Most privacy fence calls in Chalmette start the same way: a neighbor rebuilt higher than you did, or the old fence finally let go in a storm and the back yard suddenly belongs to everybody. A privacy fence is a solid barrier, usually six feet, with pickets butted tight or overlapped so there's no sightline through it. That sounds simple, and the materials are. What separates a privacy fence that stands for fifteen years from one that leans in two is almost entirely below the ground and in the details at the gates.
St. Bernard Parish soil is soft, wet alluvial ground with a water table that's rarely far down. Dig a post hole in Chalmette or Arabi in spring and it will often have water in the bottom before you finish the next one. That matters because a solid six-foot privacy fence is a sail — it catches every bit of wind off the open water and the canals, and the only thing resisting that load is the post embedded in soft soil. Posts need real depth, generally a third of the above-ground height, and they need a footing sized for the soil they're going into rather than whatever fits the bag. In ground this soft, a wider hole with properly mixed concrete, crowned at the top so water runs away from the post instead of pooling against it, does more for longevity than upgrading the pickets ever will. Ask anyone quoting your fence how deep they set posts, how wide the holes are, and what they do when a hole fills with water. A vague answer there tells you more than any brochure.
Grade is the other ground problem. Plenty of lots here have been raised, filled, or re-graded around an elevated house, so the yard steps and slopes where the fence line runs. A fence can follow that grade by racking the panels to the slope or by stepping them, and each looks different — stepping leaves triangular gaps at the bottom that defeat the whole purpose if you have a small dog or a pool. Decide which you want before the posts go in, because it changes post heights and spacing.
Pressure-treated pine is the default around here and it works, provided the lumber is rated for ground contact where it touches ground and the fence is built so pickets never sit in the dirt. A one-inch gap at the bottom, or a rot board sacrificed in place of the pickets, is what keeps the bottom three inches from wicking moisture and turning soft. Cypress holds up well and looks better aging, at a higher material cost. Board-on-board and shadowbox styles overlap the pickets so the fence stays private as the wood shrinks, and shadowbox lets some wind pass through, which is worth considering on an exposed back line. Vinyl eliminates rot and termites entirely and never needs sealing, but it depends completely on the posts and the internal reinforcement — a cheap vinyl system on undersized posts fails in wind in a way wood does not, because the panels come out of the track all at once. Aluminum isn't a privacy option on its own, though it's common for the street-facing section where you want to see out.
Termites deserve a mention because untreated or improperly treated wood in contact with this soil is on borrowed time, and the post bottoms are where it starts, out of sight, years before the fence shows it.
Linear footage is the baseline, but gates drive cost faster than anything. A single walk gate with heavy hinges and a proper diagonal brace or welded frame costs real money; a twelve-foot double drive gate costs considerably more and needs beefier posts than the fence line does. Beyond that: tearing out and hauling off an old fence, access for equipment through a narrow side yard, hitting old concrete or a slab footing from a previous fence, the number of corners and ends, and whether the run is straight or follows an irregular lot line.
Before booking, know where your property line actually is — surveys settle arguments that neighbors otherwise have for years — and have utility locates marked before anyone digs. Check whether your lot sits in a servitude or drainage easement along the rear, which is common on blocks backing canals in Meraux and across the river in Gretna. Agree in writing on post depth, post spacing, picket orientation and which side faces out, gate hardware, and who hauls away debris. Those are the points people argue about afterward, and they cost nothing to pin down beforehand.