Fence or deck costs in Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem's oldest streets carry extra fence rules. The joint city-county ordinance sets up Historic and Historic Overlay districts, and the Bethabara Historic District is one of them. In those districts, the ordinance says no fence can be put up, changed, restored, moved or torn down until the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission approves a certificate of appropriateness. That holds even when the work wouldn't need a building permit. A board-for-board repair is the exception. Ordinary upkeep that doesn't change the design, material or look of the fence needs no certificate.

So in those districts, the order matters. Get the certificate first, then any permit, then the crew. A certificate has to be in hand before you even apply for a building permit, and a permit issued without one isn't valid.

Outside those districts, the city has argued over how far fence rules should go. It once weighed a rule capping mostly solid front-yard fences at 4 feet. Planning staff recommended against it as drafted. Their report noted that a fence then needed a permit only above 6 feet, the height where engineered footings and wind-load math come in.

Nearly half the city's homes were built before 1980. A deck from those years was built to older rules than the one you'll build to now.