Fence Repair in Kent, WA
A November windstorm off the valley takes a panel, a post gives up at the soil line, a gate drags. Most Kent fence repairs are one of those three, and each has a fair price and a point past which fixing it is throwing money at a fence that is finished.
What Fence Repairs Cost in Kent
Repair pricing is per post, per section, or per gate rather than per foot, and Seattle-area figures run a little above the national ones.
Replacing a rotted fence post near Kent costs about $150 to $400 per post, re-plumbing a leaning section about $200 to $600, and a damaged panel about $100 to $350. Most Seattle-area repairs total $250 to $750. Once several posts in a run have failed, replacement is cheaper than repair.
The per-item figures are national cost-guide ranges for 2026; the $250 to $750 typical is what one Seattle-area fence company publishes for its own service calls. A contractor's trip minimum, usually a few hundred dollars, sets the floor on any single-post job, which is why bundling the two bad posts and the sticking gate into one visit is the cheapest way to buy repair work.
Why Kent posts fail where they do
Almost every rotted post in Kent has gone at the same place: the top few inches of the footing, where the concrete collar meets the soil. Winter rain runs down the post, collects in the gap that opens as the wood shrinks away from the concrete, and sits there for months because the East Hill hardpan and the valley silt underneath drain slowly. The post is sound below and sound above, and rotten in a six-inch band you cannot see until the fence moves. Repair options for that band are the subject of the next section.
The Three Common Kent Repairs
A rotted post
The durable fix is a new post on a new footing, ideally a steel post-on-pipe so the replacement never repeats the failure. The cheaper fix is a steel repair bracket or a sistered post bolted alongside the stub, which holds a few years and is fair on a fence that is near replacement anyway. A contractor should tell you which one they are quoting and why; the usual reason for the cheap fix is that the rest of the fence will not outlive a proper post.
A leaning section
A lean on the valley floor is usually soft ground and a footing that was never deep enough; a lean on East Hill is usually one rotted post pulling its neighbours over. The repair digs out the affected footings, resets or replaces the posts, and re-plumbs the panels. If the lean has been propped before, the propping is the evidence that the footings have already failed twice.
A broken panel or gate
Panels the wind took out are replaced board by board on cedar or as a unit on vinyl and chain link. Gates drag for one of two reasons: the hardware has worn, which is a hinge and latch swap, or the gate post has moved, which is a post job dressed up as a gate job. A gate that has been shimmed at the hinge twice is the second kind.
When to Stop Repairing
- Several failed posts in one run. They went into the same ground on the same day; the ones still standing are on the same clock, and each repair visit carries a trip charge.
- Rails that pull free of the posts because the post wood behind the fastener has gone soft. That is not one bad post; it is the whole line.
- Repair bids approaching half the cost of a new fence. At about $38 to $72 a foot for a replacement in cedar, a $1,500 repair on a 60-foot run is buying a few more winters of a fence already past its footings.
- A fence that has never been on the right line. If the repair is on a fence that may sit over the property line, the money is better put toward a survey and a replacement built where it belongs.