What people ask us about fencing in Burbank

Chain link and ranch rail open the list, chain link at $18 to $40 a linear foot and ranch rail at $18 to $38. Wood runs $30 to $60, vinyl $40 to $70, and wrought iron $50 to $120. Gates price separately, and an automatic driveway gate on a Media District or Burbank Hills entry is its own line rather than part of the run.

Chain link is the cheapest way to enclose ground at $18 to $40 a linear foot, though the code keeps it out of a front or street-facing side yard, so it belongs on a back line or a dog run. For six feet you cannot see through, cedar does the most per dollar, and 150 feet of it generally lands between $4,500 and $9,000 installed. Vinyl asks more up front at that height and then asks nothing of you afterwards.

Burbank is its own city with its own building department, so this goes through the City of Burbank Community Development Department, Building Division, not LADBS and not the County. A standard rear or side yard fence at the allowed height frequently needs no permit, while a masonry wall, a fence above the code limit, a retaining wall, or work in the public right of way generally does. Everything is governed by Burbank Municipal Code Title 10.

Outside the front and street-facing side yard setbacks, which means your interior side and rear yards, Burbank allows up to eight feet, and that single figure covers wood, vinyl, metal and masonry alike. The front yard is where people get caught: the cap there is four feet, and any part of the fence above two feet has to be an open design, at least half see-through across every one-foot section. A street-facing side yard runs six feet if it is fifty percent open and four feet if it is solid, rising to eight feet behind the rear of the house. Corner lots also carry a sight triangle near the driveway and intersection, and height is measured from whichever is lower, the natural grade or the finished grade.

Both of you, usually. California Civil Code section 841, the Good Neighbor Fence Act, presumes neighbors share the cost of a boundary fence equally. You owe your neighbor 30 days written notice before work starts, setting out what you plan to build, why, and the estimated cost. Two parts of that notice get skipped: it has to state the equal-split presumption itself, and give the dates you mean to work. The presumption can be rebutted where an even split would be unfair, so a fence built taller or more decorative than the boundary actually needs is not automatically half theirs.

Material decides it. Cedar or redwood gives you 15 to 20 years if you seal it every few years, and the dry heat here is harder on an unsealed board than the rain ever is. Vinyl runs 25 years and up with nothing but a hose. Powder-coated iron and galvanized chain link both outlast the wood by a wide margin. On the hillside streets the Santa Ana winds matter more to lifespan than the material does, because a solid fence catches wind that an open one lets straight through.

A three-rail ranch fence, usually with no-climb wire behind it. The Rancho Equestrian District near the LA Equestrian Center is horse-zoned, and the look there is a three-rail run with tight woven mesh on the inside so a hoof cannot go through. Welded pipe corral suits pens and high-traffic corners where a wood rail would not last. Barbed wire is prohibited outright under Title 10, so it is not an option on any Burbank property, horse-zoned or not.

On the hillside streets, yes. The Verdugo brush sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, so within a few feet of the house we favor metal, block or masonry and hold solid wood back to protect defensible space. It changes the material more than it changes the price. Down on the flats around Magnolia Park and Hollywood Way it is not a factor, and cedar or vinyl goes in as normal.