How do you "buy" a fence?

[lady1297]

DH and I have a 1920's craftsman inspired stone exterior 4X4 (four rooms upstairs, four downstairs) home. We are looking to put up a fence in the back yard to keep puppy and baby safe. What would you recommend. Puppy doesn't/can't jump, so we could do 4 foot fence or we could do a 6 foot fence. We were looking at the ones Lowes has.

What would look right given the age of the home. Picket? Gothic picket? Cape code picket? Lattice? Full privacy? Any help?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=37991-73428-60072&lpage=none

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=154867-73428-154867&lpage=none

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=56507-73428-56507&lpage=none

Any ideas??
Here's a pic of the front of the house. The fence would be in the backyard...

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/lady1297/Joe_and_Rita_s.jpg

[MLA]

How To Achieve A Specific Architectural, Period or Artistic Style:
Arts & Crafts Period and Craftsman Fences ~
One of the most popular Los Angeles area styles can be achieved with smooth planed wood assembled using simple decorative pegged joints. Additionally, beams with rounded edges and "japanese" style joinery echo the look and feel of the Greene & Greene style. You can also create a simple fencing pattern, use stylized rail accents or barred post caps and accent with wooden embellishments to get an Arts & Crafts period feel.
http://www.kirsch-korff.com/Pages/fences.htm

Here's an example from the website above:
http://www.kirsch-korff.com/Assets/images/losangeleswoodenfence1detail.jpg

[lady1297]

Oh, pretty!! Hmmm.....

[lady1297]

Here's some more we were looking at:

http://www.usfenceonline.com/products/vinylfence/semiprivacy/20872.html

http://www.usfenceonline.com/products/vinylfence/gates/picket/74472.html

http://www.usfenceonline.com/products/vinylfence/gates/picket/63972.html

http://www.usfenceonline.com/products/vinylfence/gates/picket/21572.html

[Brady]

Okay, I feel totally stupid asking this, but we are moving into our new house this weekend.. our yard is not fenced in. My son, aka Forrest Gump, NEEDS a fence (okay, more his mother needs a fence for him ;)).

Anyways- how does it work? If I called a fence company for a quote do they normally come out with a book of fence styles with prices? I know HD and Lowe's also sell them with installation, but I'm just wondering how the average fence company works with all the different styles out there.

TIA!! (and forgive my naivete, we were in a condo for the past 4 years..)

[dal]

We just had a fence put in the week before last b/c my youngest daughter NEEDED a fence too. :o

We called a couple of local fence companies. They both worked the same way. A salesperson came over, measured where we wanted the fence, gave us options, showed us the brochures of all the fences (though we pretty much already knew what we wanted) and then gave us written estimates. One guy gave us the estimate on the spot I think but the other mailed it to us within a couple of days.

We picked one, paid a deposit, they ordered the fence, I got a town permit and as soon as the fence was in, they had their installers come and install. Took two days b/c the fence needs to dry before they can hang the door.

Hope this helps!

[Hello Kitty]

Anyways- how does it work? If I called a fence company for a quote do they normally come out with a book of fence styles with prices? I know HD and Lowe's also sell them with installation, but I'm just wondering how the average fence company works with all the different styles out there.


Yep, pretty much! We called several area companies for estimates, in addition to looking into DIYing. One guy came out with a book of designs they could do. The other one based our estimate on what design we said we wanted.

We went with the company who:
- did not use pre-assembled panels to ensure we used the maximum yard space available and had a nice, custom fit, always very close to our somewhat uneven ground.
- set the posts in real concrete (which required waiting several days from the time they set the posts to the day the fence went up) so our fence doesn't move in snow and wind like other ones do.

Buying the fence was one of the best things we did for our house, and was worth every penny! :)

[Sophia]

Pretty much what was already said. The different types and styles of fencing will be priced based on running yards.

[Brady]

Thank you so much everyone, I appreciate it. Now to just prepare myself for the sticker shock, ;)

[EJH]

We had Home Depot out for a quote a couple of years ago, he brought a book and did some measurements etc. Anyway, we almost fell over from sticker shock. We still do NOT have a fence. :o You might better off going with a local company. Granted, we wanted a 6 ft privacy fence...

Also, do it soon, b/c in NE I can't remember when the ground gets too hard from them to do it, might be November.

Erin :)

[newmommy]

What about getting the land surveyed? We have to put up one this spring for our DS : ) I have old sticklers for neighbors, and I'm wondering if we have to have the land surveyed.....

[Hello Kitty]

Newmommy - we used the existing survey that we got when we purchased our house. We did the fence approx 5 months after moving in, but I would think a survey is a survey.

Once we met with the designer, he drew up a plan according to our survey. We submitted those together to the city when we requested our permit. When they approved our permit, they started work on the fence.

