Fence & Deck Repair in Ross, CA

Ross has the tightest fence rules of any town we work in, and they are worth reading before you draw anything. A front yard fence is capped at four feet, and six only with design review approval. Side and rear are six feet, seven with a minor exception. Height gets measured from existing grade to the top edge of the material, so building up the ground to gain a foot does not work, though a two inch gap at the bottom is allowed on top of the limit.

Driveway gates carry their own rule. They have to sit at least eighteen feet back from the edge of the roadway unless public works signs off on something shorter, which is a detail people tend to learn about after the gate has been ordered.

Past the code, Ross is big lots and old trees. Mature oak and redwood roots lift posts out of plumb over the years in a way a flat open lot never does, and the answer is often a different post location rather than the same hole again. Call today for a free estimate on fence repair, fence installation, or deck restoration in Ross.

Design Review, and What It Wants to See

Since a six foot front yard fence in Ross requires design review approval, it is worth knowing what that process actually looks at. Design review is not primarily a structural check. It is about how the thing looks from the street and how it sits with the neighborhood, which means material, style, transparency and how it relates to what is already there tend to matter more than the engineering. Solid board fencing at the front of a lot gets more scrutiny than something more open. Where a run steps down toward the street rather than holding full height across the frontage, that generally reads better. A complete submittal with a clear site plan and a real elevation, showing what the fence will actually look like rather than a sketch, moves faster than one that leaves the reviewer guessing. We put that package together as part of the work. What we will also do is tell you honestly when what you are asking for is unlikely to get approved, before you pay for drawings of it. San Anselmo has nothing like this process, which surprises people who have built in both towns.

Decks Around Mature Trees

Ross lots come with oaks and redwoods that predate the houses, and a deck near one is a design problem worth taking seriously. Trenching for footings through a root zone can do damage that does not show for several years and then costs far more than the deck did. The general principle is to keep excavation outside the area under the canopy where the majority of feeding roots live, and where that is not possible, to use fewer and smaller footings placed to miss major roots rather than a regular grid dug wherever the layout suggests. Building a deck around a trunk needs a generous opening, because a mature tree still moves in wind and still grows, and framing tight to a trunk will be damaged by the tree or will damage it. For a heritage tree, having an arborist look before anyone digs is worth the call. We would rather move a footing than take the chance, and on these properties the tree is usually worth more than the deck.