The Area's Best Privacy Fence Installation

What a Real Backyard Privacy Fence Should Look Like

The cookie-cutter privacy fence is six feet tall, dog-ear pickets, three rails, posts on eight-foot centers. That spec is what every production builder slaps in, and it is fine — until the boards dry out, gap up, and your neighbor can read your magazine through the fence by year two. We talk through whether tighter spacing, board-on-board layering, or a 1x6 top cap is worth the extra material cost for the way you actually want to use the yard.

Spend the money once, see it pay you back every summer.

Cedar vs Pressure-Treated for Backyard Privacy

Cedar is the upgrade everybody is told to want, and for good reason — it moves less, weathers more evenly in Georgia humidity, and lasts the longest of the wood options. Pressure-treated is the workhorse — about thirty percent cheaper up front and still a solid fifteen to twenty years if you stain it. Both are honest answers.

We bring sample boards from both to the estimate — whether the project is a wood privacy fence or a low-maintenance vinyl privacy fence — so you can hold them up against your house and your neighbor's run before you commit.

Board-on-Board, Shadowbox, or Dog-Ear Privacy Layouts

The layout style is what your fence will actually look like in three years, after the wood has done what wood does. Board-on-board uses a back-layer picket behind every gap, so when the front layer shrinks, the gap is still solid. Shadowbox alternates pickets front-and-back so the fence looks finished from both sides — a nice touch on the property-line side facing your neighbor.

Dog-ear is the simplest and cheapest, and it can absolutely look great when it is built tight.

Setting Posts on Eight-Foot Centers, in Concrete, Overnight

On a typical six-foot privacy fence local pros in our network install across Alpharetta, post spacing should be eight feet on center — never nine to save lumber, never seven because the crew miscounted. On an eight-foot privacy fence, vetted contractors in our network tighten that to six-foot centers because the wind load doubles. Every post goes into concrete, every line cures overnight, and we do not hang a single picket until the next morning.

Skip the cure and the first windstorm is already winning.

Gates That Match the Fence and Still Swing Right

A privacy fence gate is the moment of truth — it carries more weight than a yard gate, gets pulled and slammed twice a day, and racks fast if it is not braced and hung right. The contractor we match you with use heavy-duty self-closing hinges on every privacy gate, brace the frame diagonally inside the picket layout, and walk it through a full swing before you ever touch the latch. Pool gates — a regular request on our Johns Creek and Milton installs — get D&D MagnaLatch gate hardware tested at every angle.