose as much as the lot size
• Material and height, the two biggest single line items
• Number of corners and ends, since each one takes a heavier post and more concrete
• Gate count, width and hardware, especially anything wide enough for a trailer
• Slope, and whether the material has to be stepped or built raked on site
• Obstacles in the line: trees, roots, retaining walls, old footings, buried brick
• Tear out of an existing fence and removal of the old concrete
• Access to the back yard, since a narrow side gate means everything comes in by hand
• Tie in detail at the house, which takes longer on brick than on siding
• Drainage work where a run crosses a swale or a downspout outfall

The fastest way to change the number is the layout. Tying into the house corners rather than chasing the full lot line often removes a meaningful share of the footage while leaving you with the same usable yard.

Pins, easements and everything already in the way

The line on a plat and the line you can actually build are not always the same. These are the things that move it.

The pins

Corner pins are iron rods set at the property corners, usually a few inches down, and a metal detector finds them on most lots. Building right on the line leaves you nothing to stand on when the far side needs maintenance, so many people set the fence inside the line by six inches to a foot. If the pins cannot be found and the line is contested, a survey is cheaper than moving a finished fence.

Easements

Drainage, sewer and utility easements usually run along the back or the side of a lot. A fence across one is often allowed, but the utility can remove it to reach their line and is not obliged to put it back. Where that applies we build the run so a section lifts out and resets rather than getting cut apart.

The things bolted to your house

• HVAC condensers need clearance to breathe and room for a technician to work
• Electric, gas and water meters have to stay reachable for the utility, and gas meters need clear space
• Downspouts and their outfalls should discharge past the fence, not against the bottom rail
• Crawl space doors and foundation vents cannot be blocked by a return run
• Septic lids and drain fields are no place for a post, and we will move the line rather than dig there
• Irrigation heads, valve boxes and low voltage lighting are shallow and invisible to a locate service
• Well heads need access and a clear radius, which is set by your local health rules

None of these stop a fence. They just have to be found before the auger comes out, which is why we walk the line with you instead of quoting from an aerial photo.