Fence Contractors in Calgary
Thirty-five years of custom fences in this city. That is the Sungreen Landscaping record, working the same wind, frost heave, and gumbo soil that breaks under-built fencing after two winters. Among fence contractors Calgary has filtered, our tenure sits at the long end of the experience curve. Even a fence built well will lean before its third spring if the post depth is wrong.
Most homeowners thinking about fence builders are also weighing DIY. Looks straightforward on paper. In practice: four weekends and a line that wanders half an inch over thirty feet. Our crew finishes most fence installation jobs in two to five days. Quality lands on the first attempt, which is what matters fifteen years out.
Home and business property both fall inside our scope. Backyard fencing in McKenzie Towne, a pasture run on an acreage west of Bearspaw, a 600-foot perimeter for an industrial yard near Foothills. The process runs the same. Site visit, proper drawings, materials sourced correctly, a build that holds for decades. Custom fence projects also get 2D and 3D design drawings before the first post hole gets dug. Call 403-256-7500 for a free estimate.
Below we have listed some of the materials we construct with and the honest pros and cons of each; we know you are going to do your research, so we’ve listed our 100% honest and transparent thoughts on various fencing materials.
Did you know?
Cobblestone was the original natural material used as a form of pavement, concrete and stone hardscape design. Cobblestone streets date as far back as the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Calgary Fence Installation: Materials and Options
Material choice drives most of the long-term ownership story. Price, upkeep, lifespan, how the fence ages after ten winters. All of it follows from what goes in the ground at the start. We install five primary fencing materials, ordered by quality and longevity.
Wood Fences
Cedar and pressure treated. Those are the two wood options most backyards pick between. Cedar runs more upfront, but the natural rot resistance pays off here, since wet springs hammer untreated softwoods. A properly stained cedar fencing run lasts fifteen to twenty years. Pressure treated softwood costs less per linear foot, with service life landing around ten to fifteen years. Both materials warp if the post depth is too shallow. Concrete-set posts at 1.2 metres minimum, below the frost line. That is the build spec for any wood fence in this market. Anything shallower leans within three winters. Last spring our crew pulled a four-year-old privacy run in Cranston where the previous installer had set posts at 600 millimetres. Every other post had heaved.
Vinyl Fences
A sealed surface system. Skip staining and annual treatment entirely. The colour holds up against UV exposure better than most homeowners expect, fifteen to twenty years before any meaningful fade. Effectively zero outdoor maintenance after installation. Hose down, walk away. Colour range and panel styles run wide, including textured wood-grain options that read as natural from a distance. Upfront, vinyl fencing costs more than wood. Twenty years of maintenance savings closes that gap, though, and most customers who switch over do not go back.
Chain Link Fences
Cost-effective. Structurally honest. Low-maintenance. By the linear foot, galvanized chain link is the cheapest secure perimeter material in this market. Vinyl-coated versions add a colour layer and longer service life. Black-coated chain link is now standard on backyard installations where the customer wants security without the visual weight. The downside is that chain link does not block sightlines, which works for some lots and not for others. A community garden in Inglewood went with black vinyl-coated last fall to keep the perimeter visually invisible while keeping deer out.
Ornamental Fences
Ornamental work is where aesthetics get particular. Most clients we meet are weighing wrought iron against aluminum. Steel comes up as the third option. Catalogues run dozens of profiles deep. Picket spacing, scrollwork, and powder-coat colour all get sorted at the design stage, not the install. Lowest maintenance of the three metals belongs to aluminum. Rust is not a concern. Repainting on a schedule disappears from the upkeep list. Thirty years of service life on quality systems. Montage-style aluminum is what we install most often for clients chasing the iron look without iron upkeep.
Agricultural Fences
Post and rail with welded wire mesh is the most common agricultural request for acreage properties under twenty acres. Page wire, barbed wire, and high-tensile electric all serve different livestock or wildlife purposes. Our crew sizes post diameter, rail count, and wire gauge against the actual animal load and the property line distance. Last summer we finished a 1,200-foot mixed page-and-rail run on a horse property east of Strathmore. Five access points total, three automated, all sized for hay equipment passage.
