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Chain link is the cheapest fence per foot you can buy and the one where the specification matters most. This calculator prices gauge, coating, height and slats separately so you can see what you are actually getting.
Published figures for this market put chain link at $16 to $35 per linear foot installed — a wide band for a simple fence, because the difference between a bare 11-gauge galvanised fence and a coated 9-gauge one with a top rail and slats is nearly everything. This calculator prices those choices individually rather than quoting you a single number.
Lower numbers are thicker wire. 11-gauge is the residential standard; 9-gauge is noticeably heavier and is what commercial sites use. It is the difference you feel when you push on the fence.
Bare galvanised is the cheapest and, on Coronado, the one that rusts first — usually at the ties and the bottom of the posts. Vinyl-coated mesh over a galvanised core costs more and both lasts longer and reads far better.
Chain link is commonly 4 to 6 feet residentially. Going taller adds about 28% per foot from 6 to 8, and at 7 feet or above you cross the California building-permit threshold.
Posts and rails are where a cheap chain link fence gets cheap. Schedule-40 pipe and proper tension bands cost more and are what keeps the fence tight for twenty years rather than five.
The usual way to make chain link less of a chain link fence. They add material and labour, and they also add wind load, which the posts have to carry.
Chain link gates are the cheapest gates of any material here, but they still need heavier posts on both sides and a proper latch to stay square.
This calculator works from the 2026 cost figures published for Coronado and coastal San Diego. What it cannot see is where your property line actually runs, what is under your soil, whether the old posts are set in concrete, or how the neighbour feels about the fence you are both going to look at. We will come out, measure the run and give you a written scope with no pressure attached.
Book a free site visitPublished figures for this market put chain link at $16 to $35 per linear foot installed. By project type: a standard galvanised chain link fence runs $1,800 to $4,500, vinyl-coated $2,500 to $6,000, heavy-gauge or high-security $3,000 to $7,500, and chain link with privacy slats $2,800 to $6,500. Removing an existing fence adds $800 to $2,500.
On Coronado, yes. Bare galvanised chain link corrodes faster here than almost anywhere else in the county, and it starts at the ties and the bottom of the posts where nobody is looking. Vinyl coating over a galvanised core roughly doubles the effective life on an exposed lot, and black or green coating makes the fence far less visible — it disappears into planting in a way bare steel never does.
Wire thickness. 11-gauge is the residential standard and is fine for pets, boundaries and pool enclosures. 9-gauge is meaningfully heavier, holds tension better over long runs, and is what you want for security, for large dogs, or anywhere the fence is likely to be leaned on. The price difference is about 25 percent on the mesh.
Yes, if it is built to the code. A California pool barrier has to be at least 60 inches tall, with no more than 1.75 inches between vertical members, no more than 2 inches of clearance at the bottom, and a self-closing self-latching gate with the latch at 54 inches. Standard chain link mesh meets the gap rule; what needs attention is securing the bottom so it cannot be pushed up, and the gate hardware.
They give you visual screening rather than privacy in the way a solid fence does — you cannot see through, but you can hear through and light passes. They are the cheapest way to make an existing chain link fence less institutional. The thing to plan for is wind: slats turn a fence that wind passes through into one that catches it, which the posts have to carry.
The California Building Code exempts fences under 7 feet from a building permit. Coronado zoning allows up to 8 feet in a required side or rear yard and 4 feet in a required front yard. A standard 4-to-6-foot chain link fence in a back yard typically needs no permit at all. Confirm your own project with Coronado Community Development.
Planning the whole project? Start at the Coronado fence calculator hub, or read more about our Chain Link Fence Installation service.