Wake County, NC Fence Regulations: Permit Requirements (2026)

Wake County Inspections & Permits issues permits and runs inspections for all unincorporated areas of Wake County under the 2018 North Carolina Residential Code (NCRC). The Wake County Residential Building Code Summary, posted by Wake County Inspections & Permits, confirms that "Plans designed to the 2018 North Carolina Residential Code." Section R105.2 of the IRC (carried forward into the NCRC) lists work that is exempt from a building permit. Item 2 on that list reads: "Fences not over 7 feet (2134 mm) high." That means a routine residential fence — chain-link, wood-board, vinyl-privacy, picket, split-rail, or wrought-iron — installed at 7 feet or shorter on a single-family lot in unincorporated Wake County does NOT require a Wake County building permit. Fences over 7 feet, fences that are part of a required swimming-pool barrier (governed by NCRC Appendix G and inspected with the pool permit), or fences in a designated floodway require permits or additional review. Permit exemption is NOT exemption from the UDO: under the Wake County Unified Development Ordinance, any fence must clear the sight-distance / visibility triangle at street and driveway intersections (typically a 10-foot by 70-foot or similar triangle, with no view obstruction above 30 inches), and any fence located in a recorded utility, drainage, or access easement must not block the easement's purpose. Before any fence-post hole is dug anywhere in the state, NC General Statute §87-117 (the Underground Utility Safety and Damage Prevention Act) requires the excavator to contact NC 811 at least three business days in advance. If the property is inside Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest, Garner, Holly Springs, Knightdale, Morrisville, Rolesville, Wendell, Zebulon, or Fuquay-Varina, the municipality's own UDO/LDO and permit office control — Wake County Inspections & Permits does not regulate fences inside town limits.