[newmommy]

thanks

[BTB]

FWIW, when we bought our house, along with the survey (done in 1977) we were told by both Realtors that although we could use it for informational purposes, for legal purposes a survey is only useable for 12 months from the date it's performed. We're in WI, and perhaps the laws on this are different from state to state. Just tossing in my two cents. We're looking at fences too, and are not sure whether to have it done yet this fall, or next spring. When I get the quotes, I might choose next spring based on that alone. :)

[kimthebride]

Maybe this is too personal, but...how much do fences cost?? I know it depends on how big your yard is, but when all is said and done are we looking at $5K? $25K? How do we even know what we're getting is fair?

DH & I are condo people and are afraid we have the word "SUCKER" written across our foreheads when it comes to moving to the 'burbs. :rolleyes:

[EJH]

Kim

When we had Home Depot out a couple of years ago...gosh, probably 3 years ago now for a quote on a 6ft white privacy fence, they told us we were looking at $6K. We do not have a very large piece of property at all...it's a city lot. Frankly, we stopped there with quotes and getting a fence dropped to the bottom of the "expensive crap that needs to be done to the house" list. :o

Hopefully someone can be more helpful, but just wanted to give you that figure.

Erin

[BTB]

Try playing around with this site a bit:

http://www.fenceonline.com/index.html

It's informative, and has an estimator (right next to the map of the US and Canada that shows their branch locations) which will give you a ballpark idea of cost. It needs a fair amount of info to give an accurate estimate: linear distance along which the fence would run, number of posts and gates, height of the fence, material of the fence, and design (picket? lattice? shadowbox? concave/convex/straight?) There's so many factors that go into it beyond just the length of the fence, though of course that matters too. :) Your location matters, as with anything else some parts of the country are just more expensive than others.

FWIW to enclose the backyard of our .5 acre lot, we came in anywhere between $3K for chain-link to $8K for 6' wood to $14K for ornamental iron.

[Hello Kitty]

Our 6' high red cedar scalloped top fence was $17/linear foot 2 years ago.

[DallasLady]

We found a local fencing company from the weekly mailers. We got a few estimates before we decided on who we'd use. We ended up paying about $2500 for ours. It's not a really fancy one, but it's not the cheapest either, we got 8' tall wide wood slats. Our yard is 35' x 45'

[NolaInIllinois]

what type of fence do you want and how big is your yard?

we just got our front yard done in April, I'm in Illinois. We have 4ft concave 4 inch slat fence with the gothic posts. We had one gate installed. Our measurements were 8 foot on one side with the gate, then 45 feet across our front yard, and then 60 feet down to the side to connect to the back privacy fence. It is cedar and it cost us 2k. I called about 3 different places and this place was the nicest and most professional, more important to me than price. Another place quoted me $5500 for the same exact thing.

With our back fence, we have a pretty big back yard, one place quoted us 10k for the cedar, ugh! This is with no gates. We decided to do it ourselves with green treated. It took us a while to get it done since I was having baby's, three, and dh was working full time but it cost us about $3500 total to do it ourself. This is the quarter inch thick 6 foot slats. We got all of our supplies at Menards.

[myshel]

We had to have some chain link fence replaced at our old home (there was an exsiting fence already, but it was pretty crappy and our crafty lab kept getting out to roam the neighborhood). To find a good deal, we talked to our neighbors and co-workers to recommendations. Based upon their recommendations, we called two places to come out and give us estimates.

DH is really big on how nice and professional the people are when they come to give estimates, so went with the one place that was slightly more (we're talking about a hundred more) but had the nicer people/professionalism.

[MayBride06]

We're having our fence installed this coming week!

We're getting a 5', scalloped, shadowbox style, cedar fence with 1 gate.

We had home depot come out and quote us and :eek: was our reaction.
So we called a few other companies and went with Cedar Rustic Fencing who came in at almost 1K cheaper!

I will definitely post pics once it's in the ground.

[Pineknot]

Ironically, I just had a fence man come out today to give me a quote. I like the white vinyl fencing, but have discovered the quality you buy from hardware stores and the quality you get from fence fabricators are entirely different. So, unfortunately, once seeing Home Depot's stuff, I knew I had to have the other stuff. :(
I wheeled and dealed. The cost was about 23$ a foot. I got him down to $15 a foot, EVERYTHING included, no sales tax. I'm pretty darn happy with the price. Now dh and I have to figure out how to install it. lol. The fence man said he will help us every step of the way. They're a large company, and happens to live in my neighborhood, so I feel pretty confident they'll deliver.
I just want to encourage the bargaining system. I feel a bit uncomfortable doing it, but on the fence alone, I saved over $600.

[LilOne]

I'm thinking about getting a vinyl fence for my backyard. We can put it in, but how do you know the quality? What should I look for?