Aluminium fence installation in Peachtree City

What does an aluminium fence cost in Peachtree City?

$28 to $60 per linear foot installed. Height and picket spacing account for most of that spread, and so does the ground.

A run that follows a slope is racked, meaning each panel is built or adjusted to step with the grade rather than sitting level. On the sloping lots around the fairways that is normal here, and it costs more than a flat run of the same length. Ask whether the quote assumes level ground.

What colour must the fence be?

Dark brown, dark green or black. The city does not permit exposed metal unless it is vinyl coated or painted in one of those three colours, so the palette is settled before you start choosing.

This is not a guideline. It is the reason you will not see raw aluminium or white metal fencing around town, and it is worth knowing before you fall for a photograph from a manufacturer in a different state.

Black is the common choice. Against pine and hardwood it disappears at a distance, which is the point.

Why does aluminium suit lots on a golf course or the lake?

Because it encloses without blocking. Many lots here back onto fairways or onto Lake Peachtree, and the view is a large part of what the lot is worth.

A six foot privacy panel solves containment and destroys the reason you bought the place. A four foot aluminium run does the first without the second. That trade is why the eight foot maximum almost never comes up in conversation on those streets: nobody wants the height.

The sloping ground on golf frontage is the other half of it. Rackable aluminium follows a grade cleanly where rigid panels leave gaps at the bottom.

Does it help with the street setback rules?

It does, and this is the part worth planning around.

No fence taller than four feet may stand within 40 feet of the right of way of an arterial or collector street, and the distance is 35 feet where a lot adjoins a greenbelt along a collector. A corner lot can find most of its perimeter inside one of those bands.

A four foot aluminium fence is legal in all of it. That makes aluminium the material that lets a corner lot enclose its whole yard with one consistent fence, rather than switching height and material partway along and living with the seam.

Do I need a permit for an aluminium fence?

At four feet in height and above, yes. Below four feet, no.

Four feet is the common ornamental height and it sits exactly on the line, so the answer is often yes by a whisker. The application wants the material and height, a site plan on an official plat or survey, and a photograph of what you intend to build.

How does it handle red clay?

Better than timber, but the ground rules are the same.

Aluminium does not rot, so what happens below grade is about movement rather than decay. Clay holds water, swells and shrinks, and works a post loose over a few wet winters regardless of what the post is made of. Posts still want depth and a gravel base so water drains away instead of sitting against them.

Fifty inches of rain a year is the reason. It is the same soil problem that leans wood fences, and it does not care that the metal is corrosion resistant.

What about pool fencing?

That is where aluminium earns its keep for a different reason. Pool barriers have their own requirements for height, gap spacing, and self closing self latching gates, and those rules come from the pool code rather than the fence ordinance.

Check both. A fence that satisfies the city’s height rule can still fail a pool inspection on latch height or picket spacing, and the two are assessed by different people against different documents.

Which side has to face my neighbour?

For most aluminium fencing the question does not arise, which surprises people who have read the rule.

The ordinance says that where a fence has structural supports on one side only, that side must face the interior of your property. Ornamental aluminium panels are generally symmetrical: the pickets pass through the rails and there is no finished face and no back. Nothing is hidden, so nothing has to be turned.

It does apply to any section built as a solid panel with a frame on one side. Worth a glance at the drawing before you assume.

How are gates and hardware priced?

Separately, and the hardware is where aluminium quotes diverge.

A gate needs a heavier post than the run does, because a panel that swings puts a load on its hinge post that a fixed panel never does. Latches, hinges, drop rods on a double gate and any self closing mechanism are all separate line items.

If the gate is going to take a golf cart rather than a person, say so at the quote stage. The opening width changes the post size, and that is not a change anyone can make cheaply once the concrete has gone off.

What if the lot backs onto a cart path?

The four foot setback from the edge of the paved path applies to aluminium exactly as it does to wood. It is measured from the pavement, not from your property line.

On a golf frontage lot you may be dealing with the path setback and a sloping grade at the same time. Both change the measured run, and both should be on the quote before anyone orders material.