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Sterling Fence Installation: The Woodland Hills Owner’s Guide
Sterling fence installation in Woodland Hills typically runs $3,500 – $9,000 for a complete perimeter job, and most projects wrap up within a week of the first post hole. If your Sterling fence has a failed section, a leaning post, or a gate that no longer latches, we can usually match the existing line and get a replacement section fabricated and installed without tearing out the whole run. The most common discovery we hear from homeowners is a gate that drags across the top of the concrete patio, or a post that’s started to pull loose at the base after two or three rainy seasons.
We’re an independent Woodland Hills contractor, not a Sterling factory outlet, which means we’ll tell you straight what can be repaired and what’s better off replaced, even when the honest answer costs you less than you expected.
Which Sterling Models This Applies To
Sterling’s residential fence lines, mostly the 500 and 700 series sold through fencing supply yards across the San Fernando Valley, use a standardized post-and-rail system that’s been through a few quiet revisions over the years. The compatibility gotcha is in the post caps: the 500 series uses a square cap with an internal tab, while the 700 series moved to a slide-over cap that sits proud of the post by a quarter inch. If you mix them, the rail seats about 3/8″ high at every joint, and the whole line reads crooked even though the posts are dead plumb.
If you still have a rail or post with a legible label, you’re ahead of most. The manufacturing sticker is usually on the inside face of the rail, near one end. No label? Measure the rail profile: the 500 series rails are 1-1/2″ by 5-1/2″, and the 700 series rails run 1-3/4″ by 5-3/4″. That eighth-inch difference means the older 500-series pickets won’t seat into 700-series rails without a shim, and we’ve seen homeowner repairs try exactly that and fail within a year.
We stock new Sterling 700-series rails, posts, caps, and gate hardware in our Woodland Hills shop, and we can still source 500-series components through specialty suppliers when a patch job makes more sense than a re-run. For aftermarket equivalents, we use only powder-coated aluminum from domestic extruders, never the thin import rail that shows fingerprints of rust after one coastal fog season near Topanga.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Sterling Fence Installation Is Failing
- Gate drags or won’t latch. Rains from the last two winters in Woodland Hills softened the soil around the gate post, and the post has settled or tilted. The hinges themselves are usually fine; it’s the footing that’s moved. A quick fix of tightening hinge bolts won’t correct a post that’s now 2 degrees off level.
- Rails sag between posts. Aluminum rail doesn’t sag on its own. When we see a bow in the middle of a run, it’s almost always because a picket was replaced with a heavier steel panel at some point, or the rail was cut overlength and forced into the post sockets, creating a permanent deflection.
- Pickets rattle or buzz in the wind. The silicone retention strips inside the rail channels harden after five to seven years in Southern California sun. Once they lose grip, every picket moves a sixteenth of an inch, and the whole fence hums when the Santa Anas come through.
- White chalky residue on the rails. This is oxidation, not the paint failing. Sterling’s older factory finish sits under a clear coat that eventually breaks down under direct afternoon sun on west-facing runs along Shoup or Winnetka. The metal underneath usually remains sound for years after the chalking starts.
- Post wobbles at the base. A post that rocks when you push it has lost its bond with the concrete footing. We see this most often on slopes, where runoff from winter storms erodes the soil at grade level and leaves the footing exposed to lateral force from the fence above.
See the difference
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After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A complete Sterling fence installation in Woodland Hills runs $3,500 – $9,000 depending on linear footage, gate count, and whether we’re removing an old fence or setting fresh posts in virgin soil. Partial repairs come in lower: a single gate replacement with new hardware usually falls between $800 and $1,800, and a four-section run replacement generally sits in the $1,200 – $2,800 range.
What moves the number on a full install is mostly the gate hardware and the soil. Woodland Hills sits on a mix of sandy loam near the 101 and hard clay up toward the foothills, and the clay side means more concrete per footing and slower augering. We give you a written price before any work starts, the labor, materials, post concrete, and haul-away of the old fence all line-itemed, so there’s no change order at the end because “the soil was harder than we thought.” Every fence install is covered by a 365-day guarantee; if a post settles or a weld fails on gate hardware within a year of completion, we fix it free.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things yourself: whether a gate post is plumb with a level, whether rail ends are still fully seated in the post sockets, and whether any pickets slide freely in their channels. None of that requires tools beyond a level and two minutes.
What we’d steer you away from is digging out and resetting a post, especially if the fence is on a slope or if the post carries the gate. A fence doesn’t have high-tension springs or electrical hazards, but it does carry a lot more weight than it looks like, and a half-loosened post can swing a rail into a window, a car, or the person holding the shovel. We’ve also seen DIY post replacements where the new post was set 4 inches out of line, and then the whole section had to be redone when the gate wouldn’t close. If the fence is leaning, sagging, or the gate quit latching, call (831) 290-6866 and we’ll come look at it, give you the straight answer, and leave you a written price whether you hire us or not.
FAQs
A properly installed Sterling aluminum fence will go 25 to 30 years in the Woodland Hills climate before the rails or pickets show meaningful wear. The gate hardware wears out sooner, usually every 8 to 10 years, and the clear coat starts to chalk on the sun-facing side after about 5 to 7 years. Woodland Hills doesn’t get the salt air that eats fences near the coast, so the metal itself holds up; it’s the hardware and the finish that age first.
In most cases, yes. If the posts are sound and the rails are not bowed, we can replace individual pickets, swap in new rails for a single section, or rebuild a gate without touching the rest of the line. Call (831) 290-6866 and we’ll tell you what a repair costs versus a full replacement; sometimes the difference is smaller than you’d think once you factor in removing and resetting old posts.
A standard Woodland Hills residential fence, 50 to 150 linear feet, takes 3 to 5 working days from the first post hole to the final gate adjustment. That includes concrete cure time on the posts, which is what stretches the calendar. We schedule the work around your gate count and the weather, and we’ll give you the exact window in writing before we start.
We stock new Sterling 700-series rails, posts, caps, and gate hardware in our Woodland Hills shop, and we can source 500-series parts through our suppliers, usually within a week. We’ll also tell you if an aftermarket equivalent makes more sense for your situation, especially on older fences where the Sterling finish has already aged; sometimes a new rail from a different extruder will match the look better than a brand-new Sterling rail against 15-year-old neighbors. Call (831) 290-6866 for a free estimate, and we’ll match the part before you spend a dollar.
Other product lines we stock and install for home remodeling in Woodland Hills include KraftMaid cabinetry, Cambria and Silestone countertops, and a full range of Kohler and Moen bath fixtures.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co – Woodland Hills, CA at Mason Remodeling Co Woodland Hills, serving Woodland Hills and nearby areas.
