Encino fencing questions and answers

Chain link installs at roughly $18 to $40 a linear foot, wood at $30 to $60, vinyl at $40 to $70, and wrought iron at $50 to $120. Where a job lands inside those bands comes down to run length, whether the lot is flat or hillside, and material grade. A short flat run north of the Boulevard sits at the bottom. A canyon line needing deeper footings and a better material sits at the top.

Chain link, at $18 to $40 a linear foot, though it belongs on a back line or a dog run rather than a street frontage. For solid six foot privacy, wood is where the value sits, and 150 feet of cedar generally comes to $4,500 to $9,000 installed. Vinyl at the same height asks more at the start and gives back the maintenance.

For a standard fence at or below the allowed height, no City of Los Angeles building permit is needed. A permit is required once the fence goes over six feet, when a retaining wall holds back soil, or for anything in the public right of way, all through LADBS. On the hillside lots south of Ventura Boulevard, the slope work beneath the fence often needs a grading permit of its own.

City of Los Angeles rules generally allow six feet in the side and rear yards and about three and a half feet in the required front yard. North of the Boulevard, where the lot runs forty feet or more across, that side and rear figure can reach eight. South of it the hillside designation usually holds you to six. Corner lots carry a visibility triangle near the street, where height drops so drivers can see across it. Anything above whatever your parcel is entitled to means a permit.

Usually. The Good Neighbor Fence Act, California Civil Code section 841, presumes adjoining owners share the reasonable cost of a boundary fence equally. It also expects at least 30 days written notice before work starts, setting out the problem, the fence proposed, and what it is estimated to cost. The law wants two more things in it, the presumption of an equal split stated plainly, and your proposed schedule. Any other split is fine if both neighbors put it in writing.

Material decides it. Cedar and redwood give about 15 to 20 years when sealed every few years, chain link runs a similar 15 to 20, vinyl holds 20 to 30 years or more with next to no attention, and wrought iron can pass 40 years as long as the powder coat is kept up. Hard summer sun is what shortens a wood fence here more than anything else.

Yes. State law requires a safety barrier around a residential pool: five feet high at minimum, with a self-closing, self-latching gate that swings away from the water. Encino enforces it through the City of Los Angeles. Removable mesh at $15 to $30 a linear foot meets the code, as does a permanent metal barrier at $40 to $90, which has the advantage of working as a view fence too.