West Hills fencing questions and answers

Installed, chain link comes to about $18 to $40 a linear foot, wood $30 to $60, vinyl $40 to $70, and wrought iron $50 to $120. Three things decide where inside a range your job falls: how long the run is, whether the lot is flat tract or clay bench, and the grade of material you pick. A short run on level ground sits near the bottom. A bench line wanting deeper footings and a premium material sits near the top.

Chain link costs the least at $18 to $40 a linear foot, which is why homeowners put it on a back line or a pet run instead of the street side. When the job is a solid six foot privacy fence, wood gives the most for the money, and 150 feet of cedar usually comes to $4,500 to $9,000 installed. Vinyl at that same height asks more at the start and hands back the maintenance.

Stay at or under the allowed height and a standard fence ordinarily needs no City of Los Angeles building permit. A permit is required once the fence passes six feet, once a retaining wall holds back soil, or once the work reaches the public right of way, and all three go through LADBS. The far-west Bell Canyon parcels fall under Ventura County with different rules, so we verify jurisdiction parcel by parcel.

The City of Los Angeles rules govern most of West Hills, and they allow a residential fence up to six feet in the side and rear yards and about three and a half feet in the required front yard. On the flatter tracts a lot of forty feet frontage or more can take eight in the side and rear; out toward Castle Peak the hillside designation holds it at six. A corner lot carries a visibility triangle near the street, where the height drops so drivers can see across it. Past the figure your lot carries a permit is required, and a gated community is free to set a tighter limit inside those figures.

Usually yes. California Civil Code section 841, the Good Neighbor Fence Act, presumes that the owners on either side of a boundary carry the reasonable cost of the fence equally. Before you build, the statute asks for at least 30 days written notice to the neighbor, setting out the problem, the fence you propose, and what you expect it to cost. Put two more items in there, a plain statement that the law presumes an even split, and your proposed dates. A different split is perfectly allowed as long as the two of you put it in writing.

That comes down to the material. Cedar or redwood gives about 15 to 20 years when it is sealed every few years, and chain link lands in the same 15 to 20. Vinyl holds 20 to 30 years or better with next to no attention. Wrought iron can run past 40 if the powder coat is kept up. Two things cut those figures short in West Hills: the hot inland sun, and on the benches the expansive clay.

Yes. State law puts a safety barrier around every residential pool, at least five feet high on a gate that closes and latches itself and swings away from the water, and the City of Los Angeles enforces it in West Hills. Removable mesh at $15 to $30 a linear foot satisfies the code, and so does a permanent metal barrier at $40 to $90, which can carry the yard fence at the same time.

Yes. In Bell Canyon, Sterling at West Hills, Hidden Lake, and Stonegate, the association reviews fence material, color, style, and height before work begins and needs gate clearance for crews, so we prepare that submittal and arrange access for you. We quote a fence the guidelines will actually approve and build the review and scheduling into the plan, rather than discovering a restriction after the posts are ordered.