Dallas Fence Service
Privacy fence installation in Dallas: cedar board-on-board and 8ft fences built to block sight and noise.
Footage, grade, access, removals, gates, and obstructions are reviewed before the scope is written.
Material, posts, hardware, finish, and details are matched to the way your privacy fence installation needs to perform.
The proposed work is documented so the estimate is useful and the installation crew knows what was agreed.
Privacy Fence Installation in Dallas
Review the specifications, design choices, site conditions, and installation decisions behind a durable privacy fence installation.
This is the decision that determines whether your fence is actually private in five years. Most "privacy fence" builds you'll be offered around Dallas are side-by-side. It's the simpler build, and it looks solid the day it goes up.
Then the wood dries. Dallas summers pull moisture out of cedar fast, and side-by-side pickets shrink apart. Within a season or two you get pencil-width gaps down the whole run. Now your neighbor can see your patio and you can see theirs.
Board-on-board fixes this by design. Each picket overlaps its neighbor by about an inch, mounted on alternating sides of the rail. When the wood shrinks, the overlap absorbs the movement. No gaps, ever. As a bonus, the alternating pattern looks nearly identical from both sides, which keeps HOAs and neighbors happy.
We build board-on-board as our standard privacy fence because it's the only layout that stays sight-proof through a Texas summer. Side-by-side has its place for simple projects and non-privacy runs, and we'll build it if that's what you want. But if the goal is real seclusion, board-on-board is the answer.
Three materials cover almost every privacy fence we install. Here's the honest trade-off on each.
The default for a reason. Cedar's natural oils resist rot and insects, it takes stain beautifully, and it holds up to our climate better than pine. Left alone it weathers to a silver-gray; stained, it stays warm and rich.
The entry-level pick. Chemically treated to fight rot and termites. The catch: pine is prone to warping, cupping, and twisting in our heat, and it needs more upkeep to look good.
The no-maintenance route. Made from recycled wood fiber and plastic, composite never needs staining, won't rot, and shrugs off insects. It's a bigger commitment than cedar up front, but you never touch it again.
Vinyl privacy panels are the fourth option. They're clean and low-maintenance, but they read less substantial than wood or composite and can crack under North Texas hail. We'll install it on request, but for most Dallas homeowners cedar or Trex is the better call. Compare the low-maintenance path on our Trex fencing page.
Here's what most contractor pages get wrong. Fence-height rules do vary across the metroplex, but the surprise is the opposite of what you'd expect: a standard 8-foot backyard privacy fence is allowed by right in Dallas and every major suburb we serve. The real differences are the front-yard limits and the fact that nearly every city requires a permit — miss that and you're looking at a red-tag.
City of Dallas. Back and side yard fences can go up to 9 feet, but a permit is required for anything over 6 feet. That means a standard 8-foot privacy fence needs a permit in Dallas. Front-yard fences top out at 4 feet, and anything over 4 feet in the front also needs a permit. Go past 9 feet and it's legally a "structure" that requires an engineer and a special exception, which almost nobody does.
Plano. Allows up to 8 feet in the rear and side yards. Front-yard fences are limited to 40 inches and must be at least 50% open. A permit is required for every new fence, and for replacements beyond minor repairs.
Richardson. Also allows up to 8 feet in the rear and side yards. Front-yard fences are held to 3 feet, have to be decorative, and need Building Official sign-off. A permit is required for any fence 2.5 feet or taller.
Allen. Up to 8 feet in the rear and side yards. Allen effectively keeps fences out of the front yard — only low walls under 36 inches tied to a porch or patio — and requires a permit.
Frisco. Up to 8 feet in the rear and side yards and 4 feet in the front, with a permit required for every new fence (small repairs of a section or two are the only exception).
McKinney. Up to 8½ feet in the rear and side yards — the most generous around — with front-yard fences limited to 4 feet and at least 50% see-through, and a permit for every new fence.
The real pattern: an 8-foot backyard privacy fence is on the table in Dallas and across these suburbs — the catch is the front yard and the permit. Front-yard limits run from Dallas's 4 feet down to Richardson's 3 feet and Plano's 40 inches, and nearly every city requires a permit for a new fence. We know each city's counter, we pull the permit, and we build to code so your fence passes inspection the first time. See what we do across Plano, Frisco, Richardson, and Allen.
