Fencing in San Jose
Handyman service · San Jose & the South Bay
Leaning posts, sagging gates, storm damage, or a short new section — we repair and rebuild wood fencing so it stands straight and stays that way.
What we handle
- Short fence runs, gate openings and sections
- Post replacement and re-setting
- Gate repair and rebuilding
- Storm damage repair
- Board and picket replacement
- Staining and sealing
A fence is only as good as its posts. Boards and rails are cosmetic by comparison — the post is what fights gravity, wind and wet soil for twenty years. Good work means posts set deep enough for their height, concrete crowned at grade so water sheds away instead of pooling against the wood, and galvanized or coated hardware that doesn't streak rust down the boards by year two. Gates get real hinges sized for their weight and a diagonal brace, because an unbraced gate sags into its latch within a season. The cheap shortcuts are easy to spot: a rotted post 'fixed' with a steel stake alongside it, gates hung on screws too short to hold, and new boards nailed onto rails that are already failing.
Most South Bay fencing is redwood, and most of it fails the same way: the post rots right at the grade line, where soil moisture and air meet, and the first big winter storm does the rest. When January's atmospheric rivers saturate the ground and the wind comes up, every fence with soft posts leans together. Sprinklers speed things along. A head that hits the bottom rail twice a day rots the kickboard and the lowest foot of boards years early. Sun-facing runs dry out, cup and crack instead. And on the larger Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy lots, the runs are long and the gates work harder — driveway gates, side-yard gates and animal-adjacent fencing take real abuse.
We handle fence repair: replacing rotted or snapped posts, re-setting leaning ones, rebuilding and re-hanging gates, swapping damaged boards and rails, storm-damaged sections, and staining or sealing. You get a firm price after we've walked the line and checked each post — a fence with one bad post is a different job than a fence with nine. We're straight about the repair-or-replace math: if most posts are gone, repair is money spent twice, and a full new fence line usually lands beyond the sub-$1,000 handyman scope we work in — we'll say so and point you to a licensed fence contractor. Old material gets hauled away, and if it's a shared fence, we'll put the quote in writing for both neighbors.
How we approach fencing
- 1We walk the fence line and check every post, rail and gate — not just the obvious damage.
- 2You get a firm price for the sections that actually need work.
- 3Bad posts come out and new ones get set in concrete, crowned to shed water.
- 4Rails, boards and gates are rebuilt, re-hung and aligned.
- 5Old material is hauled away and the line is left clean.
Typical cost: $200 – $800. See the full pricing guide — every job gets a firm quote before work begins.
More fencing projects
Fencing — common questions
- My fence is leaning — can it be repaired, or does it need replacing?
- It depends on the posts. If one or two are rotted or snapped, we replace those posts, re-set the section and re-hang the boards — a straightforward repair. If most of the posts are soft at the grade line, repair is a losing game, and we'll tell you honestly that full replacement by a fencing contractor is the better spend. Cost tracks the post count almost exactly: most repairs land in our $200 – $800 range, with a single snapped post at the bottom and a multi-post storm section with a rebuilt gate at the top. Pulling old concrete footings out of wet clay is the slow part, and long panel runs that have to come off and go back on add time too. One leaning post fixed in the fall sits at the bottom of that range; the same post after a January storm often takes two neighbors with it.
- Can you replace just one fence post without rebuilding the fence?
- Yes — single post replacement is one of our most common jobs. We detach the panels, pull the old post and footing, set a new post in crowned concrete, and reattach everything plumb. Done right, the repaired section ends up stronger than the fence around it.
- The fence is shared with my neighbor — how does that work?
- In California, neighbors generally share responsibility for a boundary fence, and costs are commonly split. We don't get in the middle of that conversation — but we will put the scope and price in writing so both households are looking at the same numbers before any work starts.
- Do you build brand-new fences?
- We build short runs and small sections — a gate opening, a stretch between the house and property line, a dog run — where the job stays within handyman scope under $1,000. Full new fence lines almost always exceed that, so we refer those to licensed fence contractors and stick to what we do best: repairs.
Need fencing done right?
Tell us what needs doing and we'll get you a clear estimate.