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Sakrete Fence Installation: The Los Angeles Owner’s Guide
Bradford Remodeling installs Sakrete-compatible fence post systems throughout Los Angeles at a typical cost of $4,130 to $10,620, including materials, excavation, concrete, and labor. Most owners discover they need us when a post leans after the first winter storm, or when the concrete base crumbles around a gate post that takes daily load. We’re an independent contractor, not affiliated with Sakrete, but we know their bagged concrete mixes and post-setting products well enough to match the right one to your soil, your fence height, and your neighborhood’s wind exposure.
Which Sakrete Models This Applies To
If you bought your fence materials at any Los Angeles home center, you likely have Sakrete’s Fast Setting Concrete Mix, their standard High Strength Concrete Mix, or their Fence Post Mix, which comes in 50-pound bags with aggregate sized specifically for post holes. The packaging will say “Sakrete” in bold letters across the front, and the bag weight, 50 lb, is printed near the bottom. What matters more than the bag label is what is already in the ground. A post set with standard concrete will last in Los Angeles, but a post set with fast-setting mix in clay-heavy soil, common through the Crenshaw district and much of South LA, can heave within two seasons because the mix cures before it bonds properly to the surrounding earth.
OEM versus aftermarket does not apply to Sakrete the way it does to a dishwasher pump or a window balance. Sakrete is a dry mix, not a mechanical part. The real decision is which one of their blends matches your hole depth, your post material, and whether you are setting wood or steel. We stock three Sakrete-compatible mixes on the truck: fast setting for gate posts, standard high strength for line posts, and a coarse aggregate mix for taller privacy fences over six feet. Get that wrong, in Los Angeles, and the first Santa Ana wind event will show you exactly which post was under-mixed.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Sakrete Fence Installation Is Failing
- Post lean greater than five degrees. The concrete collar has cracked below grade, usually because the hole was dug too narrow or the mix was poured too wet. In Los Angeles, repeated wet-dry cycling through the rainy season accelerates the crack once it forms.
- Visible gap between the concrete and the post. This is shrinkage. Fast-setting concrete pulls away from wood as it cures, and water gets in. The gap is the first place rust starts on steel posts and rot starts on cedar.
- Crumbling concrete at the surface, especially around gate hinges. A gate post takes lateral load every time it swings. If the top of the concrete footing is spalling or flaking, the core is usually compromised, not just the surface. In Los Angeles, the UV and dry air do not cause this, load does.
- Fence section lifting in high wind. Wind pushing on the panels turns the post into a lever. If the post pulls up even a quarter inch at the base, the concrete was never bonded to the post or the hole was too shallow for the fence height.
- Standing water pooling at the post base after rain. Los Angeles soil drains poorly in places like Mid-City and parts of the Valley. Water sitting on concrete means the mix was not crowned properly, and that water will find its way down the post and into the footing over time.
See the difference
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After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A full Sakrete-based fence installation in Los Angeles runs $4,130 to $10,620, and the spread depends on three things: linear footage, post depth, and how much of the old concrete needs to be saw-cut and removed. A 50-foot side yard fence with six posts sits at the lower end. A 150-foot backyard fence with gate posts, concrete removal, and deeper footings for wind load sits at the upper end. Bradford Remodeling gives a written, itemized price before any work begins. You will see the concrete mix, the post material, the labor, and the disposal broken out. If the scope does not change, the price does not change. Every completed fence carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise. If a post shifts or a gate binds within the first year, we return and correct it at no charge. That guarantee is in writing, not in a handshake.
DIY or Call Us?
For a fence post, the dangerous part is not the concrete, it is the digging. Los Angeles has underground gas, electric, and water lines running through front yards and side yards, and hitting one with a post hole digger can turn a weekend project into a utility emergency. Call 811 before you dig anything, every time. What an owner can safely check is the surface condition: look for the cracking and gaps described above, and take a level to the post. What an owner should not do is dig out a failed post that carries a gate or sits within five feet of a utility easement. That is where DIY turns into a repair bill that doubles the original quote. If you are not sure which bucket you are in, call us at (903) 568-7222. We will tell you over the phone whether it is worth a visit, and the estimate is free either way.
FAQs
A properly set Sakrete post, in Los Angeles soil, lasts 15 to 25 years before the footing shows meaningful wear. The post itself may fail sooner if it is wood and not sealed, but the concrete collar, mixed right and crowned at the top, will outlast most fences. The failure we see most is not age, it is a hole that was dug 18 inches deep for a six-foot fence, which is too shallow for our wind and our expansive clay. Call (903) 568-7222 if you want us to eyeball a leaning post before it takes the whole line down.
Sometimes, if the lean is under five degrees and the concrete around it is intact, the post can be straightened and re-braced without a full re-pour. That is the exception, not the rule. Once the concrete collar is cracked or the post has shifted more than a few inches, the fix is surgical removal of the old footing and a new pour. We will tell you which one you have, in writing, before we quote it.
A single post, dug, poured, and braced, takes us about half a day in Los Angeles, and fast-setting mix means the post can carry light load the next morning. A full fence line, with concrete removal, takes two to four days depending on footage and access. We do not rush a cure, because rushing a cure is how the next crack happens.
Yes. We keep fast-setting, high-strength, and coarse aggregate Sakrete-compatible mixes stocked, along with the post materials, in our Los Angeles service vehicles. That means we do not stop mid-job to run to a supply yard, and the mix you are quoted is the mix that goes in the hole. Curtis Lane sees to it that the truck is loaded before the crew rolls out. Straight number, real scope, no surprises at the punch list.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling at Bradford Remodeling, serving Los Angeles and nearby areas.
