The short answer
Most good privacy fence ideas in Central Florida come down to three choices: what material, how solid, and where the privacy actually needs to be. Here are 12 ideas we build for privacy fences in Orlando and across Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties. Start with the goal, then pick the idea:
| If you want | Idea that fits | Our installed price, 6 ft* |
|---|---|---|
| Full privacy for the least money | Wood stockade | About $24 per foot |
| Wood with no gaps, ever | Wood board-on-board | About $26 per foot |
| Privacy with no staining or sealing | White vinyl privacy | About $26 to $28 per foot |
| Vinyl that doesn’t look like vinyl | Tan, gray or woodgrain vinyl | About $31 (tan) to $45 (woodgrain) per foot |
| A modern look | Horizontal wood boards | About $47 to $60 per foot |
| Privacy on chain link you already own | Slats or a privacy screen | About $4 to $15.50 per foot added |
| To hide one spot, not the whole yard | A short privacy screen section | Priced by the section |
*Installed prices from All County estimates written September to November 2026 for runs of about 150 to 250 feet. Gates are extra, and short runs cost more per foot. Details in the cost section below.
Start with the view you want to block
Before you pick a style, stand where you sit outside and look around. Most people want privacy in two or three places, not along every foot of the property line:
- The patio or lanai: the view from the neighbor’s back windows or yard straight onto where you sit.
- The pool: where privacy and Florida’s pool barrier law overlap (more on that below).
- The street side: on corner lots, traffic and people on the sidewalk.
- Something you’d rather not look at: pool equipment, trash cans, an AC unit, a commercial lot behind you.
Which direction it comes from matters too. A 6-foot fence hides a neighbor standing in their yard. It doesn’t hide you from a neighbor’s second-story window, which is where a tree, a pergola or a taller section where the code allows does the work.
Wood privacy fence ideas
Pressure-treated pine is still the least expensive way to get a fully solid fence. The style is where the ideas come in. All three below are styles we build every week; see them all on our wood fence installation page.
1. Classic stockade: the budget pick
Boards sit side by side on one face of the rails. It’s the least lumber per foot, which makes it our lowest-priced wood privacy fence at about $24 per foot. The trade-off: wood shrinks as it dries, and treated pine keeps drying for months after it goes up. Thin gaps can open between boards over the first seasons.
2. Board-on-board: no gaps as the wood shrinks
Boards alternate front and back and overlap, so even after the wood shrinks there’s no straight-through gap. It costs about $26 per foot in our estimates, roughly $2 more than stockade. For a fence whose whole job is privacy, it’s the wood style we’d point most people to.
3. Shadowbox: privacy that lets the breeze through
Boards alternate sides of the rail with a gap between them, so the fence looks the same from both sides. Straight on, you can’t see through it. From an angle, you can. In exchange, air moves through, which Florida summers and Florida storms both appreciate. Our price is the same as board-on-board.
Wood upgrades worth knowing about
- Cedar pickets: on a recent 6-foot job, upgrading the pickets to cedar added about $4 per foot.
- Stain or paint: a stained fence like the one above looks finished and protects the wood. We build the fence; staining is done by the owner or a painter, after the wood has had time to dry out.
- A trellis panel or planter bed: breaks up a long run of boards and gives a vine somewhere to grow.
Vinyl privacy fence ideas
Vinyl costs a little more than wood up front and nothing to keep. It won’t rot, warp or feed termites, and it hoses clean. The ideas here are mostly about color and texture; our PVC vinyl fence page shows the full range.
4. White vinyl: the clean classic
The most common vinyl privacy fence we build, at about $26 to $28 per foot. It’s bright, it looks finished from both sides, and it never needs paint.
5. Tan, gray and woodgrain vinyl
Tan hides dirt and pollen better than white and costs a few dollars more, about $31 per foot. Gray, charcoal and woodgrain finishes (names like Cypress or Coastal Cedar) look the most like a stained wood fence without the upkeep. They’re the premium tier: about $43 to $45 per foot in our recent estimates.
6. A lattice top
A foot or so of lattice above a solid panel softens a 6-foot wall and still blocks the view at eye level. Our tan vinyl with a mini-diamond lattice top ran about $46 per foot on recent jobs. One Florida-specific catch: in one vinyl maker’s tests, a standard privacy panel held 100 mph sustained winds before extra fastening, while the lattice-top version held 70 mph until it was screwed and reinforced to the high-wind spec. Ask how a lattice-top fence will be fastened.
