Dog-Ear Vinyl Picket Fences, Custom-Built and Installed

What a dog-ear top actually is: a cap on every picket

A dog-ear top is a molded cap, 0.875 by 3 inches, seated over the top of each picket in the run. The board underneath stays a plain rectangle, with nothing on it shaped or removed. The top rail crosses every picket in the fence, and the boards pass straight through it.

They stand exposed above that rail, so every one takes a cap. Name follows cap. Fit the dog-ear model to the pickets and you have a dog-ear fence. Under the caps it’s a plain spaced picket run, and the general basics and the spacing between boards are shared by every vinyl picket fence.

Why the dog-ear is the classic, most economical top

The dog-ear became the default picket top for a plain reason: it’s the simplest way to close an open picket. One cap per board, no finials, no extra hardware, and a fitted cap is forgiving about the small height differences that turn up along any real run.

Its traditional look suits almost any home, and on the open-top picket panels we build, the dog-ear cap is the standard finish. And because color goes all the way through the vinyl, that top line holds its tone without any paint on it.

Dog-ear, scalloped, or arched: what actually changes

That comparison rests on a split that does not exist. Straight, arched, and scalloped picket panels all ship with dog-ear caps, because all three leave the picket tops exposed and every exposed top takes a cap. What separates them is the run line, the shape the tops draw from one post to the next.

Panel style	The line the tops draw
Straight	Level from post to post
Arched	Rises through the middle, a convex curve
Scalloped	Dips through the middle, a concave curve

So a dog-ear fence can be a straight run, an arched run, or a scalloped run, and the cap it is named for looks right on all three. Pick the line you want across the yard; the dog-ear cap goes on top of whichever you choose. Scalloped and arched runs are lines of their own, and whether the boards go upright or side to side is a separate call between vertical and horizontal pickets.

Open by design: what a dog-ear picket will not do

A dog-ear picket is an open fence, and that openness sets its honest limits. The wide gaps that give it curb appeal also let the view and daylight straight through, so it marks a boundary without screening a yard.

It gives no real privacy, will not keep a small pet in, and falls short of California’s five-foot pool-barrier standard, so it will not serve as a pool fence, the same code limit that applies to every vinyl picket fence. If you want a solid screen with dog-ear-topped boards, that is a dog-ear privacy panel, a separate fence we also build.

Built to your run, installed, and gated to match

Every dog-ear run is measured, fabricated to the color and size you choose, and installed by our own crew, so the odd heights and small jobs other companies pass on tend to land with us. It is offered in White, Tan, and Clay, at standard 3.5 and 4 foot heights, with taller runs built to order. On the panels that call for it, the bottom rail carries a metal insert for extra backbone.

A matching gate is built to the same profile on a vinyl-clad metal frame, offered as a single, double, or rolling gate that stays hand-operated. The vinyl comes with a transferable limited lifetime warranty, and our labor gets a separate 5-year workmanship warranty, alongside zero-down Synchrony financing and estimates answered the same business day.

Three tones, one cap

The clipped corner repeats on every exposed top, dozens of times down a run, and that repetition is the look. A quiet solid keeps it reading as rhythm rather than noise. An angled cut takes light at a different pitch than the picket face, so judge a swatch in sun and again in shade.

• White

  

• Tan

  

• Clay

  

• Gray

  

• Coastal Cedar

  

• Dark Walnut

  

• Dark Sequoia

  

• Weathered Aspen

  

• Mesquite

  

• Slate Gray

  

• Arctic Blend

  

• Brazilian Blend

  

• Sierra Blend

  

• Weathered Blend

  

Beyond the picket line

A picket marks a line without closing it. When the line needs closing, we build the solid privacy runs, tops in lattice or picket or acrylic, and toppers sized to an existing block wall. Same shop, same crews, one visit to measure.