Fencing in Lafayette, LA: Installation, Repair, Privacy Fences, and Gates

This work covers setting new fence, fixing fence that has started to fail, building privacy fence, and hanging or rebuilding gates. A real job means setting posts in the ground, running rails and pickets or panels, and making sure gates swing true and latch without dragging. Most of the money and most of the labor is in the posts and the ground, not the part you see.

Doing this in Acadiana

Fencing in Acadiana lives or dies on how the posts are set, because the ground here does not cooperate. A lot of Lafayette yards sit on heavy clay that holds water, swells when it rains and shrinks when it dries, and that constant push and pull is what heaves posts and racks gates over a few seasons. Wood is under steady pressure from humidity and long wet spells, so untreated or poorly sealed lumber goes soft and gray faster than it would in a drier place, and the bottoms of pickets that sit near wet ground are the first to rot. Termites are a genuine concern with any wood in the ground around here, so the type of post and how it meets the soil matters. And when a hurricane or a hard tropical blow comes through, a privacy fence acts like a big sail, so post depth, spacing, and whether there is any gap under the boards all decide whether it stands or lays down.

How to tell where you stand

• Grab a post and push. If it rocks in the ground or the concrete moves with it, the setting has failed, not just the boards.
• Look at the bottom of the pickets near the dirt. Soft, dark, or crumbling wood means rot is climbing up from the wet ground.
• Open and close each gate slowly. If it drags, will not latch, or the corner has dropped, the gate post has shifted or the frame has sagged.
• Sight down the fence line from one end. Posts that lean different directions or a top line that dips tell you the ground has been moving.
• Push a screwdriver into a post at ground level. If it sinks in easily, you have rot or termite damage even if the surface looks fine.

What makes the job bigger or smaller

• Total length of fence and the number of corners and ends, since every post is a hole that has to be dug and set.
• How many gates, how wide they are, and whether they are walk gates or a drive gate, because gates are the parts that get built, not just assembled.
• The material, whether it is wood privacy, chain link, or panel, and the height, since a taller privacy fence needs more of everything.
• The ground itself, meaning tree roots, old buried footings, slopes, and how wet or hard the clay is when they dig.
• Whether old fence has to be torn out and hauled off before the new one goes in, which is a job on its own.

Yourself, or a pro

A homeowner who is handy can absolutely replace a few pickets, re-nail a loose rail, add a latch, or swap a gate wheel, and there is no shame in doing that yourself. Setting posts is where most people get in over their head, because the depth, the spacing, and getting them plumb and in a straight line is what makes the fence last, and clay ground fights you the whole way. A full privacy run or a drive gate is heavy, awkward work that usually needs more than one person and a real plan for where the posts land relative to your property line. If you are not certain where your line actually is, stop and find out before anything goes in the ground, because a fence in the wrong spot is an expensive thing to move.

What to ask anybody quoting this, us included

• How deep are you setting the posts, and are they going in concrete?
• What kind of post are you using where it meets the ground, and how are you handling rot and termites?
• Are you locating my property line, or do I need a survey first?
• Who is responsible for calling in the utility locate before you dig?
• Is haul-off of the old fence included, or is that separate?