Tarzana fencing questions and answers

Installed, chain link is $18 to $40 a linear foot, wood $30 to $60, vinyl $40 to $70, and wrought iron $50 to $120. Run length, the slope of your lot, and the grade of material decide where inside a range you land. A short flat run on the north side sits low. A hillside line south of the Boulevard, deeper slope footings and a premium material, sits high.

Chain link, at $18 to $40 a linear foot, and that price is why it belongs on a back line or a pet run rather than the street. Wood is the value answer once you want a solid six foot run: a 150 foot cedar line comes to $4,500 to $9,000 installed. Vinyl at the same height asks more up front and takes the upkeep off your hands.

Usually not, as long as the fence sits at or under the allowed height. LADBS does require a permit once you go over six feet, for a retaining wall holding back soil, and for anything in the public right of way. South of the Boulevard the hillside grading rules apply as well, and a gated view enclave may run its own architectural review before the city paperwork even starts.

City of Los Angeles rules put a residential fence at up to six feet in the side and rear yards, and about three and a half feet in the required front yard. On the north flats, where lots measure forty feet and up outside the hillside boundary, the side and rear figure can reach eight. South of the Boulevard the hillside designation generally keeps it at six. Corner lots carry a visibility triangle near the street where height drops so drivers can see across it. Past what your parcel carries you need a permit.

Usually. California Civil Code section 841, the Good Neighbor Fence Act, starts from the presumption that adjoining owners share the reasonable cost of a boundary fence equally. Before you build, the law wants your neighbor to have at least 30 days written notice covering the problem, the fence you propose, and what you expect it to cost. Say two more things in it: that the law presumes an even split, and when the work would happen. A different split is fine if the two of you put it in writing.

Material decides it. Cedar or redwood gives you about 15 to 20 years if you seal it every few years, chain link about the same 15 to 20, vinyl 20 to 30 years or more on almost no upkeep, and wrought iron past 40 years where the powder coat is looked after. What shortens a wood fence here is the hot, dry inland-valley sun.

Yes. State law puts a safety barrier around every residential pool, at least five feet high with a self-closing, self-latching gate swinging away from the water, and the City of Los Angeles enforces that in Tarzana. Two ways to satisfy it: removable mesh at $15 to $30 a linear foot, or permanent metal at $40 to $90 that can carry the yard or view fence as well.

Yes. The associations in the gated view enclaves south of the Boulevard, Silver Hawk Ridge and Mulholland Park among them, review fence material, color, style, and height before any work starts, and we prepare that submittal for you. We quote a fence the guidelines will actually approve, plan the gated access, and put the review time in the schedule instead of finding a restriction late.