- Cape Cod · Since 1987
Wood fencing built for Cape Cod weather.
Cedar stockade, solid board, spaced picket and split rail — milled from top-quality lumber, installed by a local crew, and finished to weather into that classic Cape silver-grey.
39+ yrs
Locally owned
Free
On-site estimates
Install & delivery
Available Cape-wide
DIY
Do-it-yourselfers welcome
- Wood Fencing
Real cedar, cut and set the right way.
Wood is still the most popular fence on the Cape, and for good reason: it looks at home next to shingles, it can be built to almost any height or layout, and it ages beautifully in salt air.
We sell and install stockade, board, spaced picket, post-and-rail and split rail, plus matching gates, lamp posts and outdoor shower enclosures.
- Cedar stockade & solid board
- Split rail & post-and-rail
- Pool-code layouts available
- Spaced picket in many styles
- Custom gates and hardware
- Delivery or DIY pickup
- Why homeowners choose it
Key benefits of wood fencing
Many styles and heights in stock at our South Dennis shop and yard.
Classic Cape look
Natural cedar weathers to a soft grey that matches shingled homes without any paint or stain.
Built to your layout
Heights, spacing, and gate widths are made to fit your property line — not a one-size panel.
Top-quality lumber
We only sell top-grade stock, because a cheap fence costs more the second time you buy it.
Privacy where you want it
Solid board and stockade block sightlines and wind on exposed lots and small yards.
Repairable for life
Individual pickets, rails, and posts can be swapped instead of replacing the whole run.
Installed or DIY
Have our crew set it, take delivery, or load up at the shop — do-it-yourselfers are welcome.
- Product galleries
Wood Fencing around the Cape
- Wood fencing guide
Everything to know about wood fencing on Cape Cod
Wood is still the most-requested fence on Cape Cod, and after 39 years of building it here we have strong opinions about how it should be specified, set and maintained. Here is the same guidance we give homeowners across the counter in South Dennis.
Why wood is still the Cape Cod default
Drive any road from Bourne to Provincetown and you will see more cedar than anything else. There is a practical reason for that as well as an aesthetic one. Cedar contains natural oils that resist rot and insects, it is dimensionally stable enough to survive humid summers and freezing winters, and it weathers to the soft silver-grey that has defined Cape architecture for three centuries. A cedar fence does not fight a shingled house; it finishes it.
Wood is also the most flexible material we sell. Because a wood fence is built from individual posts, rails and pickets rather than pre-formed panels, it can follow a sloping yard, wrap an irregular property line, step down a bank, or turn a corner at an odd angle without leaving gaps at the bottom. If your lot is anything other than a flat rectangle, wood usually gives the cleanest result.
Finally, wood is repairable. Salt spray, a falling limb, a backed-up trailer — damage happens. With cedar you replace the affected pickets or a single post and the run looks new again. That repairability is a large part of why a well-built wood fence stays in service for decades on properties where cheaper systems have already been torn out and hauled away.
- Weathers to classic Cape silver-grey with no finish required
- Individual components can be replaced instead of whole panels
- Follows slopes, curves and irregular property lines
- Naturally resistant to rot and insects when properly graded
Choosing a style: stockade, board, picket or rail
Stockade is the workhorse of Cape Cod privacy fencing. Pickets are set tight against one another on a framework of rails, giving a solid screen that blocks sightlines and knocks down wind. It is the most cost-effective way to gain real privacy, and it is available in a range of heights so you can meet a town’s limits along the front line while going taller in the back yard.
Solid board fencing does the same job with a more refined face. Wider, dressed boards are fastened to the rails in a deliberate pattern — flush, board-on-board, or shadowbox — which gives a heavier, more architectural look. Board-on-board and shadowbox layouts look finished from both sides, which matters when a neighbor is looking at the same run you are.
Spaced picket is the choice when the goal is definition rather than privacy: a front yard boundary, a dooryard garden, a run along a walkway. Picket profiles, spacing and heights vary widely, and small changes to those three variables completely change the character of the fence. Split rail and post-and-rail, meanwhile, are the traditional answer for driveways, long property lines and rural lots where you want a visible boundary without walling anything off.
