Vinyl fencing on St. Simons Island: the fence salt air cannot touch

On an island where wood grays in a season and steel rusts, vinyl is the material that simply does not care.

Walk down any street in East Beach or the south end of St. Simons Island and look at the fences. The wood ones facing the ocean have gone silver. The steel gates have rust bleeding from the hinges. The vinyl fences look the way they did the day they went in. That is not a sales pitch; it is what salt air does to different materials over a few years on a barrier island. For homeowners on St. Simons who want privacy without a maintenance schedule, and for the many owners who rent their houses out and are not there to keep up with staining, vinyl is the fence we recommend first.

Golden Isles Fencing and Excavation installs vinyl fences across St. Simons, from the Village and Mallery Street up Frederica Road to the north end. We are a family-owned, Christian-based company based in Brunswick, and we build vinyl on the island around the three things that make island work different: the covenants, the trees and the wind.

Covenants first

St. Simons is unincorporated Glynn County, so the fence permit comes from the county, but on most of the island the real gatekeeper is the homeowners association. Sea Palms, Hampton Plantation, the Island Club, the streets off Sea Island Road and dozens of smaller subdivisions have architectural review committees, and their standards on fencing vary. Some allow six-foot vinyl privacy in the back and side yards only. Some limit street-facing fences to open picket. Several have opinions about color. We collect the covenants before we draw anything, choose a style and color that fits, and submit the plan to the committee on your behalf so it is approved on the first pass.

Color choices that suit an island lot

Bright white vinyl is the classic look, and it reads well against a painted house in the Village. Against the live oaks and palmettos of a wooded lot near Frederica, some owners find it harsh, and a few review committees agree. Fence-grade vinyl now comes in tan, clay, gray and woodgrain finishes, with the same UV inhibitors running through the material so they hold their color under the island sun. We bring samples to the estimate so you can hold them against the house and the trees before deciding.

Building for onshore wind

A vinyl panel flexes in a gust and springs back. The fence fails only if the post gives, so on St. Simons the post is the whole job. Island soil is clean sand that drains well but grips a post less than mainland clay, and lots on the ocean side take the full force of an onshore wind. Our standard here is a five-inch post set deeper than our mainland practice, in a wide concrete footing crowned at grade, with an aluminum or steel stiffener inside the post on long runs, at corners and at gates. On the most exposed lots we shorten the post spacing and suggest a semi-privacy or lattice-top design that lets pressure bleed through instead of loading the whole panel.

Trees, roots and the marsh edge

Vinyl posts go in the same holes wood posts would, so the live oaks on your lot are handled the same careful way. Glynn County's tree protection ordinance covers mature oaks, and cutting a structural root can kill a tree older than the house. We hand-dig near trunks, shift posts to miss large roots and stop to talk with you if one cannot be avoided. On marsh-front lots along Village Creek, Dunbar Creek or the Frederica River, the state marsh buffer restricts ground disturbance near the edge, and we keep the fence and our equipment out of it.

Styles that work on St. Simons

• Tongue-and-groove privacy. Six-foot solid panels for backyards and pool surrounds where the covenants allow.
• Lattice-top and semi-privacy. The island favorite, because it softens a long run and handles wind better than a solid wall.
• Picket. Three- and four-foot front-yard fences for the Village, Mallery Street and covenant-restricted street frontages.
• Pool enclosures. Vinyl privacy or picket around a pool, built to the barrier height and self-closing gate rules that apply to residential pools.

Scheduling around rentals

A large share of the houses on St. Simons are second homes or vacation rentals, and a fence going up while guests are in residence is nobody's idea of a good week. We schedule the posts and the panels between bookings, or in the off season, and we stage material so the yard is usable in between. Tell us your calendar and we will work around it.

What upkeep looks like

Rinse the fence with fresh water after a storm blows salt across the yard, and hose off any green film that grows on the shaded side over a humid summer. Keep the trimmer off the bottom rail. That is the entire maintenance list, which is exactly why vinyl suits the island so well. Estimates are free anywhere on St. Simons, financing is available on larger projects, and we are happy to price vinyl next to aluminum or wood so you can see the difference.

Vinyl fencing elsewhere in the Golden Isles

Conditions change once you leave the island. Read about vinyl fencing in Brunswick, GA, vinyl fencing on Jekyll Island, and everything we do as a fence company on St. Simons Island.

Comparing options on St. Simons

Before you decide, see our aluminum fencing on St. Simons Island, wood fencing on St. Simons Island, fence repairs on St. Simons Island, and vinyl fencing service overview.

Common questions about vinyl fencing on St. Simons Island

Island owners ask about salt, covenants and wind. Here are our answers.