How to Choose a Fencing Contractor

Unless you enjoy spending your summers extracting splinters from your hands and pulling your hair out, you might want to figure out how to choose a fencing contractor for your home improvement project. This article will help you decide in a 3 step process, what to do before you meet with a contractor, what you need to ask, and what to do after you hire.

• What to do Before You Hire A Fencing Contractor

Materials

Before you even call a contractor know what fencing materials you will be using. This has an effect on your bid, and will ensure you get a more accurate quote. In addition, it will help you to ask the right questions about the building process because the process for different materials varies.

For example, a Western Red Cedar fence post should be installed directly in the ground, with it’s boards at least 2″ off the ground. However, a pine fence that has been pressure treated must be installed into concrete. Cedar rots in concrete, pine doesn’t.

It’s important things like that you will want to do a little homework on before you call to interview a contractor. And I mean interview. You are hiring, so don’t get just one quote. If you were hiring an employee at the office, you would probably interview more than one candidate before you make a decision. The same goes for trade contractors. These contractors are working on your home, the biggest investment you make. And a fence could add 5-10% value to your home. Take it seriously.

Budget

The next thing is to prepare a budget. Based on the material you have chosen and the size of your intended fence, you can roughly figure out what it should cost.

Then you should do a little research on the businesses or independent contractors you have decided to interview. Are they a member of the Chamber, are they rated online? Are they in the BBB, or are they recommended by your neighbors in your Next Door app? Ask around, check Angie’s List. While no membership in a Chamber does not mean they aren’t reputable, it’s a good way to get information about them.

Prepare

Now what you need to do is prepare your property. Someone is coming to your property to assess how a build will go. Make sure it’s cleared of any garbage or objects that will impede a contractors ability to get a full look at the property where the fence will be installed.

Lastly, make sure your pets are in the home where they aren’t bothering your visitor. I’m sure your furry child is super adorable and not dangerous, but for some people unknown pets are unsettling or just a nuisance. Either way, it’s rude. Put Fido in the house.

• What to ask a fencing contractor in your interview

Customer Service

When you first call to set up an appointment, make sure the business or contractor is responsive. A call answered several days after could indicate that your potential hire has a problem with time management. If they can’t pick up the phone now, what will happen if you need to reach them immediately?

If you call on a weekday you should expect to speak to a human, and if not your message should be responded to within 24 hours. Unless you call on a Friday afternoon. In that case, don’t expect a response until Monday.

Leave a clear message and phone number that can be clearly understood. Don’t rush through ticking off your number so fast it’s not understandable. You won’t get a call back in that case.

How long will the project take? You want that fence up soon so you can enjoy the yard. See how long they estimate it will take so there are no surprises. An average fence build should be 2 days. Also, ask if they usually meet their estimated time frame. If not, again they are probably bad managers of time. Best not choose them.

How do they expect payment? Will your fencing contractor accept credit cards, cash, or a payment plan? Accepting cash sometimes gets you a discount so ask if they have one for cash payments. Beware the contractor that ONLY accepts cash. Especially if they demand it up front. If they are cash only, run away and run fast!

Legal

Ask if the business or contractor is licensed and insured. Duh, it seems like a no-brainer but a lot of people just assume the person is, without checking. Shady contractors might not have one, but advertise that they do. Make sure you get a peek at it.  You want to make sure they are insured. Don’t just count on your homeowner’s insurance if things go sideways and you end up suing. They should be insured as well.

Will they pull permits? You may need a permit depending on where you live. Some areas you might need a permit with the county or city. Some cities may not require a permit if your fence is under a certain height. Your fencing contractor should know what kind of permit is needed. They may or may not actually file for permits so if they don’t you’ll need to know that before you start building. It could end up being extremely costly to have to re-do fencing to code.

Is their a warranty on their labor? Your materials will usually have a manufacturers warranty, but you will want the labor guaranteed. Something might go wrong because of poor workmanship. If something goes wrong, how will they mitigate the issue? Will they cover expenses for their mistakes? A fencing business or contractor who won’t stand behind their work, is concerning.

Get it in writing. Get your quote in writing, find out how much wiggle room there is in the estimate. If they say the project could be (for example) $300 overage, you can plan it into your budget. If they come back with $600 more, you can refer to the bid quoted.

Materials and Labor

What kind of concrete will they be using? Will they use a bag concrete that must be mixed, or will they bring a concrete truck mixer? The latter is way more trustworthy to know it is getting mixed right. You won’t get consistency mistakes from a human hand. In addition you won’t suffer any premature drying out of the mix, and it takes minutes opposed to hours to mix and pour. Hand mixing adds a lot of labor cost hours to your bid.

Is the bid for labor only, or materials also? If the fencing contractor does include materials and related hardware, make sure it’s reasonably priced based on your research. It will make your life easier if they do include materials so you don’t have to get it delivered or pick it up yourself. If they are including the materials in the bid, of course it will be much hight than a labor only bid. Know what the ballpark cost for your chosen materials are in order to figure out if your bid is reasonable or not.

Have they built fences before? I know it seems silly, but a bad contractor might quote you because he wants the business even though the company may not have built one. Ask to see photos of some examples.

Will they expect to use your bathroom for breaks? Whaaaat? I know, but it happens. You get a knock on the door from one of the laborers asking to use your bathroom. If you do not want people in your home, make sure this is made clear to the business or contractor. They supply their own port a potty or agree laborers will use a bathroom somewhere else on a break.

• What to do after you hire a fencing contractor

Now you have interviewed several different fencing businesses or fencing contractors and made a choice. Again make sure to get it in writing, sometime a quote can change from the time of the original bid to the time of the actual build. especially if you wait a while between them. They might have their quotes only good for a period of time. So if your build needs a new quote, get one. In writing.

Ensure that your permits are filed properly, if needed , and any other permissions handled before the build based on your plan. Some cities or counties may require you get permission from a neighbor if you share a property line the fence will be on.

Ask to have a contact person during the build. Especially if there is a team working on the project. You need to know who to speak to if any concerns or issues arise.

Again, make sure your yard is debris free. You are responsible if your yard is unsafe due to garbage or dangerous material that could easily expose or harm a worker.

There are many things you can do to make sure your project meets your vision, and your budget. But be wary of shady dealings such as cash only, no guarantee, no track record, hand mixed concrete, or won’t give you a quote in writing.

I will caution you however; don’t choose a fencing business or fencing contractor based only on price. Sometimes cheaper isn’t better and you will get what you pay for. On the other side of the coin, more expensive isn’t an indicator of better quality either. That particular company may just have high overhead.

But they may have higher cost because the workmanship and experience is better. So take those into consideration. Either way, make sure whomever you hire can answer key questions based on your requirements.

Have you built a fence, or have any advise you like to add to this list? Post in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.