Fence Repair in Selmer, TN

Selmer's last few years, and what they do to a fence

Selmer has had a hard run of weather, and a fence is one of the first things it shows up on. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and we are not going to use it to sell you anything.

On April 3, 2025, an EF3 tornado crossed Highway 45 into Selmer. The National Weather Service survey says it damaged numerous homes on the western and northern parts of town, with the worst damage along New Bethel Road and Adams Extension. Between the worst-hit spots, the survey describes damage to homes and trees as generally in the EF2 range. In March 2023, another EF3 weakened as it approached Highway 64 west of Selmer. In December 2015, an EF4 was weakening as it entered McNairy County, and NOAA's database notes around fifteen homes damaged or destroyed south of Selmer.

Then there was the water. On July 1, 2020, NOAA records a levee break outside Selmer toward Purdy, which together with heavy rain caused widespread flash flooding. Twenty people were rescued, and ten homes and fifty businesses were flooded and damaged.

So a fence in this town may have seen wind, water, or both. A repair here starts with finding out which, because they leave different damage and call for different fixes. A free written estimate follows a look at the fence.

Reset the posts, or take the run out

After a storm year, the useful question is not how much of the fence is damaged. It is how much of it is still straight and sound.

The damage from a storm that passed close by is often smaller than the damage from one that went over. A limb across the top rail, a few boards torn off, a gate blown off a hinge. Those are repairs, and they are small ones when they are caught before the next wind takes a loose run the rest of the way.

Rolling ground: the low corner fails first

McNairy County is rolling country, not flat bottomland. USDA's soil survey puts more than half the county's mapped acres on slopes steeper than 5 percent, and the most common soil, Smithdale, is described as sitting on hill slopes and ridge tops. That is county-wide, not a reading of any one Selmer yard. A fence that follows a slope has to deal with the grade, and with the water that runs down it.

When a fence fails on a sloped yard, it is often at the low corner. Water collects there, the soil around the post stays wet, and that post can loosen first. Resetting it without dealing with where the water goes is a repair that may come back.

So look at the water before the post. A post on the low side may need a deeper set, or the panel beside it may need a gap at the base so runoff can pass. The soil side of this is in the guide to fence posts in West Tennessee soil.

After a flood: soaked wood and rusted hardware

If water got into your yard in the July 2020 flood, or in a later one, your fence took it too. NOAA also lists a March 2021 entry noting that Selmer City Park was flooded, and six flash-flood entries for Selmer in its records from the year 2000 on.

Wood that has been soaked and dried a few times is the first thing to check. Look for boards that have cupped, split along the grain or gone soft at the fasteners. Press a screwdriver into the post at the soil line. If it sinks in without effort, the post has been compromised, and that is worth knowing before you paint or stain over it.

Hardware is the second. Hinges, latches and the screws and nails in a gate frame rust faster after a soaking, and a rusted hinge will let a gate sag long before the wood gives out. Swapping the hardware for a corrosion-resistant set is a small repair that keeps a good gate hanging. For a deeper look at how long materials hold up in this climate, read fence lifespan in West Tennessee.

Pasture gates and farm-edge lines

Outside town, a lot of fence is farm fence. On a farm edge, the fence is often wire or board and the repair is often a brace, a corner, or a gate.

On a pasture line, start at the corner. A corner post carries the pull of the whole stretch, and when it moves, everything along the line goes slack. A reset corner with a proper brace can fix a run of wire that looks like it needs restretching. Next is the gate, which often drags because the hinge post has leaned. Both are covered under farm and split rail fencing and gate repair.

For Selmer's rules, the Town of Selmer has a Building Inspector and City Planning Office at 144 North 2nd Street. We have not found a published fence rule, so for anything bigger than a board swap, ask the office what applies at your address.

What Selmer homeowners ask us

We Also Repair Fences In

Selmer is south of Jackson, and we cover McNairy County. If the whole run is past saving, that is fence installation in Selmer. The rest of what we repair is on fence repair services, and the storm damage guide covers what to check after a bad night. Repair pages for other West Tennessee towns: Henderson and Bolivar.