One more layer: your HOA can be stricter than the city. Many Dallas-area associations dictate the finished ("good-neighbor") side must face the street, cap the height below what the city allows, and publish an approved stain-color list. City approval and HOA approval are two separate hurdles. We handle both.
A privacy fence in Dallas fights two things the rest of the country mostly doesn't: brutal UV and expansive clay.
Steel posts, not wood. North Texas clay swells when it rains and shrinks when it bakes, and it moves wood posts with it. Worse, the ground line is where wood posts rot first. We set galvanized steel posts in concrete footings. Steel doesn't rot, doesn't wick moisture, and doesn't heave the way a wood post does. This is the single biggest reason our fences outlast the low-grade ones, and it's why we build it standard.
Heat and UV on the pickets. Dallas sun silvers cedar and dries the surface over time. That is cosmetic at first, but repeated weather exposure can contribute to checking and cracking. A compatible exterior stain can reduce water absorption and UV weathering when it is applied to properly prepared, sufficiently dry wood. Our fence staining service explains the preparation, product, and maintenance factors we check.
Wind. Summer storms and the occasional straight-line wind event put real load on an 8-foot solid fence, since a privacy panel is essentially a sail. We frame with proper post spacing, heavy rails, and deep footings so the fence takes the hit and stays standing. Every build is backed by our 5-year workmanship warranty, so if something we installed fails, we're back out to fix it.
Prefer a metal option for the front or a decorative run? Our iron fence installation handles security and street-facing sections that a wood privacy fence isn't built for.
Let's set honest expectations, because this is where marketing usually oversells.
Sight privacy: total. A board-on-board fence blocks the line of sight completely and keeps blocking it as the wood ages. At 6 feet you're screened from standing neighbors and street traffic. At 8 feet you also block second-story sightlines from adjacent two-story homes, which is why 8 feet matters on tight suburban lots.
Sound: reduced, not eliminated. A solid, tall fence is a real sound barrier. Mass and height are what matter, so an 8-foot board-on-board fence dampens ambient noise better than a 6-foot side-by-side with gaps. It reflects and diffuses street and neighbor noise, and on corner lots or busy streets the drop in background sound is genuinely noticeable. What it won't do is silence a nearby highway. Anyone promising that is selling you something. For meaningful noise control, height, solid construction, and zero gaps are the three things that count, and all three come standard with the way we build.
Security and containment. A tall solid fence with a self-closing gate gives kids and dogs a safe, enclosed yard and removes the easy sightlines that invite trouble. Privacy and a secure yard in one build.
No mystery, no runaround. Here's how a Dallas privacy fence job runs with us:
Ready for a fence that stays private, stays quiet, and stays standing? Call (469) 809-2424 or get a free estimate. We'll measure your yard and give you a straight answer.
Where we work
Explore every city and neighborhood guide in our current service area — outside this list? Ask about your address .
More from Dallas Fence
One crew for every fence on your property. Whatever you're building next, we install it.
Before You Build
Practical answers about planning privacy fence installation in Dallas.
In the City of Dallas a permit is required for any back or side yard fence over 6 feet, so a standard 8-foot privacy fence needs one. Front-yard fences over 4 feet also require a permit. We pull it for you.
Side-by-side sets pickets edge to edge, so gaps open as the wood shrinks. Board-on-board overlaps each picket about an inch, so the fence stays solid and sight-proof for years. Board-on-board is the real privacy build.
Cedar gives the best look and lasts 20-plus years stained. Trex composite never needs staining and won't rot or warp. Vinyl is low-maintenance but reads less substantial and can crack in hail.
Most Dallas-area HOAs dictate height, the good-neighbor (finished) side facing the street, and approved stain colors. We review your covenants and prep the submittal so you get approval before we dig a single post hole.
A solid 8-foot board-on-board fence noticeably cuts ambient traffic and neighbor noise by reflecting and diffusing it. It won't silence a highway, but on corner lots and busy streets the drop in background sound is real.
A properly built cedar fence on steel posts lasts 20 to 25 years here. Steel posts set in concrete are the difference. Wood posts rot at the ground line in our clay soil and are the first thing to fail.
Stain after the cedar is dry enough for the selected product, then inspect the finish periodically. Direct sun, sprinkler exposure, shade, previous coatings, and product guidance determine when another coat is due, so a fixed interval does not fit every Dallas fence.
Free Fence Estimate
Start with a free on-site measure and a written scope. You will know what is proposed before installation is scheduled.
