Hurricane Season Tips: Securing and Maintaining Your Fence

Published by Jerry Gifford in Fences · Monday 18 Aug 2025 · 3:45
Tags: hurricane, season, fence, maintenance, Gifford, Fence, Company, fence, installation, affordable, fencing, tips, and, tricks, securing, your, fence, home, safety, outdoor, living, property, protection

Living in Florida most of our year is spent under the threat of a hurricane. Hurricanes can wreak havoc on fences, especially privacy fence. There are several steps you can take to help prevent damage to your wood, vinyl, aluminum or chain link fence.

The most important thing to do is cut back any trees or branches, especially bamboo. You need to maintain at least a 2 foot buffer between any tall plants and your fence. This allows for sway of the plants in the wind.

Second, secure your gate. 90% of our repair calls after a hurricane for is for gate repairs. Their are two options to secure your gates during a hurricane.

If you don't care about securing your yard during the hurricane you can open the gates 180 degrees and secure them to the fence itself. This can usually be done with a bungee cord at the top and something wedged against the gate at the bottom like a sand bag of large cinder block. It will need to be something heavy. A spare paver or brick won't work.
If you want to keep your yard secure during the storm or if your gate can't open far enough to be fastened to the fence you will need to secure it closed. First make sure it is securely latched, then lock it. If you have one of our vinyl or aluminum fences you can simply use the key lockable latch to lock the gate. If you have one of our wood fences you can use the locking mechanism on the Maxima Deluxe latch and them put a lock or piece of wire in the lock hole, just to be sure. If you have a simple thumb latch or double sided latch, they all have holes so you can install a pad lock or even a piece of wire or zip tie. The after the latch is secure you need to put something heavy like a sand bag or cinder block on BOTH sides of the gate. This helps prevent the wind from forcing the gate at the bottom where there is no latch to secure it. This is especially important for double gates since they do not have a post that is secured in the ground to latch to.

Lastly you need to walk your fence and just wiggle the posts. If the post moves easily it may have a problem like a broken post. Fences can still stand upright with a broken post, until pressure is applied and then it will topple over. If you have a broken or loose post you have two options.

Call a fence contractor, like us at Gifford Fence, and have them come out and repair or replace the post. Doing this before the storm will save extra costs of replacing panels or sections of fence after the storm.
Try to secure the fence yourself. If you have a wood fence you can drive a metal rod or wood stake in the ground against the back side of the post and then bungee or tie the post to the rod or stake. If you have a vinyl fence you will need to drive a rod or stake on both sides of the posts. Because of the way vinyl fences are constructed you can't really put the support on one side and them secure it to the post. If you have a loose chain link or aluminum fence you can do the same thing as a wood fence since you have access to all sides of the post.

The only good thing about hurricanes is that we usually know that they are coming and we have time to prepare. Taking these simple steps to secure your fence during the storm can save on repairs or prevent needing repairs are all. If you live in the Orlando area and need a fence repair or replacement please contact Gifford Fence Company, LLC for a free estimate.