On the Fence

We need to replace our fence. It's so old, I don't even know how long it's been there. I do know it's the second fence that's been put up since I've lived here (well over 30 years). I believe that it is somewhere between 20 and 25 years old. I definitely got my money's worth out of it, but it has seen better days. Lots better days.

Enter contractor A. He is replacing the gutters on our house and wanted to quote for the fence, as well. So far, he remains the high bidder at $27K. To be fair, that price included a sliding gate but I did mention that he might want to revise his quote and take out that fancy gate because I'm pretty sure we can live without that. But I suppose that if he couldn't keep the $5K gate, he wasn't interested because he never gave me an updated bid and the gutters are completed.

Then there's contractor B. B for Bubba. Bubba didn't give me the quote in writing. Bubba called me up and gave me three different prices. I wrote them all down. One was for pressure treated pine, one was for cedar, and one was for pre-stained cedar. They ranged from $6K to $9K. But then he called back to tell me that he didn't realize he was supposed to quote replacing the entire fence. (Really? And the part he didn't think was being replaced is actually the section that's the absolute worst!) So he changed his bid and pushed it up to $13K. Now, it was a Friday night and I think it might have been "Miller Time" for Bubba. He called back to tell me that the $13K did not include the stain. Then he called back again to tell me that the $13K was pine, not cedar. Then he called back yet again to tell me that he was going to honor the $9K price, but that it wouldn't include the stain. Am I the only one who's confused?

On to contractor C. Contractor C was eager. He came out after 7 pm (fortunately it's still light) did the measurements and wrote everything up. Nothing wrong with his price and his description of what he wanted to do sounded just fine. But he wanted to be paid in three installments. For a four day job. He wanted it in equal thirds and he wanted his first third then and there even though he wouldn't be starting the job for a couple of weeks. I was ready to give him a check but Mark thought we ought to do a little due diligence. (We have a friend who was converting his garage into a game room and gave a contractor a check for $11K and never saw him again.) I did my best to look this guy up. He claimed to have been in business for over 25 years but had no website and no Facebook page for his business. What he did have were two complaints - one from a guy who gave him $3K and never saw him again and another from a guy whose fence blew down within a month. He called several times to see if we'd made a decision and I just told him we were not happy making three payments on a job that wouldn't even take a week. (I gave the guy who did my laundry room some money up front and it took him 8 weeks to finish. No money until it's done - that's my new policy!) But I have to say that I found it a bit odd that when we refused to sign the contract and give him a check on the spot, he refused to leave the written quote.

Next up was contractor D. He phoned me as I was on the way to a medical appointment. Apparently he was in the area and could come out right then. Didn't seem like a good idea since I wasn't home. I told him the following day would be better and I never heard from him again. That was over a week ago.

We had one more guy come out. He was from what appeared to be a substantial company - multiple "wrapped" vehicles and multiple employees, professional-sounding back office staff. He told me their policy was to collect half the money up front before starting the project. I told him that payment before any work was done was not going to happen. He told me they'd been in business for 42 years. (So why should they need front money?) I told him I'd lived in the house for over 35 years - so we were almost even. He explained to me that some people refuse to pay. I'm sure that's true. I deal with it myself from time to time. But if he puts a fence on my property and I refuse to pay, he can slap a lien on my property. If I give him money and he fails to put a fence up, or puts up an inferior fence, I don't really have any recourse except to sue him (assuming I can find him) and get an unenforceable judgement. It looked to me like he's in a stronger position than I was. So I'm sticking to my guns on this one.

I think I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board on the fence. Or maybe the project can wait until fall when I won't need to worry so much about them damaging my flower beds.