Fence repair on St. Simons Island: salt damage, storm sections and rental turnarounds

Island fences fail from the outside in. Salt eats the hardware, sun and wind take the surface, and a storm finishes the job.

A fence on St. Simons Island lives a harder life than the same fence in Brunswick. Salt air from the Atlantic on the East Beach side and from the Frederica River on the west rusts plated-steel hinges and screws within a couple of seasons and streaks the boards below them orange. Sun and wind gray the wood on any exposed run. Then a tropical system comes through and takes the weakest sections down. Golden Isles Fencing and Excavation repairs fences across the island, and most of what we fix traces back to one of those three causes.

We are a family-owned, Christian-based company based in Brunswick, and a good share of our island repair work is at second homes and vacation rentals, where the owner is not there to notice the fence until a guest mentions it. We work from photos, schedule around bookings, and fix the cause so you are not calling us again next season.

Rusted hardware: the most common island repair

Walk along a fence on the south end of the island and look at the hinges. If they are plated steel, they are rusting, and the rust is running down the boards. The fix is to replace every hinge, latch, gate spring and exposed fastener with stainless steel. Where rust has stained the wood we clean it with an oxalic-acid wash, and where it has soaked in we replace the board. It is a small job that changes the look of the whole fence and stops the hardware from seizing.

Gray, weathered wood on the ocean side

Wood on the East Beach side and any run with a direct line to the water goes gray and rough within a year or two if it was never sealed. Gray is not the same as rotten. We check each board; if it is sound underneath, a wash, a light sand and a penetrating sealer with UV protection bring the color back and slow the next round of weathering. Split, soft or cupped boards are replaced with treated pine and the whole run is sealed together so it weathers evenly. On the shaded, oak-covered lots inland the problem is mildew rather than sun, and the fix is a mildew-resistant stain and a little more airflow at the bottom of the pickets.

Storm damage and pools

Onshore wind in a tropical system loads a solid privacy fence like a sail, and the posts on the exposed side of a lot are the first to go. After a storm we prioritize island calls where a downed fence leaves a pool unguarded or a yard open, and rentals with guests due are at the front of the line. We rebuild the section to match, reset the posts deeper in fresh concrete with wider footings in the sand, and often suggest a shadowbox or semi-privacy design for the rebuilt run so the next storm has somewhere to push through. For pool fences we make sure the self-closing hinge and self-latch work before we leave, since that is a safety item and a county inspection item.

Posts in island sand

St. Simons is a barrier island of clean sand. It drains well, which is kind to the wood, but it grips a post less firmly than mainland clay, and a post that was set shallow when the fence was built works loose in wind. When we reset a post we go deeper than the original and use a wider footing crowned at grade. Near live oaks the digging is done by hand, and if the original post was set through a major root we move the post rather than cut the root. Glynn County's tree protection rules apply to a repair as much as to a new fence.

Vinyl and aluminum

Vinyl fences on the island mostly fail at a post that cracked at the ground line in wind because it was installed without an internal stiffener. We replace the post, add an aluminum insert and reset it in concrete. Broken rails and panels are matched from the manufacturer where the line is still made. Aluminum fences rarely need more than a bent panel swapped after a storm or a pool gate rehung on stainless hardware.

Rentals: working from photos and calendars

1. Send a photo and the address. We can usually tell you what the fence needs before we drive out.
2. Estimate. Written, with repair and replacement priced side by side if it is a close call.
3. Scheduling. Between bookings or in the off season, so guests never arrive to an open yard.
4. Repair. Stainless hardware, deep-reset posts, matched boards, sealed to weather evenly.
5. Photos back to you. So an absent owner can see the finished work.

Covenants and repairs

Like-for-like repair rarely needs a new HOA approval on St. Simons, but a repair that changes height, style or color usually does, and most committees on the island want to see it. We will tell you if the repair you are asking for crosses that line so it does not turn into a letter from the association. Estimates are free anywhere on the island.

Fence repairs elsewhere in the Golden Isles

Off the island the failures look different. Read about fence repairs in Brunswick, GA, fence repairs on Jekyll Island, and everything we do as a fence company on St. Simons Island.

When repair is not the answer

If salt has finished off the fence, see our vinyl fencing on St. Simons Island, aluminum fencing on St. Simons Island, wood fencing on St. Simons Island, and fence repair service overview.

Common questions about fence repairs on St. Simons Island

Salt, storms and second homes shape the repair calls we get from the island.