Custom Fence Features and Upgrades
Once the line is set, the upgrade conversation starts.
Gates lead the list. Pedestrian models, vehicle models, automated cantilever versions, swing units with electric openers. Each option changes daily use of the property and the security profile differently. Placement and width get confirmed during the site visit, since post positions for an opening differ from regular line posts. Most clients underestimate gate cost relative to the rest. A double drive gate with an opener can run fifteen to twenty percent of the total project budget.
Lattice tops, picket caps, and decorative post caps add visual interest to a wood run without much cost. Post caps prevent end-grain water absorption, the slow failure mode on capless cedar posts.
Privacy upgrades shift both the look and the wind load. Double-sided pickets. Board-on-board construction. Shadow-box designs. Wind exposure drives structural choices on tall privacy fencing, especially in southwest neighbourhoods where the chinook funnels across exposed lots. Every third post needs bracing on our standard six-foot board-on-board run, not every fifth like a sheltered lot tolerates.
Pair a fence with a deck or a pergola and we coordinate the build as one project. Design language stays consistent across structures. Post placements align with the deck framing. Retrofitting any of that after the fact is far harder than planning it on day one.
What Does a Fence Cost in Calgary?
Pricing on a fencing run is wider than most homeowners expect. We have quoted basic chain link at $20 per linear foot in the morning, then quoted ornamental iron at over $90 per linear foot the same afternoon. Material drives most of the spread.
A standard 100-foot backyard fence drops into a wide band, somewhere between two and nine thousand dollars all in. We wrote quotes at opposite ends of that range in the same Cranston subdivision in the same week.
Pressure treated softwood is the entry point at twenty to thirty-five dollars per linear foot. Cedar takes a step up into the thirty-to-fifty-five bracket. Vinyl fencing sits at thirty-five to sixty. Chain link starts around fifteen to thirty per foot galvanized, twenty-five to forty vinyl-coated. Ornamental tops the ladder around fifty to ninety per foot.
Site conditions shift the number. Sloped lots, rocky soil, fence removal, tight equipment access, corner lot bylaw constraints all add cost to the base material rate. Our estimates are free and site-specific.
Fence Permits and Bylaws
Fence height and placement here are regulated through Land Use Bylaw 1P2007. Rules vary by yard location and lot type.
Side and rear yard runs can go up to 2.0 metres high without a development permit. Front yard runs are capped at 1.2 metres. Corner lots carry a visibility triangle at the intersection, where height drops to 0.75 metres within three metres of the corner. Miss that on a rebuild and the city will require it torn down.
Swimming pools come with their own rules. One and a half metres minimum height. Self-closing self-latching openings. Gaps under 100 millimetres. Horizontal members on the pool side cannot be climbable. The city inspects pool safety compliance separately, and that security barrier check is non-negotiable.
Anything above the bylaw height limits requires a development permit. Drawings go to the city for review. Approval typically lands in a few business days to two weeks, though community-association notification can stretch it on contentious lots.
Sungreen handles development permit applications when the project exceeds default heights. Construction drawings are included at no charge. Seventeen submissions last year, none returned for resubmission since 2022.
Our Process
The process runs the same way on every project, residential or commercial.
A free estimate starts with a site visit. The crew measures the line, checks ground conditions for frost depth and rock, and pulls setback constraints off the plot map. After that, we sit down with you and figure out what you actually want from the build. No charge, no obligation, no high-pressure follow-up call after.
Custom design comes next. 2D drawings show post positions, gate locations, and elevations. 3D rendering is available for ornamental and custom builds. Material choices, height, and gate configuration get confirmed at this stage.
Permit application happens when required. Drawings go to the city office. Our team coordinates any questions that come back. Authorization is in hand before we dig the first post hole.
Build starts after authorization. Most fence installation jobs complete in two to five days. End-of-workday site cleanup is standard. Larger acreage runs or commercial builds extend to one to three weeks. Adjacent outdoor surfaces, landscaping, and existing structures stay protected throughout.
Handover is the last step. Walkthrough with the customer, confirmation the line is straight and the gates swing correctly, sign-off. Workmanship warranty covers the build from that point. Our process page and warranty page cover the wider detail.
