You’re a savvy shopper. You’ve probably been looking around at various options for that fence you’ve been wanting to install. You’ve seen the beautiful photos, admired the look of some and had your doubts about others. And if you’re on this site you’ve probably been looking pretty closely at aluminum fencing, but maybe you’re not sure about that sticker price.
It’s true: residential aluminum fences can be expensive. There’s no getting around that. But the key word there is that they “can” be expensive. They don’t have to be. There are ways to get a gorgeous aluminum fence that will look great around your yard, enclosing your pool, gating your driveway, all for a price that is downright reasonable.
But first let’s look into aluminum fences and figure out why they’re so expensive, and we’ll see what can be done to cut the cost. There are two big factors in price when it comes to aluminum fences being so expensive: installation and markup. You might look at the price of an aluminum fence and feel that it’s not that bad only to find out that, with installation, it’s way out of your price range. What do the numbers tell us?
Aluminum Fence Installation Cost
HomeAdvisor did a study of aluminum fence prices and they found that installation costs alone for your fence cost anywhere from $15 to $40 per foot! Now that’s a wide range, and the reason for that is because every yard is different and different yard footprints are going to be more difficult than others (for example, that $40 price is probably a yard on a steep slope, or with a lot of curves and angles, while the $15 is probably a flat, level square.) But still, $15 per foot–at the bottom of the range!–is an awful lot of money when you start measuring out the perimeter of your yard.
Let’s take an average yard for our calculations. If it’s a medium yard, say a quarter acre, then that puts the perimeter at 417 feet (and for making the math easier let’s just call it 400). 400 feet of fencing around your quarter acre yard. That’s going to be $6000 for installation alone! It’s no wonder that people think that aluminum fences are expensive. $6000 is a lot of money to begin with, and then to realize that it’s only the installation cost: not materials, not permits, not property line surveys or other utility inspections. And then realize that we’re basing that $6000 on the base low-end estimate of $15 per foot! If you’re on the high end, that’s a $16,000 installation bill.
Almost makes you want to rethink getting an aluminum fence, doesn’t it? But don’t worry, there’s a solution coming up that will take that price WAY down. We’ll get to it in a second. First, let’s talk about the markup on aluminum fencing.
Aluminum Fence Cost Markup
Aluminum fencing is a beautiful, low-maintenance, secure and attractive addition to any home. But if you don’t shop around, you can end up paying a lot more for it than you need to.
Let’s look at HomeAdvisor again, we see that they’re putting the price of a standard panel of aluminum fence at $60. (They define a panel as a 4’x6’ section of fence. A panel of fence is what goes between the individual posts.) That might sound reasonable if we’re looking at it on its own. $60 for a panel is only $10 per foot, but going back our average quarter-acre yard that’s a $4000 fence. That’s still an awful lot of money (and it doesn’t include that crazy $6000 installation bill we talked about).
But let’s look at what happens when you go to a seller that only deals in aluminum fences–like Aluminum Fences Direct! That same 4’x6’ standard panel (let’s use the Floridian fence, because it’s a good, basic fence) is only $53. That $7 may not seem like much, but it puts the price of that quarter-acre fence at $3533–nearly five hundred dollars cheaper than the standard price that you’d pay from the average fence installer.
And that’s only where the markup starts. HomeAdvisor puts the price of an ornamental fence at $15-$40 per foot (so we’re looking at an ornamental-fenced yard anywhere between $6000 and $16000!) But here at Aluminum Fences Direct you can look at the prices of our most ornamental fences and see that the prices are much lower. Our Elegant Arch fence comes in at $18 a foot. So does our Castle fence. The Manhattan or Appalachian fences are ornamental and they’re only $11 per foot.
See, when it comes to aluminum fences, there’s the mainstream fencing companies who stock all kinds of fences and charge you extra for aluminum. Or there’s Aluminum Fences Direct who specialize in aluminum fences and can therefore get you fences for much cheaper with no difference in quality.
Aluminum Fence Pricing vs Other Types of Fencing
It’s important to note that if you’re in the market for a metal fence, aluminum is going to be a lot less expensive than your other options. Take a steel fence, for instance. HomeAdvisor puts the price of a section of steel fencing at $180 to $350. (A section is measured differently from a panel, but that works out to $22 to $47 per foot.) That puts our hypothetical yard, now surrounded by steel fencing, at between $8,800 and $18,800! So while you can put steel around your yard, do you really want to pay out that much money for it?
Plus installation costs of steel fencing, which they put at between $30 to $50 per foot. Per foot! This fence is really getting out of hand.
Or how about wrought iron? That’s a good looking fence, too (though it does require some serious maintenance to keep it from rusting.) That’s $24 to $30 per foot in materials and $24 to $44 to install. So, you’re not saving money on the wrought iron, either.
So is Aluminum Fencing Really That Expensive After All?
Well, we’ve done the math and we’ve found that the aluminum fencing is definitely cheaper than steel. And we’ve done the math to find that it’s definitely cheaper than wrought iron.
And we’ve done the math to show that Aluminum Fences Direct’s prices are definitely better than the national average that is marked up by fence companies who don’t specialize in aluminum like we do.
The big question, then, is what about installation? That’s where a lot of the price was.
That’s the beauty of Aluminum Fences Direct. We give you all the tools, all the know-how, all the information that you need to be able to install the fence yourself. Will it require getting your hands dirty? Yes. Will it save you $6000 (at a minimum)? You bet.
Following our complete and trusted DIY Fence Installation Guide, you’ll be able to install the aluminum fence yourself, no need for professional help. It doesn’t require much. Some string, stakes, a post hole digger, a little concrete mix and a Phillips screwdriver. Really–we’re not kidding. That’s all there is to it.
Are Aluminum Fences Expensive–Or Do They Pay For Themselves?
While we can’t break it down into numbers as evenly as dollars per foot, we know from years of experience (and Realtors will back us up) that curb appeal is what sells a house. If you have an attractive aluminum fence surrounding your yard then your home value just went up. It will appraise for more, because you’ve improved the property. It looks better, it has better security, it protects your kids and pets, and it keeps out wild animals (and roaming criminals).
So while you are making an investment into the fence of both your money and your labor, you’re not only getting a beautiful addition to your home, you’re getting a piece of property that is worth more. So it really doesn’t seem expensive at all; it seems like a prudent investment.
Are you ready to put a new aluminum fence in your yard?
