My New Fence~50's Style

[mickeyd]

My 30 year old fence was in need of replacement as I had re-repaired it to death during the last 5 years or so. I did not feel like doing it myself so I decided to get several bids from local companies.

All of the bids were around $4000 for a red cedar fence w/ two gates that is 210' long and to tear down/haul away my old one. There would be a great need for drilling post holes, as I have much limestone that sits about 8/12 inches below the surface.

The company that I selected for the job only required that I sign the proposal sheet which basically said that I would pay for it or they can come back in 30 days and tear it down. No down-payment required. I faxed them the signed form to start the ball rolling. About a month later the company rep left a message on my phone that they would be by on Wednesday to do the job. The crew showed up, worked their a** off in the South TX heat and pulled away on Thursday PM without asking for a payment.

About a week later I an invoice arrived in the mail that announced the quoted price. I scratched a note on the invoice to put it on my CC and stuck it in the mail. A few days later it showed up on my CC account. Done deal.

The thing that I appreciated most was that I only spoke to one person on one occasion, told him what kind of fence I wanted, he measured it, emailed me his bid, and completed the job as agreed on. No money was due until the job was properly done. All of the other bidders required a 50% down payment.

It was not exactly a hand-shake deal, but it was pretty close. This is the way that business should always be conducted these days, like back in the 50's.

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd The thing that I appreciated most was that I only spoke to one person on one occasion, told him what kind of fence I wanted, he measured it, emailed me his bid, and completed the job as agreed on. No money was due until the job was properly done. All of the other bidders required a 50% down payment. It was not exactly a hand-shake deal, but it was pretty close. This is the way that business should always be conducted these days, like back in the 50's.

There are a few (VERY few) companies around here that still operate that way, and I try to use those few when I need to have something done. It really is nice to be able to do business with just a 'gentlemen's agreement'. They're good for their word, and I'm good for mine. They guarantee a quality job, and I guarantee to pay them for it......when their finished. And around here, they're usually the ones who do the best quality work, advertise the least except for 'word of mouth', are busier than most of the others put together, and have stayed in business for many years.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd My 30 year old fence was in need of replacement as I had re-repaired it to death during the last 5 years or so. I did not feel like doing it myself so I decided to get several bids from local companies. All of the bids were around $4000 for a red cedar fence w/ two gates that is 210' long and to tear down/haul away my old one. There would be a great need for drilling post holes, as I have much limestone that sits about 8/12 inches below the surface.

Is that a split rail type fence? The price seems quite good too.

Ha

[laurence]

Post the name and/or website of the company here! Thank them with some word of mouth business!

It seems so rare, and whenever someone like this gets found out in my neighborhood, they get instantly worked to death as everyone knocks down their door with business.

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

I think if you've ever worked as a contractor, or freelance anything, you might have another view of the situation. For small improvements on homes many people will takes weeks or months to pay a bill from a private party and will many times change their mind in mid construction and want less fence or something after it has already been built and expect to pay less even though there was more labor involved. Some people will even wait until the job is done and then say they don't like the style of fence and refuse to pay until a lien is put against their property. What you are asking the construction company to do is take 100% of the risk involved in the deal; with a 50% down on the deal the risk is split equally between the two parties.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Pretty much how it works with my brother in law and his subs. I've run into a number of companies that worked this way, although I do have to say that it didnt necessarily make their quality of work better.

Whats killing the "good guys" is that a lot of contractors are lowballing the jobs, getting half up front, ripping into a job and then discovering "new problems" and jacking up the bill. They put a "pre lien" on the property right from the get-go, so about the time you're thinking about kicking them off the job you get a letter from the county letting you know that the contractor just has to send in a piece of paper to solidify the lien.

Nice, huh?

The contractors play bill games on each other too. My brother in law subbed a job out to a plumber to finish a bathroom he was remodeling. I was in the car with him when the plumber called to ask why he hadnt paid the bill.

"Because I didnt like that bill and I want a different one." Turned out the guy charged him for 30 fittings and only put in 20 and charged an extra half hour of labor than he actually worked.

He got a different bill.

Three or four years ago I'm not sure that would have worked, but nobody wants to tick off anyone else in the business right now, at least not around here. Too many guys and not enough work.

You got that fence cheap MickeyD. I shopped for materials and ended up paying $13/ft just for the materials and I bought them and hauled them myself. I did pay extra for the composite boards and used three 4x4 rails instead of two 2x4 rails, so that kicked the price up a little. The labor was more than that...we hit granite about a foot down and broke out the jackhammer on every post for both removal of the old posts and reinstallation of the new posts. We pulled some 300lb chunks of granite out of those holes and I ended up using them for landscaping rock out front.

Two tons of old concrete and two tons of old fence to the dump...

[Caroline]

Quote:

...we hit granite about a foot down and broke out the jackhammer on every post for both removal of the old posts and reinstallation of the new posts.

And I've been griping about California adobe clay... land sakes!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh yes, we have that too. But I put a soaker hose right down the post line 2 days ahead of time and we turned it into thick glue.

The downside to that is by noon every day we were all walking on 4" thick clay platform shoes.

But you can dig in it!

[mickeyd]

Quote:

Is that a split rail type fence?

Nope. I looks like the above pic.

[haha]

Then you got a lot of fence for that amount of money!

Ha