- Stockade — maximum privacy per dollar, many heights available
- Spaced picket — defines a boundary while keeping the yard open
- Solid board — flush, board-on-board or shadowbox for a finished look
- Split rail and post-and-rail — driveways, paddocks and long lines
Building for salt air, sandy soil and Cape winters
A fence on Cape Cod lives a harder life than the same fence twenty miles inland. Salt-laden wind is abrasive and corrosive, sandy soil drains fast but offers less lateral resistance than clay, and winter storms load a solid fence like a sail. Those three facts drive nearly every construction decision we make.
Posts are where fences are won or lost. We set posts deep enough to get below frost and into stable material, size them for the height and solidity of the fence above, and space them so that no single post is carrying more wind load than it should. On exposed lots and along the water we will often recommend closer post spacing or a heavier post than a standard quote assumes — it is a small cost at install and the difference between a straight fence and a leaning one after five winters.
Fasteners matter just as much. Standard fasteners will streak and fail in salt air, so coastal work calls for hardware rated for the environment. The same goes for gate hardware: hinges and latches take more cycles and more abuse than any other part of a fence, and the cheap ones announce themselves within a season. We would rather quote the right hardware up front than come back for it later.
- Posts set below frost line and sized to the fence height
- Corrosion-appropriate fasteners and gate hardware throughout
- Post spacing adjusted for exposed and waterfront lots
- Layouts planned around wind loading, not just the property line
Maintenance, weathering and what to expect over time
Left alone, cedar will move from its original warm tone through a honey stage and settle into grey within roughly one to two seasons depending on exposure. Most Cape homeowners want exactly that, and it requires nothing from you at all. Grey cedar is not failing cedar; the colour change is surface-level and does not affect the strength of the wood.
If you prefer to hold the original tone, plan on a penetrating semi-transparent stain and a re-coat every few years. The important thing is to decide early: finishing new cedar is straightforward, while stripping years of weathering to get back to a uniform finish is a much bigger job. Paint is an option on picket fences in particular, but understand that paint is a commitment — once painted, a fence needs repainting on a cycle forever.
Ongoing care is otherwise minimal. Keep soil, mulch and irrigation spray off the bottom of the boards, trim back vegetation that traps moisture against the fence, and check gate hardware once a year — a hinge tightened in ten seconds prevents a sagging gate that racks the whole gate frame. If a picket splits or a rail is damaged, deal with it while it is one board.
- Natural weathering to grey needs no maintenance at all
- Keep mulch, soil and sprinkler spray off the bottom rail
- Semi-transparent stain if you want to hold the original tone
- Tighten gate hardware annually to prevent sagging
Permits, property lines, pools and the install process
Every Cape town writes its own rules, and they are not identical. Height limits often differ between front and rear yards, corner lots can trigger sight-line restrictions at intersections, and some areas add historic or conservation review. Anything enclosing a swimming pool is governed separately and strictly: barrier height, maximum gaps, and self-closing, self-latching gates with the latch at a required height are all specified.
Property lines are the other thing worth getting right before anyone digs. If there is any doubt about where the line runs, resolve it first — with a survey, a plot plan, or a conversation with the abutter. Moving a completed fence is expensive and awkward; confirming a boundary beforehand costs nothing but a phone call.
Our process is deliberately simple. We come out and walk the property with you, listen to what the fence needs to do, and talk through styles, heights and gate placement in the actual space rather than over the phone. You get a clear written price. When you are ready we schedule the work, lay out the run, set the posts, build the fence, and clean up the site. Then we stand behind it — the same local phone number answers afterward as answered the first time you called.
- Height and setback rules vary by town and by yard
- Confirm property lines before installation, not after
- Pool enclosures require compliant heights, gaps and self-latching gates
- Free on-site estimates, clear pricing, local crews, local follow-up
- Customer reviews
What our customers say
- Real reviews from homeowners across Cape Cod.
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