i30 Builders · Kaufman County
Fence, Deck and Patio Cover Contractor in Forney, TX
Fences, decks, patio covers and additions across Forney, TX.
Published rates · Permits handled · Written scope before any deposit
What the City of Forney requires
Forney is unusually specific. Most cities regulate height and materials and leave the structure to you. Forney tells you what to put in the ground. Permit required for any fence over 2 feet. The post spec is in the ordinance. Fences over 52 inches must use minimum 2 3/8 inch diameter galvanized steel vertical posts, spaced maximum 8 feet on center, set in minimum three-foot concrete footings . Stone or masonry columns may substitute, subject to review by the Chief Building Official. Posts face in. Fences must be built so posts face the interior and, except the top cap, are not visible from the public right-of-way. Eight feet maximum behind the front yard line. Both the Code and the Zoning Ordinance agree on this. Front yard: no fence in the required front yard, except decorative fencing at 4 feet or under with at least 50 percent openings. Chain link and woven wire mesh do not count as decorative. Barbed wire and electric fencing prohibited except for farm animals on 3 or more acres. Vehicular gates set back minimum 25 feet. The fee is genuinely unsettled. Forney’s current Master Fee Schedule, Ordinance 25-24 of October 2025, carries a $20.00 fence line under the Fences article and a $25.00 “Fence/Retaining Wall” line under Miscellaneous Building Permit Minimum Fees. Both are live in the same document. We call the city and put the real number on your estimate rather than guessing. Corner lots are also unsettled. The Code caps side-yard height at 4 feet on certain corner lots; the Zoning Ordinance instead requires 15 feet from a public street. We confirm before quoting a corner lot. Read from the city’s own published code and adopted fee schedule on 22 August 2026. Codes and fees change and city staff interpret them, so we confirm for your address before we pull the permit. Why the three-foot footing
The ground here digs easier than it holds
Kaufman County is only 9.4 percent Houston Black clay, so the surface in Forney is often a sandy loam that digs easily. That is deceptive. The dominant soils are Crockett and Wilson, which are claypan: the sandy surface stops at seven to nine inches , and under it is clay running around 46 percent clay content. Measured across the full three feet a post occupies, that ground moves around 6 to 7 percent, less than Rockwall County’s 13. We would rather tell you that than overstate it. But the USDA rates anything above 6 percent as high and expects structural damage there, and Kaufman County comes out at 73 percent high or very high across the post zone despite the friendly-looking topsoil. A shallow post here sits in the sand and does nothing. That is why Forney writes three-foot footings into law, and it is how we would build regardless. Pricing
A Forney address is not always a Forney permit
A 75126 mailing address does not mean you are inside Forney city limits. That ZIP also covers Heartland and Travis Ranch, which are unincorporated Census-designated places, plus parts of Talty, Mesquite, Heath and Dallas. Forney also has roughly 26 square miles of ETJ on top of 14.35 square miles of city limits. Kaufman County does not permit fences at all, so whether you need a permit, and what it costs, depends entirely on which side of the line you are on. We check before we quote. With roughly 35 planned developments in the city, most Forney homeowners also have an HOA layer on top of the city permit, and Forney’s code makes fences subject to deed restrictions explicitly. Soil figures computed from USDA-NRCS SSURGO county data. These are county-level figures, not parcel-level. A specific address needs its own lookup, which we do before quoting a long run.
Our Services in Forney
What we build.
Fence Installation and Repair
Board-on-board, horizontal, and ornamental steel. Priced by the foot, quoted on the run.
From $40/LF
Deck Building and Restoration
New builds, rebuilds, and bringing a weathered deck back rather than replacing it.
Quoted from the walk
Patio Covers, Pavilions and Pergolas
Roofed cedar pavilions and open-top pergolas, on flatwork built to carry them.
From $2,200
Room Additions and Patio Enclosures
Closing in a covered patio, or building from the slab up to a Certificate of Occupancy.
From $95/SF
Neighborhoods we serve in Forney
From Devonshire, Gateway Parks, Travis Ranch to established streets and brand-new construction, we install and repair fences and decks across Forney. Most of it is zoned to Forney ISD, along US 80 and FM 548. Whether you need an HOA-approved cedar privacy fence, a storm-damage repair or a new deck, we bring the same quality work to every Forney yard.
- Devonshire
- Gateway Parks
- Travis Ranch
- Windmill Farms
Forney Questions
What kind of posts does Forney require?
Galvanized steel, minimum 2 3/8 inch diameter, spaced no more than 8 feet apart, set in minimum three-foot concrete footings. That applies to any fence over 52 inches.
How tall can my fence be in Forney?
Eight feet behind the front yard line. In the required front yard, only decorative fencing at 4 feet or under with at least 50 percent openings.
What does a fence permit cost in Forney?
This is the one we will not guess at. The city’s current fee schedule lists both $20.00 and $25.00 for a fence on different lines, and neither has been superseded. We call and put the real figure on your estimate.
I live in Travis Ranch. Do the same rules apply?
No. Travis Ranch is unincorporated, so Kaufman County rules apply, and the county does not permit fences at all. Your HOA and deed restrictions still do.
Do I need a permit for a deck or patio cover?
Yes. Forney requires permits for decks, porches, fences, driveways, sidewalks, spas, pools and storage buildings. Forney does not publish a size exemption we could verify, so we confirm for your project.
Get a Written Scope in Forney
Tell us what you are looking at and roughly how much of it. We price the scope, and the price does not move unless the scope does.
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