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Boral Fence Installation: The Woodland Hills Owner’s Guide
Boral fence installation in Woodland Hills typically runs $3,500 to $9,000 for a full post-and-panel system, with most homeowners landing between $45 and $75 per linear foot when concrete footings are included. We stock Boral-compatible steel post inserts, aluminum channels, and rail hardware on our trucks, and we can normally complete a standard backyard run in two to three working days once materials are confirmed. Most owners find us the same way: a corner fence panel has cracked at the base, or a gate has started sagging against its post, and the original installer either retired, moved, or never returned the call.
The failure usually starts quietly. A wind gust hits a panel with aging hardware, a sprinkler has been spraying the bottom rail for two summers, or the soil in Woodland Hills shifted after a wet winter and left a post leaning. Boral material itself is engineered to hold up better than solid wood against rot and termites, but it still has weak points, and those weak points are almost always metal to metal. That’s the part we replace most often here.
Which Boral Models This Applies To
Boral sells its fence systems under a few different names depending on when the original material was purchased. The current line is the TruExponent Fence, which uses a poly-ash composite board in 5/8-inch and 3/4-inch nominal thicknesses. The older generation, marketed as Boral Composites fencing, used a slightly narrower rail channel, and that’s the single biggest compatibility gotcha we run into in Woodland Hills. If your fence was installed before roughly 2017, new rail brackets from the TruExponent line will not always seat correctly in the old channel without a shim or a replacement channel, and forcing them in will crack the board edge.
Here’s how to tell what you have. Look at the top rail. If it measures close to 1-1/2 inches wide and the board face shows a light wood-grain texture, you’re likely working with the older Boral composite profile. If the rail is slightly wider and the finish has the deeper, coarser grain pattern that Boral calls “natural wood,” it’s almost certainly TruExponent. Every panel also carries a small manufacturer mark on the bottom edge, usually embossed inside the hollow core, that lists the series and production date. Flip a loose board over before you buy any hardware. For older systems, we typically recommend quality aftermarket brackets from FastenMaster or Simpson Strong-Tie rather than chasing out-of-production OEM parts, because the aftermarket pieces are actually designed with a wider tolerance range. For anything TruExponent made in the last five years, we use Boral’s own metal components, because the tolerances are tighter and a mismatch will show as a wobble in the panel line within a season.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Boral Fence Installation Is Failing
- Panel corners cracking at the bottom rail. This is the one that brings most Woodland Hills owners to the phone. The corner hardware carries all the wind load on the panel, and once a crack opens, it spreads fast. The usual culprit is an undersized post or a bracket that was over-torqued during the original install.
- Gate sagging and scraping the ground or latch. A Boral gate is heavier than a wood gate of the same size by roughly 25 to 30 percent. If the post was never set in deep enough concrete or the hinge screws were driven without backing plates, the gate will eventually pull the whole post out of plumb in our clay-heavy Valley soil.
- Posts leaning after winter storms. Woodland Hills doesn’t get heavy rain most years, but when the ground finally saturates, the soil expands. Posts set in shallow footings or without gravel drainage at the base will shift. We see a cluster of these calls every February and March.
- Visible rust or white oxidation on the bracket hardware. Coastal moisture can reach us on overcast days, and sprinkler overspray does the rest. Once the zinc coating on a cheap bracket is gone, the metal will swell and crack the composite board from the inside.
- A dull thud when you tap a panel near the post. This means the board has separated from the channel and is now hanging from the brackets alone. It will pass a visual inspection for months, then fail all at once in the first strong Santa Ana wind.
See the difference
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a Boral fence installation in Woodland Hills, a straightforward post-and-panel replacement on level ground runs from $3,500 to $9,000 depending on the linear footage, the number of gates, and what shape the existing concrete footings are in. That range covers removal of the failed section, new concrete post footings at a minimum 24-inch depth, Boral or Boral-compatible panels and rails, all new stainless or powder-coated hardware, and a full cleanup of the work area. If your existing footings are solid and only the panels and hardware need swapping, you’ll land at the lower end. If we’re pulling old posts, redigging holes, and adding a gate, the cost climbs fast.
One thing we won’t do is hand you a verbal number and hope it holds. Every Boral fence project we quote in Woodland Hills gets a written line-item price before any work starts. The price we write is the price you pay. And if the installation or the hardware fails within 365 days of the completion date, our Done Right Promise means we come back and fix it at no charge. Not a credit, not a discount. Fixed.
DIY or Call Us?
There are a few things you can safely check yourself. You can measure your rail width, look for the embossed manufacturer mark on a loose board’s bottom edge, and take photos of the failing brackets so you know what you’re describing. That genuinely helps us put the right parts on the truck before we show up. What you should not do is start pulling panels off a post that’s still carrying load, especially on a slope or next to a gate. The board can bind against the channel, release suddenly, and send a splintered edge back at you. Composite board doesn’t splinter like cedar, but it’s also heavier and less forgiving when it swings.
Where most homeowners run into trouble is reusing old footings that looked fine from the surface. We’ve dug up Woodland Hills footings that were three years old and already cracked below grade because the original hole was too shallow. If you set a new post in that, you own the same failure a season later. Our suggestion: check the easy stuff, then call us at (831) 290-6866 and tell us what you found. If it turns out the fix is small, we’ll tell you that straight. We quote the job, not the story we’d prefer to sell you.
FAQs
A properly installed Boral fence system in Woodland Hills should give you 20 to 25 years of structural life on the composite boards, with hardware as the limiting factor. The boards resist rot and termite damage far better than wood, but the metal brackets and fasteners will typically need replacement once or twice over that span, especially near sprinkler overspray. Call (831) 290-6866 if you’re not sure whether your hardware is the original set.
Yes, in most cases a section repair costs less than half what a full replacement would. If the posts are still solid and only the brackets or a few panel boards have failed, we can usually replace those components the same day we’re on site, as long as the hardware matches your rail profile. Call us at (831) 290-6866 with the measurements and we’ll give you a written price before we touch anything.
Most standard Woodland Hills backyard fences take two to three working days from demo to finished cleanup, assuming the concrete footings need to be poured and cure. A hardware-only replacement on existing sound posts is often done in a single day. We’ll tell you the timeline in writing before the first post comes out of the ground.
We keep Boral-compatible steel post inserts, aluminum rail channels, corner brackets, and gate hinge kits on our trucks so we can handle the most common failures without sending you to a supply yard. For full panel runs in a specific Boral color or texture, we order direct from our supplier and confirm the lead time with you before any deposit changes hands. One call to (831) 290-6866 tells us which situation you’re in.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co – Woodland Hills, CA at Mason Remodeling Co Woodland Hills, serving Woodland Hills and nearby areas.
