Why a Solid Fence Is a Sail in a Santa Ana

Every October the same calls come in from the same exposed streets. The physics is simple and so is the prevention.

A privacy fence catches everything

A solid fence presents a flat face to the wind with nothing for the air to pass through. All of that load transfers into the posts and the ground holding them.

A picket or slat fence with gaps sheds most of it. That is why the same wind takes down one fence on a street and leaves the next one standing.

Why it fails suddenly after years

Wind load is not constant. A footing that carried the fence for eight years fails in one gust because that gust was larger than any before it.

The fence was not fine and then broken. It was slowly getting weaker while looking identical.

Building for exposure

On exposed Chatsworth runs we set posts deeper, space them closer and size them up. Sometimes we recommend opening the infill slightly so wind can pass.

None of that is visible in a finished photograph, which is why cheap quotes on exposed sites are cheap.

What to check before wind season

Push every post. Look for panels that have lifted in their rails. Check that gate latches still engage, because a gate blowing open takes hardware with it.

Twenty minutes in September is worth a great deal in October.

After a wind event

Walk the line even if nothing is obviously down. A post that has shifted but not fallen is the one that goes in the next storm.

Catching it as one post is a morning of work. Catching it as three is a new fence.