Privacy fence installation price

[Heidi Davis]

I have tenants in a rental property and they are having trouble with the neighbors.  I want to have a 6ft vinyl privacy fence installed. I’ve had a few quotes come in and they are between $4500 and $5500.  The fence is going to be only on one side of the property and is about 125ft long.  Does this price seem reasonable?

Thanks :)

[Matt R.]

I'm a couple of thousand miles away, but per Home Depot's Web site, at the South Philadelphia store (1651 S Columbus Blvd)...

Veranda Linden 6 ft tall x 8 ft long fence panel, 16 @ $69.74 = $1,115.84

Veranda Linden line post, 17 @ $31.57 = $536.69

Total for those two: $1,652.53 before tax; probably about $1,800 after tax

Add in: bags of concrete to set the posts in, a gate if you need one, a manual post hole digger (or renting a power one)... maybe $2,100 in materials, +/-.

Based on the bids you've been getting, that leaves around $2,400 to $3,400 for labor.  I would guess it would take two people most of an 8-hour day to install that much fence - 16 hours of labor - so that's $150 to $210 an hour or so.

Of course, the workers aren't going to see that much of it; you're paying for their knowledge, insurance, tools, a truck full of bits and bobs they might need to finish the job, etc.

Based on that, I'd guess those bids are maybe a little on the high side.  However, they might also be bidding higher-quality material (thicker plastic, longer warranty), which might mean they're more in the realm of possibility.

[Brent Paul]

Really tough to say.  Quotes really vary place to place.  I know of someone in a larger city far from me that paid almost 9k to have their 1/4 acre yard fenced in.

Get a few more quotes and see where you are then.  Hard to judge from just 1 quote.  I thought my roof quotes were high, but all of them were within 500 bucks of each other.