We often get asked – how do you build a fence on a slope?
When you build a fence on uneven ground or ground that slopes, there are a few factors to consider.
You’ll want to ask yourself some questions, like:
- Do I want the top of my fence straight, stair stepped or angled to follow the natural slope of my yard?
- Do I want the bottom of my fence straight, stair stepped or angled to follow the natural slope of my yard?
- Can I live with gaps at the bottom of the fence?
- What’s the most cost effective option when building a fence on a slope?
Today, we’ll take a look at some design options to help answer these questions.
Fence Install on a Flat Yard or Slight Slope
In a standard install, our crews follow the grade of your yard.
When installing a fence on a flat yard…
Your fence will look like this.
Straight across the top, straight across the bottom, with a small gap underneath.
If you have a small elevation change from one corner to the next without any major dips or high spots, your fence will follow the gradual slope of your yard.
This should provide a fairly consistent gap at the bottom of your fence.
Even in this case…
You may be surprised to discover that while your yard looks fairly flat between posts, there could be small dips in your yard.
These dips can cause gaps under your fence at certain spots.
Our standard is to keep the top of the fence straight, disregarding discrepancies at the bottom.
This is also the most cost effective solution, when it comes to building a fence.
But what if the property line where you’re building a fence has gaps?
Here’s an example of a straight fence with gaps at dips or uneven spots in the yard.
In this case, the property owner would be responsible to fill the gaps if desired, or leave them if they don’t pose a problem.
However, we do offer custom options to fill gaps created by uneven ground.
For that, we may custom cut pickets to fill in the low spots.
For different fence styles (like horizontal, cap & trim, custom X), we also have other gap-filling options available.
Here’s an example of how we might deal with dips or uneven spots in your yard.
Building a Stair Step Fence on a Sloped Yard
If your yard has a larger slope, we generally stair step the fence panels.
This is the most cost effective option for building a fence on a slope.
When the fence is stair stepped, you will have larger gaps underneath each panel.
Here’s an example of a how a stair step fence might look on a sloped yard with uneven spots.
As described above…
If you’d like the gaps filled, we can do this on a stair step fence as well.
For that, we can custom cut pickets to fill in the low spots.
When we fill in the gaps with a stepped fence, our standard is to set the bottom of the step at the fence height ordered.
The top of the step will be shorter as it is cut down to match the slope.
For instance, if you order a 6-foot fence, each step will be 6-foot tall on the lower side, but will be shorter on the uphill side.
However, if you want all parts of the fence at least 6-feet tall, we can can do this with longer pickets and posts.
Keep in mind that the cost of your privacy fence would go up with this option.
We also have other options if your fence style is different.
Here’s an example of how we might deal with dips or uneven spots on a sloped yard.
Building a Racked Fence on a Slope
Another option is to build a racked fence.
As you can see…
With a racked fence, each picket is installed slightly lower than the next to create a smooth flow with the yard slope.
We also have the option of keeping the top straight and horizontal in all locations.
With the bottom racked for the slope.
Here’s an example.
In Summary
When planning to build a privacy fence on a sloped yard, there are lots of factors to consider.
And we offer multiple options in terms of design and cost.
Contact one of our Empire consultants…
So we can help you with cost estimates of various options that would work best in your yard.
We’ll be glad to help!
Contact Empire Fence
As Northeast Oklahoma’s #1 residential fence company, Empire Fence of Tulsa is the area’s premier fence builder… providing professional service at affordable prices. Contact Empire to get a quote for your next fence ›
