Wrought Iron Fence Installation in Glendale, CA

An iron fence costs about twice what a wood one costs and lasts about three times as long. Six feet of ornamental iron runs roughly $85 to $150 a foot installed, so a 150 foot run lands somewhere around $12,800 to $22,500. You buy it for three reasons in this city. It follows a slope without leaving gaps, it meets the state pool fence rule, and it will not burn. On a hillside lot that last one has stopped being a nice extra.

Most of what gets sold as wrought iron today is welded steel picket, dipped in zinc and then powder coated. True wrought iron is a repair material for old work and is priced that way. When a shop quotes you ornamental iron they mean steel, and for a fence that is the right answer, because steel is stronger and cheaper. With a zinc coat underneath and powder coat on top it will outlast anything else on a Glendale lot.

Iron also has an easier time with the city than most materials. The code lists what a fence over three feet can be made of, and metal is on that list with wrought iron given as the example. Because you can see through it, it does not block the view at a corner, and it is the only material allowed at full height in the front setback of the Horse zone, where the limit is forty eight inches.

Where Iron Wins And Where It Does Not

There is also more local supply here than you would expect. Glendale has one of the largest Armenian communities outside Armenia, and ornamental metalwork came with it. There are shops in this city that will draw a panel, weld it and hang it rather than order a stock section from a catalog. That is why a custom iron fence in Glendale often costs closer to a stock one than it would somewhere else.

What Iron Costs In Glendale

It wins around a pool. State law sets the pool fence at sixty inches minimum, measured from the ground outside to the top of the fence, with a gate that swings away from the water and closes and latches by itself. A pool built or heavily remodeled after January 1, 2007 also needs two of the seven approved safety features. A five foot iron fence with a self closing gate is the normal way people meet that rule without walling the pool off from view.

It wins on a slope, and the reason is a trick called racking. On a hillside lot in Chevy Chase Canyon or the San Rafael Hills the ground steps down, and a solid fence has to step down with it, which leaves a triangle shaped gap under every section. An iron panel pivots at the posts instead, so the pickets stay straight up while the rails follow the ground. It looks deliberate, and there is no gap for a dog to get through.

It loses badly on privacy, because you can see straight through it. People solve that by planting a hedge behind the iron, which works and is common all over Rossmoyne and Verdugo Woodlands, but it takes years and a lot of water. If the reason you want a fence is that you can see into your neighbor's kitchen, iron is the wrong buy.

How Long It Takes

It rusts in exactly one place. Inland Glendale has no salt air, so the top of an iron fence here will look fine for decades. What goes is the bottom two inches of the picket, where lawn sprinklers hit it several times a week through seven dry months. Ask whether the pickets are dipped in zinc before the powder coat goes on. Powder coat straight over bare steel is just a paint job, and once water gets under it at a chip, it lifts.