Can a Fence Be Installed on a Sloped or Hard-to-Dig Yard?

Yes. Where the ground slopes, a fence is either racked, with rails that tilt to follow the grade, or stepped, with level panels that drop one after another. New Orleans is close to flat, so true slopes show up mainly beside levees, along drainage ditches and where a yard has sunk away from a raised house.

Racked or stepped: which is better?

• Racked: the rails follow the ground and the pickets stay vertical. The gap under the fence is small, which suits dogs and gentle grades.
• Stepped: each panel is level and the next one sits lower. It works with rigid panels and sharper drops, but leaves a triangle open under each panel.
• Built in place: every board is cut to the ground line. It is the most labor and the closest fit for wood.

I have a dog that digs and a yard that drops. How do I avoid gaps?

Ask for a racked or built-in-place fence so it follows the ground, and then close off the bottom. Options are a treated kick board along the base, pickets cut to the grade, or wire mesh buried along the line. With chain link, a bottom rail or tension wire stops the fabric from being pushed up. In sinking soil, plan to check the bottom edge every year or two.

My yard is steep and rocky and two companies turned the job down. Who does this?

Call us, and we will walk the line before giving an answer. There is no natural rock under New Orleans. What stops an auger here is old brick, buried slab, cypress stumps, oak roots or shell fill, and on wet lots the hole fills with water as fast as it is dug. Each of those has a fix, such as breaking out the obstruction, moving a post along the line or setting the footing in a different way. It takes longer and it has to be priced after a visit.

Do installers dig by hand or with a machine?

Both. A powered auger is quick in an open yard. We dig by hand near marked utility lines, next to a house on piers, around tree roots and in the narrow side alleys between shotgun houses, where no machine fits.

The real price for your yard comes from a free on-site estimate. Call (504) 584-7028 or text us a photo of the fence line.