Most of the fence we pull out of Sherwood back yards is older than the trailer we haul it off in. The neighborhoods off Kiehl Avenue, Oakdale Drive and Country Club Road went up between the mid seventies and the nineties, and plenty of those lots are on their second or third fence by now. Sherwood sits north of Little Rock in Pulaski County, thirty two thousand people, mostly ranch and split level houses on flat lots under shade trees that have had forty years to root wherever they pleased. Replacing a run there is a different animal from building new out toward Gravel Ridge. The panels are the simple part. Everything already attached to them is the work.

The Three-Neighbor Problem

On an interior lot in an established subdivision your back yard touches three other yards, and every one of those neighbors has a fence. Your run does not begin and end in open air. It ties into somebody’s newer board on board on one side, a leaning dog ear from the nineties on the other, and a back line that may belong to a third household. Those fences were built in different decades, at different heights, on ground that has moved since.

Honest transitions beat pretty ones here. Where a new six foot run meets a neighbor’s older fence sitting an inch or two lower, we do not shim theirs up or shave ours down to fake a match. We set a clean termination post at the meeting point and let the height change happen there, so the step reads as a deliberate edge instead of a sag. If their fence is already failing at that corner, you hear it from us before we start, because a new run fastened to a rotten neighbor post inherits somebody else’s problem.

Who Owns Which Fence, and Why Memory Is Not Evidence

Nearly every homeowner tells us where the property line runs, with real confidence. Usually the proof is the old fence, or a tree, or something the previous owner said at closing. None of that is evidence. Fences drift. A crew thirty years ago set posts where the auger went in easy, and a later repair moved a section again.

The only thing that settles it is a survey with pins in the ground. If you have a recent one, we build to it. If the pins are lost, a licensed surveyor can reset them, and where the new line matters to two neighbors that is worth doing before anybody digs. We also tell people to confirm with the City of Sherwood what their lot allows, and with their association if the subdivision has one, rather than assume the old fence was built to any standard. An old fence is proof that somebody once built a fence. It is not proof of a boundary and it is not proof of a rule.

The Old Post Line and What Is Under It

Homeowners always ask whether we can drop new posts into the old holes. Sometimes. If the previous crew poured true footings, the concrete is sound, the old post pulled clean, and the spacing suits the panel style you want, a footing can be reused or re-drilled.

More often it is not worth chasing. A lot of thirty year old footings around here are shallow, mushroom shaped pours where dry mix was dumped around the post and watered from the top. The post rots inside that collar, and when it comes out it takes half the concrete with it. Pulling the old footings is the cheaper path more often than people expect, because leaving them forces the new post line to dodge. Dodging means irregular spacing, and that shows badly on a long straight back line. We pull the concrete, backfill and compact, and set our own line where it belongs. Gate posts and corners get new footings every time, since those carry the load that decides whether a gate still swings in five years.

What Thirty Years Does, Read from the Ground Up

When we walk an old fence we start at the dirt, not at the top rail. Central Arkansas is hard on wood: humid summers, heavy spring rain, and clay that holds water against anything sitting in it. Failure starts within six inches of the ground and works upward. A picket can look sound at eye level while the bottom rail behind it is punky enough to take a thumb.

So the walk goes bottom up. We check the base of every post at the soil line, look at where each bottom rail lands, and pay attention to the runs that stay wet: where a sprinkler head throws, where a downspout dumps, where mulch has been banked against the boards for years and holds moisture on them all year. Under Sherwood’s mature oaks and sweetgums the shade keeps a run damp long after the rest of the yard dries, and that stretch rots first. A fence failing from the top down, split pickets and a gray weathered face, is usually cosmetic. A fence failing from the bottom up is structural, and structural means replacement rather than patching.

Matching a Style When Only One Run Comes Out

Plenty of Sherwood jobs are partial. The back line goes, the side runs stay another few years. We match profile, height, picket width and rail count as closely as the yard allows, and cedar beside cedar matches on paper.

It will still not match to the eye, and you should hear that from us before you see it. Weathered wood and new wood are two different colors, and no stain makes them the same on day one. Anybody who promises otherwise is selling something. What we can do is make the difference read as intentional and shrink it with time. New cedar left alone weathers toward the older run over a couple of seasons. If you want them closer sooner, a tinted stain pulled toward the tone of the old boards gets you most of the way, and staining both runs in the same season is the only way they truly become one fence. The profiles we build show up across our wood fence work in Sherwood , and matching an existing run is a conversation we have on the walkthrough, not after.

Sequencing So the Yard Is Never Left Open

This is the part nobody thinks about until the old fence is on the trailer and the back yard is wide open. If you have a dog, the yard needs to be a yard at the end of every day. If there is a pool inside that fence, the barrier around it answers to the City of Sherwood and your association, and it cannot sit open overnight while a crew comes back Tuesday.

So we work in sections instead of stripping the whole perimeter at once. One run comes out and goes back the same day where the length allows. Any gap that has to carry over gets temporary fencing before the crew leaves. Gates get hung the same day the run they belong to goes up, not at the end of the job. On pool work we plan the order around keeping that barrier closed, and if there is a night the yard genuinely will not hold a dog, you hear it during scheduling instead of at six in the evening.

Talk to the Neighbor Before the Crew Shows Up

The most useful five minutes of a replacement happens about a week early, at the neighbor’s front door. Not a note in the storm door, and not a text if you can help it. Tell them the dates, tell them there will be a truck, a trailer and an auger, tell them which side of the line the work sits on, and tell them exactly what happens where your new fence meets their old one.

Two things come out of that conversation nearly every time. First, they mention something you had no way of knowing: a sprinkler line, a buried pet containment wire, a gas line run out to a grill, or the fact that their own fence is already on the list for next spring, which now and then turns into one shared line handled once instead of twice. Second, nobody gets surprised, and surprise is what turns a fence job into a dispute that outlasts the fence. We are glad to be there for it if having the crew explain the transition helps.

Replacement Work Across Sherwood

Whether the house is a seventies ranch off Kiehl, a split level near the country club, or a newer place toward Gravel Ridge, the approach on a replacement is the same: settle the line, read the old fence from the ground up, pull what should not stay, and keep the yard closed while we work. Take a look at our privacy fence installation in Sherwood and the rest of what we cover across Sherwood and the surrounding area , and when you are ready for someone to walk the old line with you, reach out here .

How do I know whether the fence is mine or my neighbor’s?

A survey with pins on the ground is the only thing that answers it. The old fence line, a tree, or what someone said at closing are not evidence. If the pins are gone, a licensed surveyor can reset them before we build.

Can you reuse the old concrete footings?

Occasionally, if the pour was true, the concrete is sound, and the spacing fits the new panels. More often the old footings are shallow and broken, and pulling them is cheaper overall because it keeps the new post spacing even.

Will a new run match my neighbor’s older fence?

Not on day one. Weathered wood and new wood are different colors and stain will not erase that. New cedar moves toward the older tone over a couple of seasons, and staining both runs in the same season is what truly evens them out.

Will my dog be able to stay in the yard during the job?

That is how we sequence it. We work one run at a time and put temporary fencing across any gap that carries overnight. If there is a night the yard genuinely will not hold a dog, we tell you during scheduling.

Do I need approval before replacing an existing fence in Sherwood?

Check with the City of Sherwood for your specific lot and with your association if the subdivision has one. Do not assume the old fence was built to any current standard. We help you get those answers before we schedule the work.