Those numbers are installed totals, meaning materials and labour together. On most DFW cedar jobs the split runs close to half and half, with materials and labour each taking roughly $18 to $28 per foot on a standard cedar run. When a quote comes in far under $30 per foot for cedar, something has usually been trimmed, and it is worth asking what.
Mack Fencing builds across the full DFW metroplex from its Midlothian base, covering Arlington, Mansfield, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Burleson, and the surrounding cities. Working with a local crew rather than a national booking portal means the person quoting your job has actually dug post holes in your soil type, which changes how they price the parts of the job you cannot see.
Cedar vs Pressure-Treated Pine: Which Costs Less?
Pine costs less upfront, cedar costs less over the life of the fence, and in North Texas that trade-off tilts toward cedar for most homeowners. Pressure-treated pine will save you $15 to $20 per linear foot on day one. Over fifteen years, though, cedar usually wins on total cost because it lasts longer in this climate.
Cedar resists insects, rot, and decay naturally, which matters when your fence spends every August in 105-degree heat. A cedar fence in North Texas commonly lasts 15 to 30 years with basic upkeep. Pressure-treated pine holds up too, but it typically gives you five to ten fewer years before boards start cupping and warping under the same sun.
The decision usually comes down to how long you plan to stay in the house. For a forever home, cedar's longer lifespan makes the higher price easier to justify. For a property you expect to sell inside five or six years, pine delivers the same privacy at a lower entry cost, and the shorter lifespan may never become your problem. Either way, the honest version of this answer depends on your plans, not on which board carries the bigger margin.
What Actually Drives Your DFW Fence Price
Two houses on the same street can get fence quotes that differ by thousands, and the reasons are mostly local. Wood type sets the baseline, but soil, post depth, height, and wind exposure decide where your specific job lands inside the range.
Black gumbo clay is the big one. This soil expands and contracts with every rain and dry spell, and that movement is what shoves fence posts out of alignment over time. The fix is depth. A standard post goes about 24 inches into the ground, but in North Texas posts should sit 30 to 36 inches deep in concrete to hold against the clay. That extra digging adds roughly $2 to $5 per linear foot, and it is the single most important line item you cannot see once the fence is up.
Height changes the math too. An 8-foot fence can cost 25 to 40 percent more per foot than a 4-foot fence in the same wood, because it needs more material and sturdier posts to stay rigid. DFW wind loads add to that on open suburban lots, where fences built with wide post spacing can rack and warp in a strong storm. Setting posts closer together costs slightly more upfront and is what keeps the fence standing after the next round of spring weather. This is where a crew that knows local conditions earns its quote, because Mack Fencing prices post depth and spacing for your lot rather than defaulting to the minimum that makes a bid look cheap.
Gates, Staining, and Permits: The Add-Ons People Forget
The per-foot number covers the fence line, not the extras, and those extras are where budgets quietly stretch. Three add-ons show up on almost every DFW wood fence project, and knowing them upfront keeps your final invoice from surprising you.
Gates come first. A single walk gate typically adds $150 to $400, and a double drive gate runs $300 to $900 depending on width and hardware. Staining is next: professional staining or sealing runs about $1 to $5 per square foot and buys you extra years against the Texas sun, though many homeowners wait a season before the first coat. A rot board along the bottom, which protects your posts and pickets where they meet the ground, adds roughly $4 to $8 per foot and is cheap insurance in clay soil.
Then there are permits, which people almost always forget. Do you need a permit for a fence in Dallas-Fort Worth? In most cases, yes. Dallas County fence permits run around $90, and Fort Worth permits typically land between $50 and $150. Many DFW neighbourhoods also sit under HOA rules that dictate height, style, and sometimes which way the finished side faces. A local installer builds these into the quote instead of leaving you to discover them after the posts are set.
A Real Midlothian Backyard, Priced Out
Numbers make more sense against a real yard, so here is a straightforward Midlothian backyard: 180 linear feet of 6-foot standard cedar privacy fence, one single walk gate, posts set to local depth in clay soil.
Start with the fence line at $40 per linear foot installed, a mid-range standard cedar figure, which puts 180 feet at $7,200. Add one single walk gate at $275. Factor the deeper post setting your clay soil needs, already built into that per-foot rate on a properly priced quote rather than tacked on afterward. Add a Dallas-area permit at roughly $90. That brings this backyard to about $7,565 before any optional staining.
If you added a rot board along the full run at $6 per foot, that is another $1,080, pushing the project near $8,650. Skip the gate and go with pressure-treated pine instead of cedar, and the same 180 feet drops toward the $4,000 to $6,000 range. The point of running the line items this way is simple: a real DFW quote should show you these pieces separately, so you can see exactly what you are paying for and where you could trim without weakening the fence.
How to Read a Fence Quote (and Spot a Lowball)
The cheapest quote is not automatically the worst, but a suspiciously cheap one usually hides its shortcut in the same place. When two DFW quotes for the same fence differ by a wide margin, the gap almost always lives in what happens below the ground.
Look for post depth first. A quote that specifies 30 to 36 inch post depth set in concrete is pricing the job for North Texas clay. A quote that stays vague about depth, or quietly assumes a standard 24 inches, will come in lower and lean sooner. Ask directly how deep the posts go and how far apart they sit, because those two answers separate a fence built to last from one built to win the bid.
Check that the quote breaks out materials, labour, gates, and permits as separate lines rather than one lump sum. A clear itemised quote lets you compare two installers on equal terms and spot where one has trimmed something the other included. When a number looks too good next to the others, it is rarely because that contractor found a magic discount. It is because something you will not notice until year three has been left out.
Mack Fencing has built fences across DFW since 2003, and every quote is grounded in how these specific soils, summers, and storms treat a fence over time. If you want a straight, itemised number for your yard rather than a national average, reach out for a free quote and get pricing built around your actual property.
