Temporary Fence Rental in Austin

Limestone changes how fence goes in

Dig a post hole in parts of west Austin and you hit limestone a few inches down. Dig one in the east side of Travis County and you hit black clay that swells in a wet spring and cracks open in August. Neither one is friendly to driven posts, which is why most temporary fence around here stands on weighted bases or sandbagged feet instead of being set in the ground.

That choice matters more than it sounds. Panels on stands go up fast and come down without leaving holes in a parking lot you do not own. They also move in wind if the base is light. Austin gets gusty fronts ahead of a storm, and a stretch of unbraced panel with a windscreen on it acts like a sail. Ask the provider how they weight it and whether they brace the corners and the ends.

The other local fact is the water. A flash flood can run across a flat site in minutes, and fence that was dead plumb on Monday can be flat in a drainage swale on Tuesday. If your site sits low, tell the dispatcher, because they may set the line a little differently.

Who is renting fence here

Downtown and the Domain are the loudest part of the market: midrise towers, hotel work, tenant buildouts, and sidewalk closures that need pedestrian-rated barricade along the street. North of the city, Round Rock and Pflugerville have steady subdivision grading and retail pads, which need long runs of six foot panel around bare dirt. Cedar Park and Hutto are the same story with more acreage per job.

Then there is the east side, where industrial and utility work has kept crews busy for years, and where a perimeter often has to enclose a few hundred feet of frontage plus a truck gate wide enough for a flatbed.

The event calendar is the other half. Zilker Park for a festival weekend, Circuit of the Americas on a race weekend, and the long run of downtown street closures in spring all need crowd control fence in lengths that would clear out a small yard. Event work gets booked early, and the good lengths of barricade are gone fast, so call as soon as you have a date.

Rental length and the Austin growth curve

Projects in Austin tend to run longer than the first schedule says. A tower waiting on a crane slot or a pad waiting on a city inspection will stretch the fence rental past the first month. Ask the provider how the term works after the first period. Some bill by the month and prorate. Others bill by the week, and a few round up.

If your site might run into the summer, think about the heat as well. Panels left in the sun on black asphalt get hot enough to burn a hand, and a crew moving them in August will be slower and will want an early start. Ask for an early delivery. Most providers around here are used to it.

What to have ready when you call

• The address of the site, or the cross streets for a street closure
• Roughly how many linear feet you want enclosed, even if it is a guess
• Whether the ground is asphalt, concrete, gravel or dirt
• How many gates, and whether trucks or only people use them
• Start date, and how long you expect to keep the fence up

If you are not sure about footage, a sketch on the back of a site plan is enough. A good dispatcher can measure the rest from a satellite photo and ask about the corners.

What the quote should say

Linear feet, height, number and type of gates, and whether privacy screen is included should all be on the quote in plain words. So should the rental term and what happens when the job runs long, because in Austin it usually does when a wet week stops the concrete pour.

Ask who sets and who removes. Some providers send their own crew for both ends, and some deliver a pallet and leave the setting to you. Neither is wrong, but the second is cheaper in labor only if you have the people to do it. Ask what the delivery truck needs to reach the site, since a tight downtown alley can add a second trip.

If the fence is on a public right of way or the street, check with the city about a permit before the fence shows up. Your provider can tell you what they usually see, but the city decides.

Why it pays to line up fence before the weather turns

Austin's wet season and its heat both run hard on a construction schedule. Fence that arrives on the day the grading crew starts is better than fence that arrives a week into it, with equipment already tearing up the ground you needed it to guard. Call a few days ahead and your site is locked up when the first machine rolls in.

Last, a word on the fence itself. Anyone who has spent time on Austin sites has seen a line of fence leaning because the ballast was an afterthought. Walk the line the day it goes up, tug on a few panels, and tell the crew right then if something wobbles.

Looking for a different city? Here are some nearby.

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