Vinyl and PVC fencing are the same product under two names — PVC is the plastic, vinyl is what the fence industry calls it — so if you have been getting quotes for one and wondering how it compares to the other, you are comparing the same material. What actually differs from one fence to the next is wall thickness, whether the extrusion is virgin PVC with UV inhibitors built in or a cheaper recycled blend, and how the rails and posts lock together. Those differences do not show up in a brochure photo. They show up three or four summers later, when one fence is still white and square and the other has gone chalky and the bottom rail has a bow in it.
The reason this material does so well around here is straightforward. It does not rot at the ground line, termites have no interest in it, and the humidity that swells and cups a wood fence does nothing to it. You never repaint it. The trade-off is that a solid privacy panel is a sail, and vinyl has no fibre to it — all of the strength is in the posts, the footings and the way the rails are reinforced. A vinyl fence that fails in wind almost never fails in the middle of a panel. It fails where the post meets the ground.
Most of Chalmette sits on soft alluvial soil with the water table close behind it, and a post hole dug in the morning can have standing water in it by the time the auger comes out. That changes how the job has to be done. Holes need to go deeper than the minimum a manufacturer prints on a spec sheet, concrete has to be placed so it does not just wash out through saturated sand, and the installer should be thinking about the bell at the bottom of the footing as much as the depth. Gate posts take the worst of it, because every swing of the gate works the post back and forth. Properly done, gate posts get oversized footings and usually a steel or aluminum insert running up inside the post. A sagging gate six months after installation is almost always a footing problem, not a hinge problem.
The other thing soft ground does is punish any fence set too fast. Vinyl posts are hollow, so they are unforgiving about being out of plumb — the eye picks up a lean in a white post instantly, in a way it forgives in a weathered wood picket. Panels also need to be set with the expansion gaps the system is designed for, because PVC moves with heat, and a rail pinned tight at both ends in February will push and bow in August.
Linear footage is only the starting point. Height matters, and so does style: a six-foot solid privacy panel uses far more material than semi-privacy, picket, ranch rail or a pool-code fence with specific picket spacing. Corners, ends and gates all need posts and hardware, so a yard broken into several short runs costs more per foot than one long straight line. Tearing out and hauling away an old wood or chain-link fence is a real line item, especially if the old posts are in concrete. Access matters too — a backyard reachable only through a narrow side gate means wheelbarrowing everything in by hand. Obstructions like old slabs, buried concrete or tree roots can turn a half-day of post holes into a full day.
Ask what the wall thickness is and whether the bottom rail on privacy panels is reinforced. Ask how deep the posts go and how much concrete goes in each hole, particularly on gate posts. Ask whether the posts are routed to take the rails or whether the rails hang on brackets, because routed posts hold up better in wind. Ask about colour honestly: white is the most popular and it also shows algae and mildew first, especially along a shaded fence line under live oaks, while tan and khaki hide it far longer. Both clean with soap, water and a soft brush — a pressure washer held too close will scar the surface.
Settle the property line before anyone digs, and talk to the neighbour whose view the fence will change. In Arabi, Meraux and Gretna as much as in St. Bernard Parish proper, check what your local permitting office and any subdivision rules require for height and setback before material is ordered, because moving a finished vinyl fence is not a small correction.