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Barrette Fence Installation: The Los Angeles Owner’s Guide
Barrette fence installation in Los Angeles typically runs $4,130 – $10,620 for a full vinyl or aluminum fence line, while a single failed section, post, or gate repair usually falls between $300 and $900 installed. Most owners call us after a wind event, a car bump, or years of slow post lean have finally made a gate impossible to close. We stock Barrette-compatible posts, rails, pickets, and gate hardware on our trucks, so we can usually match your existing fence and swap the failed part without tearing out the whole run.
Here’s what usually happens. You bought a home with a Barrette vinyl fence, or you had one installed years ago. It looked great for a decade. Then one morning you notice a post leaning at a sour angle, a bottom rail cracked where the weed trimmer kept hitting it, or a gate that scrapes the concrete every time you open it. You search for the part, find a dozen product numbers that all look the same, and you are not sure which one actually fits your fence. That is the page we are going to make simple.
Which Barrette Models This Applies To
Barrette Outdoor Living makes the fence sections you see at big-box stores and lumberyards, but the company sells under several product lines. In Los Angeles, we most often see three: the Barrette RDI vinyl privacy fence, the Barrette ActiveYards aluminum fence, and the older Barrette vinyl picket fence that big-box stores carried under the Barrette name before ActiveYards rolled out. Each line uses its own post profile, rail bracket style, and gate hinge pattern. A rail from an RDI panel will not seat into an ActiveYards post without modification, and forcing it will crack the rail end.
The fastest way to identify your fence: look at the inside face of a post. Barrette stamps a small product code near the top cap on most vinyl lines, usually a five to seven digit number you can photograph with your phone. If the stamp is worn off, measure the post. RDI privacy posts are a true 5″ x 5″ square; ActiveYards aluminum posts are usually 2″ or 2.5″ square with a powder-coat finish. For replacement parts, an OEM Barrette rail or picket matches the fade and profile exactly. A quality aftermarket equivalent costs less but often has a slightly different gloss level, and after two California summers side by side you can see the color drift. For a single-section repair, we recommend OEM. For a full fence replacement, aftermarket makes more sense.
One gotcha worth knowing: Barrette changed its vinyl blend around 2012. Fences installed before then have a slightly warmer white, while newer sections are a cooler, bluer white. If you are patching a pre-2012 fence, even an OEM part will show at the seam until the sun weathers it. We tell owners to expect a six-month blend-in period, and we will order the closest match we can find.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Barrette Fence Installation Is Failing
- Post lean at the gate hinge side. The gate’s weight pulls the hinge post outward over time, especially when the post was set in a shallow footing or without enough concrete. Once the post leans more than a few degrees, the gate scrapes and the latch stops lining up. The fix is usually a re-set post with a deeper footing, not a new gate.
- Cracked bottom rail near the ground. In Los Angeles, both salt air near the coast and dry heat inland make vinyl brittle at the ground line. Weed trimmers and edgers knock into the rail and speed it along. A cracked bottom rail is a straightforward section replacement, but if the crack runs into the post pocket, the post needs to come out too.
- Gate sag with no visible hinge damage. Vinyl gates flex more than wood, and the pickets inside the gate panel start to drop when the internal screws back out. Tightening helps for a season, but once the frame members inside the gate have stripped their screw holes, the gate needs a rebuild or a new panel. We see this a lot on west-facing Los Angeles gates that take the afternoon sun.
- White powder or chalky residue on dark aluminum. That is the powder coat oxidizing, common on Barrette aluminum lines within eight years of install in coastal neighborhoods like Playa del Rey or San Pedro. It is cosmetic first, but once the coating breaks down far enough, the aluminum underneath starts pitting. A repaint is possible; a section swap is usually cheaper.
- Pickets popping out of the top rail. The internal rail channels on older Barrette vinyl picket fences crack when the pickets expand and contract through the Los Angeles temperature swings. Once the channel lips break, pickets rattle and eventually drop out. This is a rail replacement job, not a picket-level patch.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A full Barrette-compatible fence installation in Los Angeles runs $4,130 – $10,620 depending on linear footage, fence height, style, and how much old material we are hauling away. A single-section or gate repair runs $300 – $900 for the part and labor together.
What moves the number: fence height (6-foot runs roughly 20% more than 4-foot), terrain slope (stepped installation takes longer on hillside lots in Mount Washington or Echo Park), access to the work area, post spacing, and whether we are pulling a permit. Los Angeles does not require a permit for a fence under 6 feet tall, but anything over that height, or any fence on a retaining wall, may trigger a review.
Every quote includes the parts, the post concrete, stamped engineering if your fence needs it, and haul-away of the old material. You get a written price before any work starts, and the number on that paper is the number you pay unless you change the scope. The job carries our 365-day Done Right Promise: if a post settles, a gate binds, or a section fails inside a year, we come back and make it right at no charge.
| Barrette Fence Job | Typical Installed Cost in Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| Single vinyl section replacement (6 ft) | $300 – $550 |
| Single aluminum section replacement (6 ft) | $375 – $650 |
| Post re-set (vinyl or aluminum) | $250 – $500 per post |
| Gate rebuild or replacement | $450 – $900 |
| Full vinyl privacy fence (100 linear ft, 6 ft) | $4,130 – $7,670 |
| Full aluminum fence (100 linear ft, 5 ft) | $4,720 – $10,620 |
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely diagnose most Barrette fence failures yourself. Check the post for a stamp, measure the rail, and note whether the failure is on the gate side or the field side. You can also tighten gate hinge screws and pull a loose picket back into its channel. None of that will hurt you.
What we would not recommend doing yourself: pulling a post out of concrete, cutting vinyl rails with a circular saw, or rebuilding a gate from scratch. A vinyl post set in concrete weighs more than most people expect, and a binding gate under tension can snap loose and throw a panel into a car window or a person. If the repair involves digging, concrete, or a sagging gate, call us at (213) 277-6578. Trevor Nash has been around this work since he was a teenager watching his uncle re-frame doorways in the Crenshaw district, and he will tell you plainly whether your fence is a two-hour fix or a full replacement. Give you a number first, then pick up the tools.
FAQs
A Barrette vinyl fence in Los Angeles typically lasts 15 to 20 years before the rails become brittle enough to crack, with coastal salt air and inland UV exposure both cutting a few years off the high end. Aluminum lines go 20 to 25 years before the powder coat fails enough to warrant a repaint or section swap.
Yes, a single cracked rail or loose picket can be repaired without replacing the whole section, as long as the post is still solid and the damage is isolated to one component. Once the post itself is cracked or leaning, the fix is a post replacement. Call (213) 277-6578 and we will tell you which one you are looking at.
Most single-section replacements, rail swaps, and gate repairs take 2 to 4 hours on site. A post re-set runs half a day because the concrete needs to start setting before we rehang the panels. A full fence replacement is usually a 2 to 3 day job for an average Los Angeles lot.
We keep common Barrette RDI vinyl rails, pickets, post caps, and gate hardware on our trucks, and we can source the ActiveYards aluminum line same-week from local distributors. For a quote on your exact part, call (213) 277-6578 and describe what you see; we will match it before we arrive.
We are an independent Los Angeles contractor and are not affiliated with Barrette Outdoor Living. We do stock and install Barrette-compatible parts alongside fence materials from other recognized brands, and we are happy to work with the fence you already have.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles at Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles and nearby areas.
