Fence Contractor bids: Don’t go cheap.

Selecting a fence contractor.

When purchasing fencing services – be it a residential fence, arena fence, corral or maybe a no climb fence- we all want to be smart shoppers. We call a bunch of fence contractors, get estimates, compare bids and make a (hopefully) well-researched decision.

Before you decide, there are a couple of things you should know and do.

In Oregon, you should check out the Oregon Licensing requirements for contractors. Make sure the company building your fence has the proper licenses, liability insurance (if someone gets hurt building a fence on your property, who do you think is paying for it?), and only uses qualified labor.  You’d also want a fence company that maintains their continuing education, to be up on the latest state rules and regulations. You can check out All Aspects Fencing right here. Whether you select us or someone else, make sure you are getting what you pay for. Verify they are licensed, bonded and have no actions against their business by searching the database.

But how bad could it really be…

This version of Good Fence/Bad Fence will *not* be including pictures, as we don’t want to embarrass the neighbor. Last week I had a homeowner call and ask me to come out and look at a fence their neighbor had built that they didn’t like and wanted to have it fixed. When I showed up to the home I remembered I had provided their neighbor an estimate on building that same fence, but the neighbor chose to go with a less expensive bid by another person / “fence builder.” The person that built the fence – and I put the term fence builder in quotes for a reason – did not have a contractor’s license and it showed.

It was one of the worst jobs I have seen all year!

The “fence builder” had concreted the posts in between rocks on the retaining wall. A licensed contractor would know that this is never an OK way to set posts. The end result was not pretty; the top of the fence was straight enough, but the bottom was another story altogether.

The bottom of the fence had large holes that a dog or child could have crawled through easily – coming in or going out. The “fence builder” probably did the best he could with the conditions he had to work with and his lack of professional knowledge, but if the homeowner would have hired All Aspects Fencing, LLC to build their fence, we would have addressed the issue prior to commencing work.

The answer to this Bad Fence conundrum?

The neighbors should have agreed to move the fence to one side or the other of the retaining wall, thus making sure the end product would be stable, long-lived and do what a fence should do: keep things in or out.

By not adequately completing their fence contractor research – or worse yet, simply picking *cheap* rather than good – the homeowners got the fence they paid for. They now need to hire a licensed fence contractor and pay them accordingly to have the fence fixed right the second time. It would have been less costly overall to do the job right the first time.

What’s the takeaway?

Do your research and always hire a licensed contractor for any home improvements or building, be it fence or otherwise. Why take a chance with a lowball bid that may end up costing you much more than expected?