More privacy fence ideas
7. Horizontal boards for a modern look
Horizontal boards make a fence look like part of the house design instead of a property line. They take more framing and labor than a vertical fence, so our horizontal wood fences run about $47 to $60 per foot. They’re part of our custom fence work.
8. Mix solid and open
Privacy where you need it, open where you don’t. A common layout: 6-foot privacy along the back and sides, stepping down to a 4-foot picket or aluminum section toward the front of the house, where most cities cap fences at 4 feet anyway.
9. Screen one spot, not the whole yard
A few panels around pool equipment, a hot tub, the trash cans or one side of the patio can solve the problem for a fraction of a full fence. Short runs cost more per foot, but far less in total.
10. Add privacy to chain link you already have
If the chain link is in good shape, a mesh privacy screen runs about $4.35 to $5.65 per foot installed and slats about $15.50. Neither one hides everything. Our post on chain link privacy slats covers how much they really block and when a new fence is the better buy.
11. Let plants finish the job
A fence gives privacy on day one. A hedge in front of it adds height, softens the boards and blocks the view from upstairs windows over time. Podocarpus, viburnum and clusia are the usual Central Florida choices. Plant a couple of feet in from the fence so you can still reach it, and keep vines from growing into the boards or panels.
12. Go taller, where the code allows
Sometimes 6 feet isn’t enough, and most local codes cap backyard fences right there. Inside Orlando city limits the limit is 6 feet in side and rear yards, or 8 feet where the yard backs onto commercial or industrial property, and anything over 6 feet needs a permit. Unincorporated Orange County allows up to 8 feet in side and rear yards. An 8-foot board-on-board fence ran about $41 to $42 per foot in our recent estimates.
Florida checks before you pick
- Wind: a solid 6-foot fence acts like a sail in a summer storm, and fences here usually fail at the post, not the panel. We set every post two feet deep in a full 50 lb bag of concrete mix. Ask every bidder how deep and how much concrete, in writing.
- Height and permits: inside Orlando, a wood or vinyl fence of 6 feet or less on a one- or two-family lot needs no permit, with a 4-foot limit in front yards. Unincorporated Orange County requires a permit for every new fence and limits fences to 4 feet within 50 feet of a lake’s normal high-water line. Our Orlando fence permit guide covers the rest.
- Finished side out: the City of Orlando asks for the finished side of a wood fence to face outward. Board-on-board, shadowbox and vinyl look finished from both sides, which settles that question.
- HOA: many HOAs set the material, color and height. Get approval before the order goes in.
- The pool: if the privacy fence is also your pool barrier, Florida law (Fla. Stat. 515.29) requires it to be at least 4 feet tall with no gaps a child could squeeze through, and gates that open outward, away from the pool, and are self-closing and self-latching. In Orlando, a fence used as a pool barrier needs a permit. Our pool fence installation page has more.
What these privacy fence ideas cost
These are installed prices (materials, labor, posts and cleanup) from our own estimates written September to November 2026, for 6-foot fences on runs of about 150 to 250 feet:
| Privacy fence idea | Per foot, installed | 150-foot backyard |
|---|---|---|
| Wood stockade | About $24 | About $3,600 |
| Wood board-on-board or shadowbox | About $26 | About $3,950 |
| White vinyl privacy | About $26 to $28 | About $3,950 to $4,200 |
| Tan vinyl privacy | About $31 | About $4,600 |
| Woodgrain vinyl privacy | About $43 to $45 | About $6,450 to $6,750 |
| Tan vinyl with lattice top | About $46 | About $6,950 |
| Horizontal wood | About $47 to $60 | About $7,050 to $8,950 |
Two things move these numbers more than people expect:
- Length: the same 6-foot board-on-board fence that’s about $26 per foot on a 150- to 250-foot job was about $53 per foot on a 25- to 50-foot run. Setup costs don’t shrink with the fence.
- Gates: a 6-foot wood walk gate ran about $275 and a double drive gate about $575 in recent estimates. Vinyl gates cost more.
Our Orlando fence cost guide has the full price book by material and height.
Picking the right idea for your yard
Start with where you need the privacy, set the budget, then pick the material: wood for the lowest price, vinyl for the least upkeep, and a custom or mixed design where the fence is part of the look. At a free on-site estimate we’ll walk the line, check your city or county and HOA rules, and price two or three ideas side by side. See our privacy fence installation in Orlando for styles, gates and recent installs.
