Wood Fence in North Fort Myers - Written Price Per Foot, Permit Handled

What a wood fence installation in North Fort Myers actually looks like - and what you’ll spend

A pressure-treated or cedar wood fence job in North Fort Myers runs from about $3,500 for a standard backyard perimeter up to $9,000 for larger acreage parcels with custom gate work and heavier-grade posts. Most projects in this part of Lee County need two to three days on site - day one for demolition and post-setting, day two for framing and pickets, and a possible third for stain and walkthrough trimming. Call (844) 638-7249 when you’re ready to get a fixed price, not a vague range, and we’ll put a written estimate together from an actual site walk.

How a North Fort Myers wood fence gets built - stage by stage

The process isn’t complicated, but the details during the first few hours decide whether the fence is still standing straight five years later.

1. Site marking and utility verification (Day 1, first hour)
Before anything goes in the ground, we lay out the fence line with stakes and paint, confirm the set-back from the platted property line, and call in a utility locate through 811. In unincorporated parts of North Fort Myers, particularly the older canal-side neighborhoods off Bayshore Road, we often find abandoned septic drainfield lines that were never formally recorded - so a visual scan of the yard matters just as much as the locate ticket. If the fence line intersects a drainfield, we shift it inward by the required Lee County Environmental Health setback rather than splicing into it.

2. Demolition and post-hole digging (Day 1, remainder)
If there’s an existing fence, we pull it, haul the debris, and then dig post holes to a minimum of 30 inches - deeper on the river-adjacent low lots where soils turn sandy and we want extra lateral grab against storm gusts. Post spacing stays at six to eight feet on center, set in high-strength concrete from Quikrete or Sakrete, and we plumb every post individually with a four-foot level before bracing them overnight. The concrete needs at least 12 hours of cure time, which is why you’ll see posts on day one and fence panels on day two.

3. Frame and picket installation (Day 2)
Once the posts are locked, we run two-by-four horizontal stringers between them - three rails on a six-foot fence, always - and then face-fasten the pickets. We use ring-shank galvanized nails or exterior-rated deck screws, not staples, because the humidity in North Fort Myers will back staples out of pressure-treated pine within two seasons. Pickets get a consistent half-inch gap above grade to avoid wicking moisture from sprinkler overspray, which is relentless in the 55-plus communities around Pine Island Road.

4. Gate hardware and custom openings (Day 2 or 3)
Every wood gate gets a welded steel frame inside the wood, not a flimsy turnbuckle-and-cable kit. On an acreage property - say, a two-acre lot off Slater Road where the owner wants a ten-foot drive gate for a boat trailer - we step up to heavier six-by-six posts, through-bolted gate hinges, and a cantilever roller system if the ground is uneven. You’ll decide the gate width, swing direction, and whether you want a single or double-leaf setup at the start of the project so we build the post structure accordingly.

5. Staining and final walk (Day 3)
Pressure-treated pine needs at least a few weeks of drying before stain, but cedar can be stained immediately. We apply a penetrating oil-based stain, not a film-forming sealer - film sealers peel in sheets under Florida sun. We walk the entire line with you, check every gate latch, and make sure no picket is proud or cupped. Any adjustment gets handled right then, not scheduled for a callback two weeks later.

For homeowners pairing a new wood fence with a driveway upgrade, we regularly sequence the two so the fence crew isn’t working around fresh asphalt or pavers. Our team handles Paver Driveways in North Fort Myers and Concrete Driveways & Concrete Work in North Fort Myers as part of the same coordinated project, which keeps the gate post layout perfectly aligned with the new driveway width.

The wood and hardware choices you’ll make - and what each one means

You’re not just picking “wood.” You’re picking a species, a grade, a post dimension, and a fastening system, and those four decisions move the final number as much as the linear footage does.

