Wrought Iron Fence in Palmdale, CA

Palmdale Municipal Code 17.86.040 accepts engineered wood, masonry, wrought iron, durable vinyl, or other similar durable materials the city approves. It prohibits solid metal, and it bars chain link on a home lot unless the fence is temporary. What we weld is open steel picket and rail in the wrought iron style, cut to the measured run. The city approves materials, so a drawing to Planning confirms it for your address.

The front yard setback is where the design gets decided. The code separates sight-obscuring fencing from open view fencing there. Anything sight-obscuring stops at 3 feet. Open view fencing may be allowed up to 5 feet, and on a residential lot of 20,000 square feet or more a 6 foot open view fence may stand in the required front setback. A picket fence is open from the ground up, so it can use those higher figures. A masonry base is sight-obscuring and stays at or under 3 feet. How the city reads a base and a picket top together is a question for Palmdale Planning before it is drawn. A solid steel kick panel along the bottom brings in the solid metal prohibition, so we leave it off and keep the fence open to the ground.

In the street side, interior side and rear setbacks the limit is 6 feet, and one more foot is allowed where the part above 6 feet is open view. Picket steel is open all the way up, so a side return or a rear line can reach 7 feet. A new fence over 6 feet needs a building permit.

On this shop's standard panel, pickets are 3/4 inch square tube, set in 1.5 inch channel rail roughly 4 inches apart center to center, which leaves an opening close to 3.25 inches, and line posts are 2.5 inch square up to 6 feet of panel. Those are our own build sizes, not code figures. A gate post carries a swinging load no line post sees, so it grows with the leaf, and gate posts get at least 36 inches of concrete as a matter of shop practice.

Pool fencing in Palmdale meets a tight piece of arithmetic. California Health and Safety Code 115923 requires a pool barrier at least 60 inches tall, and 60 inches is 5 feet, the most open view fencing may reach in a front setback on a lot under 20,000 square feet. Where a barrier line runs inside that setback, the finished height has to land right on the number. Behind the setback there is room above it.

The rest of 115923 shapes the steel. No more than 2 inches of clearance underneath, no opening that passes a 4 inch sphere, and nothing on the outside face a small child can climb. The gate swings away from the water, closes itself, and latches at 60 inches or higher. Our standard picket gap already stops the sphere. Rails go on the pool side, and the panels rake with the slope rather than step, so no wedge opens under the fence. Section 115922 also asks for a second drowning prevention feature besides the fence on a new or remodeled pool at a single family home.

Front yard iron takes sprinkler overspray as well as sun, and bare cut ends rust first. Galvanizing under an AAMA 2604 class powder, with the ASTM D7803 thermal prep in between, keeps pinholes out of the finish. Palmdale also expects fences to be kept with no sign of rust or disrepair, so the finish is a code matter as well as a looks one.

Send the run lengths, your lot area, the setback line if you know it, gate positions and widths, whether there is a pool, and photos of how the ground falls.

This work runs out of our shop on Division Street in Lancaster. Read the full wrought iron fence details, or call (818) 220-8704 and we will come out.