Residential and Commercial Fence Projects
Home and business projects both fall within scope. Backyards. Acreage properties. Business perimeters. Multi-family complexes. Agricultural operations. Every project type goes to the same crew of fence builders across the city and surrounding communities. Same crew, very different builds. A backyard cedar privacy run is not a 1,000-foot industrial perimeter.
Commercial work carries stricter requirements. Safety specs are tighter. Permit timelines stretch out. Construction gets phased around business hours. Engineered drawings get pulled in where required. Workmanship warranty applies the same way, residential or commercial.
We work across the city plus the surrounding communities. Chestermere, Airdrie, De Winton, Cochrane, Okotoks, Bearspaw, Springbank, Langdon, Strathmore, and High River. Forty-five minutes out from downtown is the rough working radius. That distance catches most jobs.
A wider outdoor build often wraps fence work into the same project. Sometimes a paving stone patio ties into the back gate. Other jobs need a retaining wall for a grade issue at the fence line. On the bigger ones, everything ties into a broader landscape design we are already running. Coordinated scope keeps the trades from colliding.
Phone 403-256-7500 or send the details through our free estimate form. We follow up within one business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to build a fence in Calgary?
Two to nine thousand dollars is the band where most 100-linear-foot backyard fences land. Pressure treated softwood opens that band at twenty to thirty-five per linear foot. Cedar runs thirty to fifty-five. Vinyl tracks thirty-five to sixty. Chain link comes cheaper at fifteen to thirty galvanized. Ornamental tops out at fifty to ninety per foot. Three things shift the number: site conditions, opening count, and removal of an existing build.
What is the average cost of a 6 foot fence?
Five to seven thousand dollars covers most cedar six-footers on a standard 100-foot residential lot. Vinyl on the same length sits slightly higher, six to eight thousand. Chain link with six-foot black vinyl-coated mesh runs two and a half to four. Those bands assume flat ground, no removal, and one pedestrian gate.
How much do fence contractors charge per hour?
Most new installation work in this market gets quoted by the linear foot, not hourly. Hourly billing shows up only on small repair calls, where a two-person crew typically runs eighty to one hundred and twenty dollars per hour, parts and disposal extra. For any project beyond a couple of broken pickets, expect a per-foot or all-in project quote.
How long does fence installation take?
Two to five days for most standard residential builds, from the start of construction. Larger acreage runs extend to one to three weeks. Permit processing runs separately when the build exceeds bylaw heights. The timeline gets locked in writing before work starts.
Do I need a permit for a fence?
Most standard backyard builds do not. The bylaw allows side and rear yard runs up to 2.0 metres high and front yard runs up to 1.2 metres without a permit. Anything above those limits triggers the permit requirement. Pool security barriers and corner-lot visibility triangles have their own rules that always apply.
What is the cheapest fencing material?
Galvanized chain link, at fifteen to thirty dollars per linear foot installed. Pressure treated softwood comes next at twenty to thirty-five with the upside of a private visual barrier. Cedar runs higher upfront. Cheaper per year, though, across a fifteen-year outdoor service window.
Wood vs vinyl fencing: which lasts longer?
Vinyl, under most conditions. A quality vinyl run holds up twenty to thirty years with minimal upkeep. Cedar runs fifteen to twenty years with regular staining.
What is the best fence company in Calgary?
A number of good fence builders work this market. Sungreen does not claim a top spot. What we offer is thirty-five years of experience installing fences here, ICPI certification on the hardscaping side that often pairs with fence work, free estimates on every project, and a workmanship warranty that means something.
Do you build commercial fences?
Yes. Sungreen handles fence projects for business properties, multi-family buildings, industrial perimeters, and hospitality clients. Commercial builds typically involve engineered drawings and phased construction around business hours.
What areas do you serve?
Calgary plus the surrounding communities. Chestermere out east through to Cochrane in the west. Airdrie north. Okotoks and De Winton south. Filling in the map are Bearspaw, Springbank, Langdon, Strathmore, and High River. A 45-minute drive from downtown is the rough working boundary.
Why Choose Us? | A Passion for Landscaping
35+ Years of Experience
Almost Half a Century of Calgary Landscaping Expertise
