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Wellborn Fence Installation: The Tampa Owner’s Guide
Wellborn fence installation in Tampa typically runs $3,500 to $9,000 installed, depending on linear footage, material grade, and whether we’re pulling an old fence or starting fresh. We stock Wellborn-compatible posts, rails, pickets, and hardware on the truck, so most Tampa jobs go from first call to finished fence in three to five working days. Most owners find us the day a storm snaps a post or a gate starts dragging against the latch plate and they need someone who knows the system without a learning curve.
Bradford Remodeling Co Tampa is an independent contractor. We’re not affiliated with Wellborn, and we don’t pretend to be. What we do is install their fence systems by the book, match their post spacing and rail notching specs, and stand behind the work for a full year under our 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Which Wellborn Models This Applies To
Wellborn fencing runs on a post-and-rail frame with pickets either face-nailed or slotted into routed rails. The compatibility gotcha we see in Tampa: their 5/4-inch picket line uses a thicker profile than most big-box fence boards, which means if you patch with a generic 1×6 from a home center, the board sits proud of the line and looks wrong from the street. You can spot the difference in about ten seconds by measuring the thickness at the edge of a sound picket.
For most Wellborn installations, OEM pickets and rails are the right call. The lumber kiln-dried at a lower moisture content than typical treated stock, so it moves less in Florida humidity. Aftermarket equivalents exist, but we’ve seen too many cupped rails from lumber that was wet when it was dressed. Hardware is a different story: stainless steel gate hinges and powder-coated latch assemblies from name-brand suppliers often outlast the OEM zinc-plated versions in coastal air.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Wellborn Fence Installation Is Failing
- Posts leaning at the base. This is almost always rot at the soil line. In Tampa, the wet season saturates the ground around the post, and if the concrete collar wasn’t crowned above grade, water sits at the wood and does its work over three to five years.
- Gate dragging on the latch side. The hinge post has shifted. That’s usually a concrete footing that was poured too shallow or a post that has rotted below ground. Adjusting the hinges buys a month, not a fix.
- Pickets split around the nail line. Face-nailed pickets in full sun dry and shrink, and the board splits from the fastener outward. You’ll see it first on the south and west exposures of your Tampa yard.
- Rails sagging between posts. Wellborn specs post spacing at six feet on center for a reason. When a previous installer stretched it to eight to save a post or two, the rail bows and the fence loses its line.
- Bottom of pickets dark and spongy. Where grass or mulch sits against the picket, capillary moisture climbs the end grain. It’s slow, it’s relentless, and it’s why we set bottom picket clearance at two inches on every install.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
Here’s the honest number structure for Tampa. A full teardown and reinstall of a 40 to 50-foot Wellborn fence section runs $3,500 to $5,500. A full yard at 100-plus linear feet with a gate and new posts falls in the $7,000 to $9,000 range. A single post replacement with adjacent rail repair, where the fence is otherwise sound, runs $350 to $700.
What drives the range: linear footage, how much of the existing frame can be salvaged, whether we’re hand-digging around buried utilities, and gate hardware selection. Every bid includes the written price before work starts, disposal of old material, and a signed scope document. The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the installation work and materials we supply: if a post shifts, a gate sags, or a rail fails within a year, we return and correct it at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
If a picket is split, you can pull two nails and swap it with a matching board. If a gate latch is sticking, a shot of dry lubricant on the mechanism is safe and often resolves it. That’s about where we’d draw the honest line. Setting a post below grade in Tampa means digging through sand, clay, or shell depending on your neighborhood, and if you get the depth wrong, you’ll be redoing it after the first hard rain.
Fence work isn’t high-voltage dangerous like a garage spring, but a post hole deeper than two feet is a real hazard if it collapses while you’re in it. And a 60-pound section of fence panel catching wind while you’re mid-removal will hurt you. If the frame or a post is involved, call us at (941) 655-9297 and we’ll give you a straight number.
FAQs
A properly installed Wellborn fence in Tampa lasts 12 to 18 years depending on sun exposure, drainage around the posts, and how consistently it was sealed. Posts are the first thing to fail here, not pickets. Call (941) 655-9297 for an inspection and an honest assessment of what’s left in your fence.
Yes, we do section repairs all the time. If the posts are sound and the rot is limited to specific rails or pickets, we match the Wellborn profile and splice cleanly at the post line. We only push full replacement when the post structure is compromised.
Most Tampa fence installations take three to five working days from first call to final walkthrough, depending on linear footage, access, and whether we’re removing an existing fence. You’ll have a written schedule as part of the upfront price.
We keep Wellborn-profile pickets, rails, and matching hardware on our install trucks, along with compatible components for KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone cabinet and surface systems. If it’s an unusual spec, we order it and it arrives same week.
Straight number, clear scope, no surprises at close-out. Call (941) 655-9297 for a free estimate from Curtis Lane and the Bradford Remodeling Co Tampa crew. A live person answers, 24/7, and every price goes in writing before we touch your fence.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling Co Tampa, serving Tampa and nearby areas.
