West Tennessee Fence Company Serving Jackson and the Surrounding Counties

A Fence Company That Actually Comes Out That Far

Most people who search for a West Tennessee fence company are not in Jackson. They are in Bolivar, or out past Alamo, or on a few acres between two towns, and they have already called somebody who said the job was too far to bother with. That is the real question behind the search, so here is the answer up front: we work out of Jackson and we cover the region around it, eight counties worth, and a job on the far side of that is a drive, not a problem.

Jackson makes that workable. It is the county seat of Madison County, about 68,000 people, and it sits where I-40, US-45, US-70, and US-412 all cross. Almost every town we serve is a straight shot down one of those. Trenton is about thirty miles north. Lexington is about twenty-seven east on US-412. Brownsville is about twenty-seven west. Bolivar is about twenty-seven southwest on TN-18. Those are drives, not expeditions, and they get scheduled like any other day.

What you get is a crew that works this ground every week and knows what it does. West Tennessee is not Middle Tennessee, and a fence built the way you would build one in rock is going to disappoint you here. More on that below.

Where We Work in West Tennessee

Eight counties, centered on Jackson. Four of them have their own page with the local rules and conditions spelled out. If your town is not on this list, call anyway and ask, because the edge of the map moves depending on the size of the job.

Haywood, Hardeman, Crockett, and McNairy counties are in the same rotation, through Brownsville, Bolivar, Bells, Alamo, and Selmer. Every one of those counties is a fraction of the size of Madison County, and that is exactly why a homeowner out there has trouble getting anybody to show up.

What Is Different About Building Fence in West Tennessee

This half of the state sits on the Gulf Coastal Plain, over the Mississippi Embayment, and the uplands are mantled in loess. Loess is wind-blown silt. It digs easy, which is the first thing anybody notices and the last thing they should be happy about, because silt holds water and it moves as it goes from wet to dry. Ground that takes a post hole in ten minutes will also let that post wander if the hole was the wrong diameter, the concrete was thin, or water stands at the base of it. Hole size, compaction, and shedding water off the top of the footing are what keep a line straight here. We wrote the detail up in setting fence posts in West Tennessee soil.

Water is the second thing. The region averages right at fifty-seven inches of rain a year, and a lot of this country is flat row-crop ground where that water does not go anywhere in a hurry. Along the South Fork of the Forked Deer River and the creek bottoms feeding it, you are dealing with real floodplain. A fence line that crosses a wet weather ditch needs to be designed to let water through instead of damming it, or the fence becomes the dam and the next hard rain takes it out. See fencing floodplain lots.

Wind is the third. Jackson has been hit by strong tornadoes more than once, including an F4 in 1999, another in 2003, and an EF4 in 2008, and hard spring wind is routine well outside those events. A solid privacy panel is a sail with a post on each end. Post depth, post spacing, and bracing should reflect that, and after a storm the question is usually which sections are worth saving. See storm damage fence repair.

Add hot, humid summers to all of it, Zone 7b, and wood that never fully dries out between rains. That is a maintenance schedule, not a defect, and it is worth knowing before you choose a material. Our best fence materials for West Tennessee guide goes through how each one holds up here.

What We Install and Repair Across the Region

Wood Fencing

The back yard default. Treated pine is the value pick, cedar the upgrade. Wood follows rolling ground better than any panel system because the boards get cut on site. Board-on-board and shadow box read finished from both sides, which matters when the neighbor sees more of your fence than you do. See privacy fencing.

Pine · Cedar · Board-on-board · Picket

Vinyl Fencing

No rot, no stain, nothing to do but wash it. Common on newer subdivisions around Jackson and Medina where a uniform line down the street is the point. Costs more going in and needs a planned layout, because panels come in fixed widths and the ground does not.

Privacy · Picket · Ranch rail · No upkeep

Ornamental Aluminum

Marks the line without taking the view, powder-coated so it will not rust the way real iron does. Standard for front yards, garden borders, and pool enclosures. Tennessee has a statewide residential pool barrier statute, so ask your local code office what applies before you fence a pool. See pool fencing.

Aluminum · Pool barrier · Front yard · No rust

Farm, Split Rail & Chain Link

The working fence of the country between the towns. Woven wire and wire-backed board hold stock over distance, and on a long pull the corners and braces do the real work. Post-and-board and split rail suit a frontage or a lane. Chain link is still the most economical fence that reliably holds a dog. See farm and horse fencing.

Woven wire · Post-and-board · Split rail · Chain link

Gates are their own trade, and they are the part that fails first because they are the only part that moves. We hang walk gates and drive gates, rebuild sagging ones, and install automatic gate systems on drives where somebody is tired of getting out of the truck. Commercial work across the region runs to yard security, screening, and enclosures built to a site plan.

The Rules Change Every Time You Cross a City Line

There is no West Tennessee fence code. Every incorporated town writes its own, the counties write their own for the unincorporated area, and they do not match. This is the part where a regional contractor earns the fee, because the answer for your address is not the answer for the next town over.

Inside the Jackson city limits a fence permit is required, the city charges a published fee, and the application asks for a certified boundary survey or a signed agreement with your neighbor. In a required front yard nothing may materially impede vision above two and a half feet, corner lots have a sight-triangle rule, and on a privacy fence the finished side has to face the neighbor and the street. In unincorporated Madison County a residential fence seven feet or under does not need a building permit, and the county has its own corner-lot vision rule. Our permits and property rules guide lays all of that out.

Outside Madison County, we tell people the truth: we have not been able to confirm published fence rules for most of the smaller towns from an official document, so we are not going to print a height limit on a web page and hope it is right for your address. One call to the city hall or the county office before posts go in the ground settles it. If your neighborhood has covenants, check those too, because an HOA can be stricter than any code and the HOA is who sends the letter. See HOA fence rules.

Two things are the same everywhere in the state. Tennessee law requires calling 811 at least three full business days before digging, which we handle. And Tennessee has a partition fence statute covering shared boundary fences, plus a line of cases saying a boundary both neighbors have honored for long enough can become the legal line. If there is any question about where your line runs, settle it first. See fence line and property disputes.

Common Questions

Getting an Estimate

We come out, walk the line with you, measure it, and put the numbers on paper. You get a written quote that says what it is, not a figure somebody guessed over the phone off a satellite photo. If the honest answer is that a section of your existing fence is worth repairing instead of replacing, we will say so. See repair or replace and our fence cost guide for what actually drives the number.

Call or text Greg at (731) 555-1234, or send the details and tell us the town, roughly how much fence, and what it is for. Monday–Friday, 8am–5pm.