Fence or deck costs in Pensacola

Hurricane Sally was a slow storm, and slow is hard on a fence. When it came through in September 2020, the National Weather Service reported prolonged hurricane conditions into Escambia County, with gusts over 100 mph near the coast. Its crawl also dropped 15 to 30 inches of rain from Baldwin County into the western Panhandle. A solid privacy fence catches wind like a sail, and posts in soaked ground lose their grip.

The historic and preservation districts write their own fence rules. Concrete block fences aren't permitted there. Approved materials include wood, brick, stone and wrought iron, and fences are subject to approval by the Architectural Review Board. Chain link is possible only in side and rear yards of certain preservation zones, and only with the board's okay. The preservation district design guidelines also rule out the dog-eared picket style.

Out in most of the city's residential zones, Pensacola's code lets a fence be built to the right-of-way line of a public street.

The odd number in the code is six feet, six inches. That's the cap in a required street side yard, and the corner-lot exception cuts it to four feet if the fence would block the view from a neighbor's driveway.