If you're thinking about a privacy fence out back, a low fence across the front or a new fence to replace one that's worn out, San Antonio Expert Fence can build it in Schertz.
San Antonio Expert Fence plans Schertz fences to the city's own rules, and they aren't San Antonio's. The difference you'd notice first is in the front yard, where any fence has to stay low and see-through. Out back there's more room, and if all you want is a worn-out fence replaced exactly as it was, Schertz may not ask for a permit at all.
Schertz started as farm country and was known as Cutoff until 1899, when it took the name of Sebastian Schertz, who had a store by the railroad. Cut-Off Park, with its trails along Cibolo Creek, still carries the old name.
If your fence has done its job and you'd like a new one just like it, Schertz makes that simple. The city requires a permit for a new fence, but a replacement that's the same height and the same material, standing in the same place, doesn't need one. The city's own example is a wood privacy fence swapped for a wood privacy fence of the same height.
There are cases where it does. If your lot is in a flood hazard area, the city wants a permit even for an exact match. And if you'd like the new fence at a different height, in a different material or on a different line, the exemption doesn't cover it, so the fence needs a permit. Applying for it is part of our job.
The exemption also only covers a fence that meets today's fence rules, so before anything is ordered, we look at the old fence against them and let you know if anything about it would need to change.
Picture a wood privacy fence across the back of the yard that has stood for years, in a style you still like. We take it out and build the new one to the same height, in the same wood, on the same line, and, outside a flood hazard area, there's no permit to wait on. If you've been wanting a taller fence or a different look while you're at it, this is a good time to do it, and we'll go over what that means for the permit before you decide.
These are typical installed prices at Texas rates for the fences that fit a Schertz lot, from a low fence across the front to a privacy fence out back.
| Item | Typical price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Pine privacy fence, 6 ft | $19–$39 | per linear foot installed |
| Wood picket fence, 3–4 ft | $15–$29 | per linear foot installed |
| Aluminum fence | $19–$53 | per linear foot installed |
| Chain link fence, 4 ft galvanized | $9.75–$24 | per linear foot installed |
| Walk gate | $190–$780 | each, installed |
When your fence needs a permit, the city's listed fee comes on top of the fence. Try the cost calculator.
In a Schertz front yard, a fence can be up to 48 inches tall, and it has to be see-through. The city's word for it is "non-opaque," and the rule covers any fence out front, so a solid privacy fence can't go in the front yard at any height. If privacy from the street is what you're after, the privacy fence goes in the back yard.
The city also asks for a decorative fence out front. Its code describes decorative fences as pressure-treated wood pickets or decorative metal, among a few others, with no more than half of the fence solid. That usually points to a picket fence or an iron or aluminum fence you can see through. Either one marks the edge of the yard and can carry a walk gate up to the front door, and the house stays in view from the street.
On a corner, the city keeps a triangle clear where the two streets meet so drivers can see, measured 25 feet back along each street, and a front-yard fence can't get in its way. We measure that triangle out on the ground before the fence line is set.
Behind the house there's a lot more room. In a Schertz back yard, a fence can go up to 8 feet tall, so a wood privacy fence can be built at the familiar 6 feet or taller if you'd like more cover. A taller fence takes more lumber and longer posts, so it adds to the price, and we're happy to price both heights so you can see the difference before you decide.
Chain link is allowed in Schertz, and it's a sensible choice for a dog run or a long back line where the budget matters most. What the city doesn't allow is privacy screening attached to it, so slats woven into the mesh or screen fabric tied onto it are off the table.
If there's chain link across the back of your yard and you'd like some privacy, a wood privacy fence will get you there. You don't have to replace all of it. We can build a privacy fence along the stretch you'd like closed in and leave the chain link where it's still doing its job. Switching that stretch to wood is a change of material, so it needs a permit.
Some lots have an easement along the back or the side, a strip set aside for drainage or for public use. Schertz lets a fence cross one, with conditions that depend on the kind of easement.
A fence in a drainage easement needs a bar screen along the bottom so water can get through. We plan that into the fence from the start rather than adding it later, so the bottom of the fence is built for it.
Where the easement is a public one, the fence needs a gate or a panel that comes out, so the easement can still be reached for maintenance, and that can apply to a drainage easement too. The city isn't responsible for damage to a fence from work in the easement. We'll show you where the gate or removable panel goes when we lay out the line.
Easements can show on your lot's recorded plat, the drawing filed when the subdivision was approved. In Schertz, the plat is recorded with the county clerk for whichever county the lot is in, and that can be Bexar, Guadalupe or Comal, so we find yours in the right county's records before the fence line is drawn.
The permit application goes in with a survey of the lot showing its easements, property lines and setbacks, with the new fence marked on it. If there's a survey of your lot, we work from that. If there isn't one, we work out with the city what drawing will do instead.
If the lot is in a mapped flood area, Schertz requires a floodplain permit too, and the fence may need openings that let water through. We find out what the city needs for your fence there before the posts go in.
Fences are priced by the foot, so the length of the line comes first, and the table on this page gives typical ranges. After that it's the height, the material and the gates. In Schertz, the front fence is a low, see-through style, which usually runs lighter than a privacy fence. Once we've measured, you'll have one price for the fence work, with taking out the old fence included.
No. Schertz has been its own city since 1958, and it grew quickly after that, helped by nearby I-35 and San Antonio spreading outward. Fence permits here come from the city of Schertz's Inspection Division, and the fence rules are Schertz's own, which is why the front-yard rule on this page isn't the one you'd find in San Antonio. Before we plan anything, we check that your lot is inside the Schertz city limits.
The fence has to work under both. The city's permit and fence rules apply to any lot inside Schertz, and an HOA can add its own on top. Under Texas law, an HOA generally can't ban a perimeter fence put up for security. It can set the type of fence it allows and keep fences from blocking a sidewalk or a drainage easement, and where its covenants say so, it can rule out fencing in front of the house. If you have your HOA's fence guidelines, send them along with your request, and we'll plan the fence around both.
The code puts that wall on them. Where a business or an apartment complex is next to a lot zoned for single-family homes, or across only a local street or alley from one, Schertz's code has the business or apartment side build a masonry screening wall at least 8 feet tall, and the wall has to be kept in good condition. If their lot sits higher than yours, the wall goes on the higher ground. The rule doesn't apply to public schools or in the Main Street mixed-use districts. If a wall like that is coming, we'll plan the rest of your fence to meet it.
Not as a fence rule. Schertz's subdivision rules call for extra depth on a lot that backs onto a railroad with no street behind it, and for a planted screen or a no-access easement at least 10 feet wide along the line of lots next to the railroad. That's about how the lots were laid out, and it doesn't rule a back fence in or out. We check your plat for a strip like that along the back before your back fence is planned.
Pick the kind of fence you have in mind for a closer look at how we build it and what it costs.
We take fence jobs in the towns around Schertz as well. Fence rules aren't the same from one town to the next, so we start from the rules of the town your lot is in.
Tell us what you have in mind, whether it's a fence across the front, privacy out back or an old fence replaced to match, and anything you know about the lot, like an easement or an HOA. We'll meet you at the house, look at where the fence would go and plan it to Schertz's rules.
San Antonio Expert Fence is a fence company in San Antonio, Texas, for homes, businesses and HOAs. We repair fences and build new ones, and every job starts with a free visit and a written price.
Each city around San Antonio writes its own fence rules, and we plan every fence to the ones where your home is.
