San Antonio Expert Fence builds and repairs fences in Terrell Hills, from front fences and gates to privacy fences out back.
Terrell Hills began in 1920 on a 24-acre tract that had been Terrell Farms, settled by families who wanted to move out of San Antonio. When San Antonio annexed the town in 1945 without an election, Terrell Hills went to court, and the court voided the annexation. San Antonio Expert Fence builds fences in Terrell Hills today, and when we plan a fence here, height comes first: how tall it can be in front of the house, how tall it can be behind it, and what it takes to ask the city for more.
A fence in front of a Terrell Hills house tops out at 4 feet. The city's zoning code sets four feet as the limit for a fence or wall within the front yard setback, measured from the highest ground in that setback, and never more than 6 feet above the ground at any point. So before a front fence is drawn, we find out where the setback line falls on your lot.
Four feet is a comfortable height for a fence across the front. It's enough for a wood picket fence or a black aluminum fence that looks a lot like iron, with a gate at the front walk, and the price table below has a range for all three.
In 2026 the Board's agendas carried several requests to go higher than four feet in front of the house, most of them for iron or metal fences. Going above four feet out front means asking the Board for a variance, and how the Board looks at a request is covered further down this page.
The rows for a front fence and its gate come first, then cedar for a privacy fence and a typical repair, all at Texas rates.
| Item | Typical price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminum fence | $19–$53 | per linear foot installed |
| Wood picket fence, 3–4 ft | $15–$29 | per linear foot installed |
| Walk gate | $190–$780 | each, installed |
| Cedar fence | $15–$42 | per linear foot installed |
| Fence repair, typical job | $190–$870 | per job |
None of these prices include the fee the city lists for walls and fences. Try the cost calculator.
A couple of extra feet of fence makes a real difference to privacy. The city's zoning code allows a fence up to 8 feet tall, measured from the finished ground, and holds to that unless a lot has a real hardship, like a steep change in grade. So a privacy fence out back can go well past the usual six feet.
Along with the length and the wood, height is one of the things that sets the price of a privacy fence, since a taller fence takes more material. Cedar is in the price table above. If you're deciding between heights, we'll show you what the extra height adds before you choose.
If your lot runs along an alley, Terrell Hills' easement maintenance page says part of that alley is yours to look after. In its words, "each property owner has the responsibility for trimming and cleaning to the center of adjacent alleys," with all limbs cut back to the property line. The canopy over the alley "should be trimmed to a minimum height of 13 feet 6 inches," for clearance of large vehicles and sanitation and utility trucks.
Since the alley out to its center is yours to keep trimmed and clean, it helps to be able to get to it. A gate in the fence on the alley side makes that a lot easier, and the best time to decide where it goes is while the fence line is being planned, before any posts are set.
If four feet across the front won't give you what you need, the way to ask for more in Terrell Hills is a variance, and fence variances here go to the city's own Board of Adjustment. The city's variance sheet explains how the Board looks at a request, and some of it is about the people who live around you.
The city is required to give written notice to the property owners within 200 feet of a property asking for a variance. Its sheet strongly recommends talking your plans over with those neighbors before the request goes in, and goes on, in the city's own words: the Board "relies heavily on neighborhood input and rarely goes against the wishes of the community unless an overwhelming hardship exists." The same sheet says that "monetary considerations alone are not sufficient to establish an unnecessary hardship." It's easier to talk a fence over with your neighbors when it's drawn out, and we'll sketch it out with you.
In its list of what a variance request must include, the sheet also says that identifying the location of your lot lines is "your responsibility and not that of the City staff." We go over where your lines run with you before the fence is drawn, so the drawing can show where the fence would go, how far it sits from the property lines and how tall it is, which is what the city's variance application asks a fence request to show. If you already have a height in mind for the front, put it in the form here, along with roughly where the fence would run.
By the foot, like the fences in the price table above, so how far the fence runs across the front is where the price starts. From there it's the material and the gate. Wood pickets and aluminum are both in the table if you'd like to compare them, and once we've measured the run with you, we'll price the fence and the gate together.
The city's posted fee schedule lists walls and fences as a line of their own among its building permit fees. Its permits page says applications are taken online and that a permit isn't valid until it's been paid for. The permits page doesn't mention fences, so whether your fence job needs a permit is one of the first things we find out, and work that needs one waits until the permit is valid.
The Board's 2026 agendas suggest it does. Two requests in 2026, one in January and one in September, included a front gate taller than four feet, and both were listed as variance requests. So a tall gate out front is something to look into before it's planned. We find out how the city treats a gate on your lot before one is drawn in.
The city's zoning code keeps a retaining wall under 4 feet. Where a lot needs more than that, the wall is terraced, meaning lower walls stepped up the slope with at least 3 feet between them, and the city can make exceptions. On a sloping lot, we look at the slope and any wall with you and work out the fence's height before it's designed.
Yes. A few loose boards, a leaning post or a gate that won't latch can be put right without replacing the whole fence, and the price table has a range for a typical repair job. As with a new fence, whether a repair needs a permit is something we find out before the work starts.
The services below run from a picket fence across the front to a fresh coat of stain on an older fence out back.
Besides Terrell Hills, we take on fence jobs in these towns.
A rough idea of where the fence would go and how tall you'd like it is plenty to start with, and mention it if the lot runs along an alley or slopes. From there, we'll walk you through what the city's four-foot front limit and its alley rules mean for your lot.
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.
