How to DIY Install Iron Fence or Aluminum Fence on a Hill, Slope or Grade

In a perfect world, your yard would be perfectly level to install your iron or aluminum fence.  But what if you have a hilly, sloped or graded yard?  Check out our article to see how to install iron fence and aluminum fence in these situations.

Iron fence and aluminum fence are installed a little differently when you are dealing with a hill, slope or grade.  The first thing you want to determine is the rise-over-run measurement for your hill, slope or grade.  This measurement is basically looking for how long the hill, slope or grade extends against how much it drops or rises.  Our video below shows how you can easily determine this rise-over-run measurement with three simple tools you probably already own:

Now that you have your rise-over-run measurement, let’s see how the iron fence and aluminum fence handle these situations.

Wrought Iron Fence Installation on Hills, Slopes and Grades

Wrought iron fence panels are welded solid.  This means that all the main components of the fence panel have been joined permanently and do bend or ‘rack’ to follow grade.  Since the iron fences are welded solid, you will do what it called ‘stair-stepping’.  This means that you will ‘step’ down the hill with rigid, straight sections.  Here are a few examples of iron fences stair-stepped down hills:

Depending on the severity of your rise-over-run, you may need to split your 8ft wide iron fence panels into smaller sections with more posts to ‘step’ down the grade faster.  In the image below, the customer cut the 8ft wide panels down to 4ft wide and added more posts in to ‘step’ down that steeper grade more quickly.

If your rise-over-run is more mild, you could do like the photo below and install the fence even at the top and then fill in underneath with landscaping they way they did with stones.

Aluminum Fence Installation on Hills, Slopes and Grades

Aluminum fence handles slopes and grades a little differently than iron fence since aluminum fence is screwed together rather than welded together.  With this screwed together construction, you can pivot the pickets and rails or ‘rack’ the panel where the pickets remain upright, but the rails angle to follow the grade.  You can see this ‘racking’ motion in action in the video below:

Our Infinity Aluminum panels will rack 8-10 inches over the 6ft wide Traditional and 8ft wide Signature grade fence panels.  That means our Infinity Aluminum fence panels can follow a 0 to 10″ rise-over-run measurement.  If your rise-over-run per panel is more than that, you can use a combination of stair-stepping and racking.

Here are a few photos showing the aluminum panels racked to follow grade:

In conclusion…

Determining how to install your iron fence or aluminum fence with a hill, slope or grade requires a little more forethought than a standard installation, but its something you can easily determine by figuring out your rise-over-run measurement and how it would apply to each 6ft wide or 8ft wide fence panel.

As always, if you have any questions on how to determine the measurement or use the iron fence or aluminum fence for your exact application, give us a call or shoot us an email and we can help you work through it!