Yes. A fence on a slope is built one of two ways. It is racked, with the rails following the ground, or stepped, with level sections that drop at each post. Racked leaves the smallest gap under the fence.
Racked or stepped: which is better?
- Racked: rails tilt with the slope and pickets stay vertical. Best for gentle to moderate grades and for keeping animals in or out.
- Stepped: each section is level and lower than the last. It suits steep ground and rigid panels, and it leaves a triangle of open space under each step.
- Custom welded or built on site: steel or wood is cut to the ground as it goes. This is how most foothills view fence is done.
I have a dog that digs and a yard that drops. How do I avoid gaps?
Choose a racked or site-built fence so the bottom follows the grade, then block the bottom edge. Options are a concrete mow strip or curb under the fence, wire mesh buried along the line, or rock set against the base. The same steps keep javelina from pushing under and make it harder for snakes to get through.
My yard is steep and rocky and two companies turned the job down. Who does this?
Call us and we will walk the line before we answer. Rocky slopes are normal in the Catalina Foothills, the Tucson Mountains and along the Rincons. The work takes longer. Holes are cored or chipped into rock, posts may be anchored with plates or epoxy where a hole cannot be dug, and materials are carried in around the cactus. If the fence would stand on a retaining wall, say so, because the wall and the fence are reviewed together for height.
Do installers dig by hand or with a machine?
Both. An auger works in open ground with soft soil. Caliche, the cement-like layer under much of Tucson, stops a light auger, so crews switch to a rock bit, a jackhammer or a digging bar. Hand digging is also used next to block walls, near marked utilities, in tight side yards and on slopes where a machine cannot stand.
Only a visit to your property gives a real number. The estimate is free. Call (520) 462-4332 or text us a photo of the fence line.