Searching "fence near me" gets you a map, three businesses, and a page of ads. It does not tell you which of them is licensed to do your job, which one is a national lead broker that will sell your phone number to four contractors, or which one has actually dug a post hole in your soil. Here is how to sort that out in about two minutes — and where we fit.
In Knox County, the licensing bar is $3,000 — not $25,000
This is the single most useful thing to know, and almost no contractor page says it.
Statewide, Tennessee requires a contractor's license for projects of $25,000 or more. That license is required before bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price — not just before the work starts. An unlicensed contractor quoting you a $30,000 job has already broken the rule by handing you the quote.
But Knox County is one of only nine Tennessee counties where a separate Home Improvement license is required for residential remodeling work from $3,000 to just under $25,000. The nine are Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby.
| Your county | License required at |
|---|
| Knox | $3,000 (Home Improvement), $25,000 (Contractor) |
| Loudon, Blount, Anderson, Roane, Sevier, Monroe, McMinn | $25,000 (Contractor) |
So a $6,000 backyard fence in Powell or Fountain City legally needs a licensed contractor. The same fence twelve miles down I-75 in Lenoir City does not. A contractor who already holds a residential or commercial contractor's license is exempt from the separate Home Improvement license — that covers us.
How to check any contractor in two minutes
- Go to verify.tn.gov, the state's official license search.
- Search the company's legal name — not its brand name. They are often different.
- Check the classification and the monetary limit, not just that a license exists. A license with a limit below your job does not cover your job.
- Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly from the agent, not a PDF forwarded by the contractor.
Ours: Loudon County Fence, LLC, Tennessee Unlimited License #54371. Look it up before you call us.
What the "near me" results are actually showing you
Three different things stacked on one screen, and they are not ranked by quality:
- The top block with "Sponsored" or "Ad" — paid placement. Anyone with a budget appears here.
- The map pack (three businesses with pins) — ranked mostly by proximity to where you are standing, review volume and profile completeness. A shop three miles away with 40 reviews outranks a 50-year-old company ten miles away. Proximity is doing more work than competence.
- The blue links below — usually a mix of real contractors and lead-generation sites (Angi, Thumbtack, Networx, Porch and similar). Those are not contractors. Fill in a form and your number is sold to several companies at once, which is why the phone starts ringing immediately.
A quick tell: if the site never names a street address, a license number, or the people who own it, it is a broker, not a fence company.
Are we actually near you?
We are at 5482 Hwy 321 N in Lenoir City, and we have been building fence out of that location since 1973. Straight answer on range: we serve ten East Tennessee counties, and the further out you are, the more the job has to justify the drive.
- Knoxville
- Farragut
- Hardin Valley
- Karns
- Powell
- Halls
- Fountain City
- Bearden
- Lenoir City
- Loudon
- Greenback
- Philadelphia
- Maryville
- Alcoa
- Louisville
- Friendsville
- Townsend
- Oak Ridge
- Clinton
- Kingston
- Harriman
- Sevierville
- Seymour
- Pigeon Forge
- Sweetwater
- Madisonville
- Vonore
- Athens
Counties: Knox, Loudon, Blount, Anderson, Roane, Monroe, McMinn, Sevier, Rhea and Meigs.
Free on-site estimate
We do not quote fences over the phone or off satellite imagery. We come out, walk the line, check the grade and the soil, and give you a real number. Call
(865) 988-9935 or
request an estimate.
Why "local" matters more here than in most markets
East Tennessee sits on karst — folded sedimentary rock with sinkhole activity mapped across Knox County. Depth to bedrock swings from 7 inches on a Montevallo lot to more than 60 inches on Corryton, sometimes between neighbors on the same street. Subsoil here runs 35 to 60 percent clay, and Knoxville takes nearly 52 inches of rain a year — more than Seattle. A post hole dug into that clay is effectively a bucket.
The practical effect: a flat per-foot price quoted sight-unseen either has not hit our rock yet, or has padding built in to cover it. Ask the contractor what happens to your price if the auger stops at ten inches, and whether that is in the quote or a change order.
What a fence costs around here
| Fence type | Installed, per foot |
|---|
| Chain link | $10 – $40 |
| Wood privacy | $14 – $50 |
| Vinyl | $19 – $60 |
| Ornamental aluminum | $24 – $70 |
Before anyone digs
Tennessee law requires 3 working days' notice to 811 before excavation. The ticket is good for 15 days and the tolerance zone around a marked line is at least 4 feet wide. The obligation sits with whoever is doing the digging — if you hire us, that is us. "Did you call 811, and what is the ticket number?" is a fair question to ask anyone before work starts.
Where to go next
Licensing thresholds verified September 2026 against the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors. Soil and climate figures from the NRCS Soil Survey of Knox County and NOAA climate normals for Knoxville (TYS), 1991–2020. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction that governs your address before you build.
