Important Tips to Consider Before Installing a Fence

You can waste a lot of time and money if you don’t follow the proper procedures before you install your fence. There are often city rules, building rules and local ordinances that might apply to your property before you can be allowed to construct your fence.

Failing to do your homework can have some dire consequences. First, if the city takes exception to your fence you could be asked to dig it up once it’s installed. You won’t be compensated for the expense, and you might find a re-install wrapped up in red tape! In addition, you might accidentally cause damage to underground gas, water, and power lines when you dig!

You want to check for the following regulations:

• Regulations on how high your fence should be
• Regulations on where you can put your fence
• Regulations on the direction that your fence can face
• Regulations on what kinds of materials you must use to build your fence
• Whether or not your home is in a historic district that might impact your insall
• Whether or not you will need a permit for you fence
• Whether or not you will need a surveyor to check your property lines
• Whether or not there are underground power, gas, or water lines

Here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin you would call the Milwaukee development center at (414) 286-8210 or take a trip down to city hall. You would also need to call Dig Safe at 811 (be sure you don’t dial 911!) to check on the underground lines. You could also visit the website at http://city.milwaukee.gov/DCD to contact the appropriate office via e-mail. You can find the Fence Permit Application for Residential properties right on the website. It’s just a matter of downloading it, printing it, and sending it to the appropriate authorities.

While all of this can seem intimidating it’s actually much more routine than you think. There are usually reasons for all of the regulations that are understandable and even sensible. You would not, for example, want to put up a fence that caused traffic to become less visible on your corner property, or which accidentally strayed onto your neighbor’s property line.

As a leading local fence company in Milwaukee, we take care of all of these things for our customers when we install our fences. That is one of the benefits of working with a fence contractor – they can take care of all this for you to ensure your fence installation doesn’t violate any laws and is a safe endeavor. If you want us to help with the installation of your fence, please call us at (262) 251-6766. We offer free estimates too!