• Pressure-treated southern yellow pine: The most common pick in North Fort Myers and the one that keeps price toward the lower end of the $3,500-$9,000 range. It resists rot and termites, but it will twist and check as it dries - which is why we use three-rail framing and ring-shank fasteners, not a two-rail staple-up. Expect to stain it within 60 days, and again every two to three years.
• Cedar (western red or eastern white): A step up in material cost, typically adding $8-$14 per linear foot over pine. Cedar is lighter, more dimensionally stable, and carries natural oils that resist decay without chemical treatment. The trade-off: it dents more easily and won’t hold a screw quite as aggressively as dense treated pine, so gate posts in cedar need blocking and through-bolting.
• Six-by-six vs. four-by-four posts: On a standard six-foot privacy fence, four-by-fours are adequate. But on any section that holds a gate wider than four feet, or on a fence line that runs parallel to the Caloosahatchee corridor’s open wind fetch, we strongly recommend six-by-six posts set at least 36 inches deep. The difference in material is roughly $200-$600 on a typical yard, and it prevents a gate-sag call two years from now.
• Picket style - dog-ear, flat-top, or shadowbox: Dog-ear is the stock option and the most cost-effective. Flat-top gives a cleaner sightline and costs about 15% more in labor because every picket gets individually cut and aligned. Shadowbox - alternating pickets on both sides of the rail - gives you semi-privacy with airflow, which matters on canal lots where you want the breeze but not the neighbor’s direct sightline.
• Fasteners - ring-shank galvanized nails vs. exterior screws: Screws add labor time and about $3-$5 per linear foot, but they eliminate the slow nail-backout that humidity causes over time. If you plan to own the home more than five years, the screw-upgrade is almost always worth it.

What a wood fence costs in North Fort Myers, FL

For a property with 150 to 200 linear feet of fence line, standard six-foot pressure-treated pine with one walk gate runs $3,500 to $6,000. The same footage in cedar with a double-drive gate and shadowbox pickets can push toward $9,000. Here is what moves the number.

Linear footage: The single biggest variable. A small backyard enclosure of 100 feet lands near $3,500; a full perimeter on a half-acre lot easily crosses $7,000 before any material upgrades.

Gate count and type: Each walk gate adds $400-$700. A drive gate, especially one wide enough for a boat trailer or RV, adds $1,200-$2,500 depending on the steel frame and hardware. Gated communities and HOAs in North Fort Myers sometimes require a specific gate style or self-closing hinge - we price those by spec, not by assumption.

Existing fence removal and disposal: Tearing out and hauling an old chain-link or rotted wood fence adds $4-$8 per linear foot, depending on how the posts were set and whether we’re cutting concrete footings out of the ground.

Soil and post-depth requirements: Sandy, low-lying lots near the river require deeper post holes and more concrete per hole. A 36-inch post depth uses roughly 30% more Quikrete per hole than a standard 24-inch depth, and that adds up over 40 or 50 posts.

Permits: Lee County requires a fence permit for any new installation, and the fee schedule is tied to the project valuation. We pull the permit as part of the job and the cost is line-itemed in your estimate - typically $150-$300 for a residential wood fence permit, depending on the scope. We don’t start digging until the permit card is posted.

Our written estimates come as a fixed-price, line-item document - you’ll see material quantities, labor, permit fees, and disposal broken out separately. No change orders for “unexpected soil” once we’ve walked the site. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate for wood fence work in North Fort Myers, and we’ll give you a number you can budget against, not a range you have to guess from.

What North Fort Myers homes specifically do to this job

Building a wood fence in North Fort Myers is not the same job as building one five miles south across the river in Fort Myers proper. The first reason is permitting. Because North Fort Myers is unincorporated Lee County, every fence permit runs through the Lee County Building Department - not a municipal office - and the inspectors work off post-Hurricane Ian code amendments that tightened wind-load requirements for fence structures in the AE and VE flood zones redrawn along the Caloosahatchee after the 2022 storm. What that means on the ground: your post embedment depth and concrete collar diameter may be specified directly in the approved plans, not left to the installer’s judgment. We pull permits for every fence, no exceptions, and we schedule the inspection so it doesn’t stall the build.

The second reason is the housing stock itself. A huge share of the fence work we quote in the Pine Island Road and US-41 North corridor is on manufactured-home community lots - the large 55-plus parks that dominate North Fort Myers demographics. These lots often have strict community rules about fence height and style, and the property lines frequently butt up against shared utility easements or retention swales. We coordinate with community management before the first post hole goes in, because the last thing anyone needs is a fence torn down by an HOA compliance order or a drainage district notice. On the acreage parcels further east, especially off Slater Road and Bayshore, the fencing challenge shifts to long, unbuffered wind runs - which is where six-by-six posts, three-rail framing, and through-bolted gate hardware stop being an upgrade and start being a requirement.

Frequently asked - wood fence in North Fort Myers

Get a fixed-price wood fence estimate in North Fort Myers

Call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll schedule a site walk at your North Fort Myers property - no charge, no obligation. We’ll measure the line, talk through pine vs. cedar, gate placement, and any HOA or Lee County permit specifics, and then hand you a written, line-item price that holds. If you’re also considering a wider property improvement, we handle everything from Fence Installation to full exterior work across North Fort Myers. The 730-Day Done Right Promise backs every job: if it’s not done right, we make it right. Built to last, backed in writing.

Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving North Fort Myers with fixed-price fence work and full-scope home construction.