What a privacy fence costs in Toledo

A 6 foot treated wood privacy fence in Toledo runs $25 to $35 per foot installed. That band comes from Straitline Fence, the only fence company serving Toledo that publishes what it charges, and it covers materials and labor together.

Put your own footage in the estimator and you get the range for your yard in about a minute. The rest of this page explains how that number is built so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.

Worked examples

These use the local $25 to $35 band for 6 foot treated pine privacy fence, with no gates and no removal of an old fence.

Now a more realistic job. Say 150 feet with one walk gate, and the old fence has to come out:

• Fence, 150 feet at $25 to $35: $3,750 to $5,250
• One walk gate, using the Ohio range of $200 to $600: $200 to $600
• Tear out and haul away 150 feet of old fence at $5 to $10 a foot: $750 to $1,500
• Total: about $4,700 to $7,350

That spread is wide because it is honest. Two companies quoting the same yard will land in different parts of it.

What the other price lists say

Only one Toledo contractor publishes rates, so it is worth seeing where the other numbers sit.

• A Toledo area guide puts wood privacy at $25 to $45 a foot installed.
• Arrow Fence of Ohio, in Gahanna, publishes $25 to $40 a foot for treated pine privacy.
• Scheiderer Fence in central Ohio publishes $16 to $26 a foot, with treated pine starting around $16.

Scheiderer’s number is roughly half of Straitline’s. That is a real signal rather than a mistake. Someone in Ohio is selling privacy fence at the low end, so if every quote you get is near $35 a foot, keep calling.

One figure you will find online is worth ignoring. HomeBlue lists Toledo wood privacy at $16 to $23 a foot, but that page is from 2022 and it is priced for a 4 foot fence. It is not the same product as a 6 foot privacy fence.

What moves the price

Gates. Ohio contractors quote $200 to $600 for a walk gate and $600 to $2,500 for a double drive gate. A gate is a small amount of fence and a large amount of work, so every gate you add moves the total more than you would expect.

Taking out the old fence. Budget $5 to $10 a foot on top, which is the Toledo published rate for tear out and haul away. Old posts set in concrete are the slow part.

Slope and hard ground. National crew figures say sloped sites and rocky soil cut daily progress by 30 to 50 percent. A hillside yard or heavy clay will show up in the quote as extra hours.

Height. In Toledo you can go to 6 feet along the side and rear, and 3.5 feet in the front yard. Anything over 6 feet needs a full building permit and plan review, which turns a simple job into a slow one.

Style of picket. A plain dog ear fence, with pickets side by side on one face, is the baseline. Board on board overlaps the pickets so no gap opens as the wood dries, and it uses 15 to 20 percent more boards per foot than a standard privacy fence. Shadowbox alternates boards on either side of the rails so the fence looks the same from both yards. Both cost more than plain dog ear.

The permit. A Certificate of Zoning Compliance in the City of Toledo costs $50. Ask whether your installer pulls it or whether you do.

Minimum job. The Toledo contractor with the published rate card says residential projects start at $975, so a short run of fence will not scale all the way down.

Sales tax, and why you will not see a tax line

Ohio treats a fence set in the ground as an improvement to real property. Under Ohio Administrative Code 5703-9-14, the contractor is the consumer of the materials, which means he pays the sales tax on lumber, concrete and hardware when he buys them. He does not charge you sales tax on the job.

So your invoice should be one lump sum with no tax added on the end. The tax is already inside the per foot price. For reference, the combined rate is 7.75 percent in Lucas County and 6.75 percent in Wood County, which is one of the reasons a Perrysburg job and a Toledo job do not cost a contractor the same.

What a fair contract looks like

Half down and half on completion is normal for a residential fence in Toledo, and it is legal. Ohio’s 10 percent deposit cap in Revised Code 4722.04 only applies to home construction contracts above $25,000, and almost no residential fence gets there.

Two things to look for. First, a written workmanship warranty. The local published example is one year. Second, the cancellation notice. When you sign a contract at your kitchen table, Ohio’s Home Solicitation Sales Act gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel, and the contract has to carry that notice in bold type next to your signature along with a detachable cancellation form. If the notice is missing, the three day clock never starts.

When to buy

Ohio fence companies are busiest in summer, when they quote 8 to 12 weeks out and charge 15 to 20 percent more than fall and winter rates. Fall brings the wait down to 4 to 6 weeks and the best combination of price and ground conditions. In deep winter the clay freezes and post holes get difficult.

If you are flexible on dates, say so when you ask for a quote. It is worth money.

See your price range

Put your fence runs into the estimator, pick treated pine privacy and your height, add the gates you need, and see the range for your own yard. If it looks right, request a quote and up to three local fence pros will come out and measure.