Metal Fence vs Wood Fence: Cost, Downsides and What to Use Instead

Wood usually costs less to put in, and metal costs less to keep. Installed aluminum runs $20 to $45 a foot around St. Louis, and most jobs land between $25 and $40. Wood needs stain every two or three years, plus new boards as old ones rot. A picket metal fence needs neither. You can see straight through it, though, so it gives you no privacy.

On this page, a metal fence means aluminum or ornamental steel. Both are upright pickets held by rails between metal posts, with a finish put on at the factory. Whichever word you searched, the figures here apply.

Maintenance-Free Outdoor Solutions installs aluminum and steel across St. Louis and the Metro East. See how an aluminum fence job runs in St. Louis. You can also phone 636-464-1144 for a free, no-obligation visit where we measure your fence line and price it.

What You Pay Up Front for Metal and Wood

Aluminum, installed by us across the St. Louis metro:

• $20 to $45 a foot, with most yards landing between $25 and $40.
• Gates are priced on their own. Each one carries hardware and hanging time.
• We update our aluminum fence cost page whenever prices change, so check it for the latest line-by-line figures.

Wood often starts lower. How much lower turns on the kind of lumber and its grade. A wood fence contractor should price that, not us. Whether the savings last depends on how long you stay in the house, which the last section works through.

The day-one price leaves out the upkeep. Wood needs a new coat of stain or sealer every two or three years for as long as you own it. Boards cup and warp, and their bottoms rot where they meet damp soil, so some need swapping out. That is normal for timber here. Missouri clay stays soaked through the wet months, and the summer sun is strong. We cover the rest of the pros and cons of wood fencing on a separate page.

A metal fence has no such schedule. Aluminum cannot rot or warp, and its color is baked on at the factory instead of brushed on. That is what makes it a maintenance-free fence: in year ten it still needs nothing from you.

What a per-foot figure misses. It cannot see your yard, and we cannot price your yard from a map either. A slope changes the job. So does a line you share with a neighbor who must agree, or an easement under the fence. We settle those on site, walking the line with you.

The Disadvantages of a Metal Fence, Named

Searchers ask this more than anything else on the topic. We sell and install metal fences, and these are the five drawbacks you should weigh.

1. You can see through it. Pickets have gaps by design, so you see your neighbor and your neighbor sees you. If you want to block that view, this is the wrong fence. The next section says what to buy instead.
2. It will not stop wind or noise. Air goes through. That helps on an exposed lot and hurts beside a busy road.
3. Small pets need closer pickets. Standard spacing lets a small dog through. On the Voegtli job in Kirkwood, we closed the gaps to 1 and 5/8 inches for two small dogs. Closer spacing costs more than standard.
4. A hard hit bends it. A mower or a falling limb can bend a picket. Aluminum bends rather than splinters, and a bent section gets replaced on its own.
5. Four feet is a boundary, not security. A four foot fence marks a line. It does not stop anybody who wants to climb it.

My advice: before you sign, stand in your yard and picture your neighbor looking straight in. Of the five, that is the one to be sure about first.

Picket Metal Will Not Give You Privacy, and That Is Often the Point

A lot of people search for a private metal fence. Solid metal panels, the fourth kind listed below, are the only metal that blocks the view. Every other metal fence uses pickets with gaps, so light and sightlines pass straight through.

That is exactly why some yards want one. A four foot aluminum fence on a subdivision lot keeps a dog in. It does not wall the yard off or block the view you paid for. We built the Stowe fence in Brentwood, listed below, for that reason: dogs in, new landscaping still in view.

If privacy is what you actually want, you want a solid panel, and that means vinyl or composite rather than metal. We wrote up the seven privacy looks we install on a separate page, and our privacy fence page covers the installed side of it.

Aluminum, Steel and Wrought Iron Are Not the Same Thing

Metal fence covers four different products, and the price gap between them is wide.

• Aluminum. The common one. It does not rust, it is light enough for one person to carry a panel, and the color is baked on. Most of the jobs below are aluminum.
• Ornamental steel. Heavier and stronger, and priced above aluminum. We install it, and our steel fence page covers where it earns the difference. The head to head on those two is its own guide.
• Wrought iron. Almost nobody sells true wrought iron anymore. What gets sold under that name is usually steel, and our guide to that explains why.
• Solid metal panels. Corrugated steel sheets or slatted aluminum with no gaps between them. They are the only metal fence that gives privacy, and none of the jobs here use them.

The brand we install most in aluminum is Elite, and the range is on our Elite fencing page. You can check us before anyone visits. We are a listed installer on the Catalyst Fence installer directory, under our Arnold address.

Five Aluminum Jobs From 2026, With Their Measurements

Multiply your footage by the per-foot price for a rough total. These five yards show how much fence real jobs needed.

Two of those five turned up something the quote could not see. On the O’Malley job we found the grade too steep for standard gates, so the gates had to be rackable to follow it. On the Voegtli job we found the standard picket gap too wide for two small dogs, and closed it to 1 and 5/8 inches.

Time on site follows footage. The 38 foot Voegtli run took one day, and the 260 foot Schwyhart run took three. Four of the five took two days or less. To get your own footage first, use our guide on how much fence you need.

Wood and Metal on the Same Fence

Plenty of people are not comparing the two at all. They want both. Some picture wood boards on steel posts or inside a metal frame. Others want a solid run on one side of the yard and open metal on the other.

The split version is common, and it needs no wood at all. You put a solid run where you need screening and open aluminum where you want the view. The two meet at a corner. We would build the solid side in vinyl or composite.

Wood on steel posts, or inside a metal frame, is still a wood fence. Steel posts do not rot at the ground line, but the boards still need stain every two or three years. We do not install wood, so a wood fence contractor is the right call for that look.

What People Use Instead of Wood

Three materials work well instead of wood. The right one depends on what the fence is for.

• You want to be unseen. Solid vinyl or composite. Our vinyl fence page covers the installed side, and the composite page covers the stone and woodgrain looks.
• You want a boundary that keeps a dog or a child in. Aluminum. Open, quick to put in, and nothing to maintain.
• You want wood, but not the upkeep. Woodgrain vinyl copies the grain and the blended tones of stained cedar, with no staining ever.

Buying the material and setting it yourself is also a real answer. Our fence supply store sells it to homeowners who dig their own post holes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting a Wood Price to Compare

We only build fences that need no stain or paint, so we do not install wood or quote it. Any wood figure from us would be a guess.

My advice is to get a written price from a wood fence contractor and lay it beside ours. If wood comes out cheaper for your yard and staining does not bother you, wood is a fair choice.

Moving within two years? Then the stain schedule is the next owner’s problem, and the lower quote makes sense.

How to Decide

Start with what the fence is for. If it is a boundary for a dog or a pool, metal is usually the cheapest thing that lasts. Picket metal is not for anyone who wants privacy or wants to block noise. It is the wrong choice there; a solid panel is the right answer for screening instead. These are ranges, not a quote: your fence line still decides the final number.

Next, price both fences for your own footage. Ask the wood contractor what one round of staining costs and how often it is due. Add twenty years of that to the wood quote before you compare.

Pricing the metal side takes one visit. Call us, and we usually come out within 1 to 4 days. We walk and measure your line, hold a real panel against your house, and price the job. Once work starts, the five jobs above took 1 to 3 days each. Homeowners around St. Louis describe how it went on our reviews page.

Our workmanship guarantee runs one year. Any warranty on the aluminum or the vinyl comes from its maker and is separate. You can see panels and gates up close at our showroom in Arnold before you decide.

To book that free, no-obligation visit, call 636-464-1144.