Fence Repair in Chester County, TN
Posts on a slope, runoff cutting under the line, wire gone slack along a field edge. We repair fences across Chester County, in town and out past it.
Slope changes how a fence fails
Chester County has a lot of slope. USDA soil data shows close to six in ten of the county's mapped acres on slopes steeper than five percent, and more than a quarter on slopes of 13 to 20 percent. A fence line here may run up a grade or across one.
On a slope, two problems come up. The first is runoff. Water coming down a hill can follow the fence line and cut at the base of each post it passes, and over a few wet seasons a post can end up standing in a notch with less ground around it than it started with. The second is lean. A post at the top of a slope has soil on one side and a drop on the other, and the fence's own weight and any wind load push it toward the drop.
So on a slope, look at where the water goes before you look at the post. If runoff is cutting under the line, a post put back in the same notch may only buy a season. A sturdier repair sets it deeper on the downhill side and turns the water away from the line. The guide on fence line drainage and erosion covers the logic. How these posts behave in this soil is in fence posts in West Tennessee soil.
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Call or text Greg at (731) 240-8701, or use the form. Photos of your yard help.
Free on-site estimates in Jackson & West Tennessee.
Field edges, timber lines, and creek bottoms
Out in the county, the 2017 Census of Agriculture counted 380 farms. A little over half the farmland is cropland, roughly a quarter is woodland, and the rest is mostly pasture. That mix puts a lot of fence along the edge of a field or on a timber line, and each one tends to fail differently.
Along a field edge the trouble is often a corner post that has leaned and left the wire slack down the run. On a timber line it is limbs and fallen trees, and a limb lying on wire can stretch it past what it can recover from. We repair the fence a tree damaged, and we do not do the tree work.
Creek and river bottoms are the third case. Roughly a fifth of the county's mapped acres are in soils that flood occasionally or often, and NOAA's database lists flash-flood and flood entries across the county. One February 2018 entry has several roads flooded, including Jacks Creek Road and Old Jackson Road north of Henderson. Flood debris can pile against a fence like a dam, so a wire fence in a bottom is worth checking after high water. Details on pasture and field fence are on split rail and farm fence and field wire fencing.
Two building offices, and which one to call first
Chester County has two building offices. The City of Henderson has its own Building and Zoning Department, which also covers a planning region just outside the city limits. The county's Building and Zoning Department covers the rest of the county. Neither office's posted page mentions fences, so we do not quote a rule for either.
Boards back on, a post reset, a gate rehung in the existing line: those are repairs to a fence that is already there. A rebuild, a moved line or a taller fence is a different question. For those, call the office that covers your address before pricing the job. The city side is on fence repair in Henderson.
When wind comes through the county
NOAA's database lists three tornadoes in Chester County in records that start in 2000. One was an EF2 on April 26, 2012, near Montezuma, about 200 yards wide. NOAA's narrative has six homes damaged, a church roof damaged, a few farm sheds damaged and a cotton module compress destroyed. Long runs of fence on open ground are exposed to wind like that.
Our storm damage guide covers what to check after wind. For a storm repair we give a free written estimate.
Chester County fence repair, answered
My fence post leans downhill. Can it be reset or does it need replacing?
+If the post itself is sound, it can often be pulled plumb and reset. The question is why it leaned. If runoff cut under it or the soil on the downhill side washed out, the reset goes deeper and the water gets turned away. If the post is soft at the soil line, it gets replaced.
My pasture wire is slack. Is that a retension or a rebuild?
+Look at the corner posts before you decide. Slack in the middle of a run often traces back to a corner pulled out of plumb by the wire's own tension. If the corners are solid, a restretch has something to pull against. A leaning corner gets reset first, or the restretch only pulls it further over.
A tree came down on my fence line. What do I do first?
+Photograph it and keep people and animals away from any wire under tension. Do not cut or pull anything that is not safe to move, and leave a limb where it fell unless moving it is safe. Then call. We repair the fence once the tree is clear. We do not do the work of clearing the trees themselves.
Do I call the city or the county about a rebuild?
+It depends on which side of the Henderson planning region you are on. The city and the county each have a building and zoning department, and the city's office has a map for checking whether an address is in its planning region. A like-for-like repair is a different question from a rebuild, and for a rebuild you want to know which office applies before the job is priced.
The gate on my farm lane will not stay latched. Where do I start?
+Compare the gap between the gate and the latch post at the top and at the bottom. If it is tighter at the top, the hinge post has probably leaned toward the gate. If the gap is even and the gate still drops at the latch end, the frame has likely sagged. A leaning post can often be reset without replacing it, as long as the wood is sound below ground.
We Also Repair Fences In
If your fence is past repair, that is fence installation in Chester County, and the repair or replace guide lays out the checks. The repair page for the county seat is Henderson. Henderson County is a separate county from Chester, with Lexington as its seat, and has its own page: Henderson County fence repair. Jackson is about 17 miles from the city of Henderson.
More West Tennessee Towns We Serve
Get a free estimate
Call or text Greg at (731) 240-8701, or use the form. Photos of your yard help.
Free on-site estimates in Jackson & West Tennessee.