Fence repair in Brunswick, GA: fixing the lean, the rot and the storm damage

Most fence failures in Brunswick start at the ground line. That is where we start too.

Fences in Brunswick fail in a particular way. The pickets are usually fine. The rails are usually fine. What gives is the post, and it gives at the ground, where the bottom foot of wood has spent years in the damp sand of Windsor Park, Sterling or Old Town while the water table sat a few inches below it. The fence leans a little more after every heavy rain, the gate stops latching, and one day a summer thunderstorm lays a whole section over. Golden Isles Fencing and Excavation repairs fences across Brunswick, and because we build them here too, we know exactly where to look.

We are a family-owned, Christian-based company based in Brunswick. We will give you a straight answer on whether your fence is worth repairing, and if it is, we will fix the cause rather than the symptom.

Leaning posts and wet ground

A leaning fence in Brunswick is almost never a board problem. The post footing has lost its grip in saturated sand, or the post has rotted through at grade, or both. Pushing the fence upright and screwing a brace to it lasts until the next rain. Our repair is to dig out the failed footing, replace the post if it is soft at the ground line, reset it deeper in fresh concrete with the top of the footing crowned so water sheds off, and plumb the section against the neighbors. On the low lots near the Marshes of Glynn and Terry Creek we go deeper still. Because we are also a grading company, if the fence line sits in a spot that holds water we can cut a shallow swale so the ground drains and the new footing is not sitting in a puddle every June.

Rot, termites and board replacement

Brunswick's humidity is relentless on wood, and older fences often have soft bottom rails and pickets that crumble at the base. We replace rails and pickets with ground-contact treated pine, screw them rather than nail them, and leave a small gap at the bottom for airflow. New boards are lighter than weathered ones; a coat of stain over the repaired run evens the color out within a few months. Where termite damage shows up in a post or rail, we replace the piece and point out where the colony is likely coming from, usually a wood-to-soil contact somewhere nearby.

Storm damage

Tropical systems that cross Glynn County take fences down in sections, and they usually take the posts with them. After a storm we prioritize repairs where a downed fence leaves a pool unguarded or a dog loose, then work through the rest in order. We rebuild sections to match the surviving fence, reset or replace the posts properly, and, if you are filing an insurance claim, write up the damage and the repair for your adjuster. If a storm has taken more than a third of the posts, we will tell you honestly that a rebuild may cost less than a repair.

Gates that sag and latches that stick

Wood swells in a Brunswick summer, and a gate hung on light hinges with an unbraced frame drops at the latch side until it drags. We rebuild the gate frame with a diagonal brace, hang it on heavy galvanized or stainless hinges and reset the latch. If the gate post has moved, and in wet ground it often has, we reset the post first, because no hinge adjustment fixes a leaning post. For pool gates we make sure the self-closing hinge and self-latching mechanism work every time, since that is a safety item and an inspection item.

Vinyl and aluminum repairs

Vinyl fences in Brunswick mostly fail at the post as well, usually a post that cracked at the ground line in a storm because it had no internal stiffener. We replace the post, add an aluminum insert and reset it in concrete. Broken panels and rails are replaced with matching profiles where the manufacturer still makes them. Aluminum fences rarely need more than a bent panel swapped or a gate rehung with stainless hardware.

Repair or replace: how we decide

• Repair when fewer than about a third of the posts have failed and the rails are sound. Reset the posts, replace the bad boards, stain, done.
• Replace when most of the posts are rotted at grade. A fence in that state will keep failing section by section, and repairing it piecemeal costs more over two years than a rebuild.
• Either way, we price both and let you choose.

Permits for repairs

Like-for-like repair of an existing fence generally needs no permit in either the City of Brunswick or unincorporated Glynn County. If the work grows into replacing long runs or changing the height, a permit can come into play, and we will say so before that happens rather than after.

Estimates for fence repair in Brunswick are free. Send us a photo of the damage and your street, and we will tell you what we think it needs before we even come out.

Fence repairs on the islands

Island fences fail for different reasons, mostly salt and wind. Read about fence repairs on St. Simons Island, fence repairs on Jekyll Island, and everything we do as a fence company in Brunswick.

When the fence is past saving

If a repair does not make sense, see our wood fencing in Brunswick, vinyl fencing in Brunswick, land grading in Brunswick to fix the wet ground that caused the lean, and fence repair service overview.

Common questions about fence repairs in Brunswick

The repair questions we hear most from Brunswick homeowners, answered plainly.