Fence & Gate Installation in Dickinson, TX

What we install in Dickinson

We build the same range of fencing and gates in Dickinson that we build across the rest of our Galveston-area service area:

• Wood and cedar privacy fences, plus pressure-treated pine like the run below.
• Vinyl in open-picket and solid-privacy styles.
• Aluminum and ornamental iron - two of the open, picket-style materials that can clear Dickinson’s 80%-open test.
• Chain link for yards where the 80%-open test doesn’t apply (it specifically does not count as an 80% fence where that test does apply - see below).
• Gates: walk gates and driveway gates, with electric operators and access control, plus commercial fencing and gates.

Financing is available through the providers on our financing page, subject to credit approval.

Dickinson’s fence rules change by yard, not by one townwide number

Dickinson’s Code of Ordinances (Sec. 18-69) treats a fence differently depending on which yard it sits in. In the front yard, a fence can be up to 3 feet with no material restriction, or up to 6 feet if it’s set back at least 3 feet from the front lot line and built as an “80% fence” - the code’s own term, defined in Article II, for a fence where any portion over 3 feet is at least 80% open, with uniformly spaced gaps and solid parts at least 1/2 inch wide. One detail trips people up: that definition specifically says chain link and wire do not qualify, even though a chain-link fence is mostly open space - so a chain-link front-yard fence over 3 feet isn’t an option in Dickinson the way it might be elsewhere.

A side or rear yard that doesn’t face a street gets the most freedom: up to 8 feet, with no 80%-open test at all - wood, vinyl, masonry and chain link are all fair game. But a yard that does face a street is treated more like the front yard: a rear yard on a street tops out at 7 feet and must be an 80% fence, with no posts or rails showing toward the street; a side yard on a street tops out at 6 feet and can’t block the sightline into the city’s visibility triangle at a corner. Building new, or remodeling the structures on the lot by 50% or more of their value, resets every fence on that lot - old and nonconforming ones included - to these same rules.

None of this is a permit number by itself; all development in Dickinson needs a permit under Chapter 14 of the Code of Ordinances, and Community Development, 281-337-2489, confirms what a specific fence project needs.

The 80% fence test, and the visibility triangle

Two more pieces of Sec. 18-69 are worth knowing before you order material. First, the “80% fence” test itself - it only kicks in on the portion of a fence above 3 feet, in the yards where the code requires it (the front yard above 3 ft, and either yard facing a street). Second, the 25-foot visibility triangle at any street corner or driveway: inside that triangle, fences, walls, plantings and signs are all capped at 30 inches, regardless of which yard rule would otherwise apply.

Recent work in Dickinson

Three jobs so far, each with its own write-up:

• Creating Privacy and Style for Albert Carter: A 6′ Pine Guard Privacy Fence in Dickinson, TX
• A 52′ Cedar Fence Installation for Jeanna Smith in Dickinson, TX
• A Rewarding Experience Building a Wooden Fence for Thomas Gilbert in Dickinson, Texas

Questions we get about this