Safety Guidance: settle these before the first post hole
Five things to settle before anyone digs: buried utilities, the true property line, permits and approvals, the neighbor, and a pool barrier if there is one. For each, this page names who to ask.
The ground rules before the first hole
Anyone planning a fence on a Massachusetts lot meets the same few questions. Some carry a clock, and most have one office that can answer them, so the order in which you settle them matters.
We take them in the order they tend to bite. Utilities come first, because a post hole is excavation. The property line comes next, since a neighbor can later show that a fence sits on their land. Permits, wetlands and the neighbor follow, and a pool adds rules of its own.
This is general information, not legal advice. Where a question turns on a deed, a dispute or the town's own by-law, ask the office named here or a lawyer.
Six numbers worth knowing before you dig
- 72 hours
- The notice Massachusetts requires before excavation, not counting weekends or legal holidays, so a Friday request is not ready to dig on Monday. Source: Dig Safe System FAQs.
- 30 days
- How long a Dig Safe ticket stays valid. Digging must start within that window, and the area must be premarked with white marks before notice is given. Source: Dig Safe System FAQs.
- 7 feet
- The height up to which the state building code exempts a fence from a building permit. The cited list is for buildings other than detached one- and two-family homes, so confirm the residential rule with the building department. Source: 780 CMR 105.2, on Cornell LII.
- 6 feet
- In North Attleborough, a residential fence over six feet needs a zoning variance, though a building permit is not required below seven feet. That is one town's example, not a rule for every town. Source: the town's General Fence Guidelines.
- 100 feet
- The buffer zone that the Wetlands Protection Act regulations measure from a protected resource area. A fence near a stream, pond or wetland goes to the conservation commission first. Source: 310 CMR 10.02, on Cornell LII.
- 48 inches
- The least height of a fence around a private pool, hot tub or spa, measured from the outside, with no more than 2 inches of clearance at the bottom. Source: Town of Plymouth pool fencing requirements, quoting the state code. Towns may be stricter.
The sticking points, answered briefly
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Does a standard privacy fence need a building permit?
Usually not from the state, which exempts fences of ordinary height. A town can still require a zoning permit, so ask the building department before you order materials.
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Who settles where the property line runs?
A land surveyor does. One town's building department, North Attleborough, advises a survey before any installation, because owners often misplace the line. The town's General Fence Guidelines make the point.
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Does a post hole need a call first?
Yes. Posts are excavation, so Dig Safe needs notice first, given by calling 811 or filing online after the dig area is premarked. Dig Safe does not mark the lines itself. The Dig Safe FAQs set out the notice rules.
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Does a fence near a stream or pond need more than a permit?
It can. The conservation commission decides whether a fence falls inside a wetland buffer zone, so take the plan there before posts go in. North Attleborough's guidelines add that wetland restrictions apply even where no building permit is needed.
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Does a pool change the fence you can build?
Yes, and it changes more than height. A pool barrier has its own top height, bottom gap, picket spacing, mesh and gate rules, set out in the next section. The numbering changes between code editions, so confirm the current one with the town.
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What if the neighbor disagrees about the line?
Settle the line with a survey first, then talk it through. If you still disagree, the town's fence viewers are the local officials to ask. Massachusetts treats a fence that unnecessarily exceeds six feet and is maliciously built or kept to annoy an adjoining owner as a private nuisance, and height alone does not make a fence unlawful. General Laws, chapter 49, section 21 sets that out. This is not legal advice.
Pools, gates and the spacing that makes a barrier
A barrier around a pool is judged by its gaps as much as its height. Picket spacing can be no more than 1 3/4 inches when the horizontal rails are less than 45 inches apart, with the rails on the pool side. With rails 45 inches or more apart, the limit is 4 inches. Plymouth's pool fencing requirements give both limits.
Chain link qualifies only with mesh of 1 1/4 inch square or less, or with slats that cut the openings to 1 3/4 inches or less, so standard 2-inch residential mesh does not qualify on its own. The same Plymouth requirements set this out.
A pedestrian gate has to open outward, close itself and latch itself. If the latch sits lower than 54 inches from the bottom of the gate, the release goes on the pool side at least 3 inches below the top, and the gate must also accept a lock. The Plymouth requirements cover this too, and the town should confirm all of it before you buy hardware.
Read the gate and dig sources yourself
- American Fence Association: Gate Safety: the fence trade body's own statement on gate safety, which urges installers, manufacturers and the public to follow existing gate standards.
- Dig Safe System: How It Works: how to notify utilities before a post hole is dug in Massachusetts, from marking the area to confirming the lines are marked.