- Do not give money upfront.
- Insure the job will be properly supervised.
- Insists that the posts will be set 3' deep.
- Always do your due diligence before you hire a Sherman, Texas fencing contractor.
www.fencingplusmore.com
1. Do not give money upfront or wait until a considerable amount of work is done before issuing a draw of payment. I take no money down and usually I do not take any kind of a draw until the customer is completely satisfied with the terms that we agreed upon initially. One of the biggest ripoffs I see with sherman texas fence contractors that I come across are contractors that get into a customers' trust zone by cunningly devised words and a lower priced fence than what a reputable fencing company would charge. After the customer feels comfortable with the contractor and the lower price, they ask for half down for the materials. Most of the time they never come back or they do part of the work and then disappear not responding to phone calls or messages. I have even seen where they will not perform with what was agreed upon by using inferior, cheaper products. In most cases the victim is a lady who is in a vulnerable position.
2. Insure the job is properly supervised, preferably the entire duration. Problems arise when an installation crew is dumped out or left to themselves with no governance. I do the work myself or on the job supervising my helper. I am quite particular of how I want things to be done which is why I do them myself most of the time except for when I am really backed up in the spring time and I hire a helper to lighten the load. In many cases employees and crews do not feel that they are being paid enough for the hard work that they perform, no matter how well they are being paid. With no supervision they are more apt to cut corners especially if they are paid by the foot or per the amount of work they do. Hourly or daily rate installers tend to drag their feet more but either way supervision is of utmost importance. Back in my early days when i would hire people the biggest problem we had when installers would not take the extra time to things like clean the excess dirt out of the holes or set the posts to the right depth because it was more work. I have also seen where contractors promised they would use cedar and ended up using pine or an inferior type of cedar that does not have the same durability characteristics that cedar has resulting in a poor quality fence. The sad thing is that the trusting customer does not know the difference between cedar and pine/fir most of the time. I had a widow that I had given a quote to back in the spring of 2019. Because of the durability and quality aspect of construction it was a bit more than the local sherman texas fprivacy fence contractor she had heard of on facebook and so she chose that route giving them money up front. Afterwards she called me crying wanting to see if there was anything I could do to resolve the issues in which their nails/screws were bleeding down the fence like Tammy Faye's mascara, they used pine 2x3's which will rot and bow in 6 months and her gates sagged and dropped as soon as they got wet.
3. Insist the posts to be set extra deep. I like to set all of my posts 3' deep in the ground. Most sherman texas fencing companies claim that they set their posts 2' deep per the engineer spec, after going out and repairing and replacing their posts I often find they are only set about 14-18 inches most of the time. The reason I like to deeper on my posts is the fact that north texas has some of the worst dirt known to man when it comes to a foundation or a footing as the first 2' of the dirt is worthless. I have dropped tools down in some of the cracks and could not find them they ran so deep. In the past I have had customers want me to come out and fix leaning fence posts by digging around them and pouring concrete, which will not work for the long haul. The post is the life of the fence and it must be set deeper than the engineer spec. Even after they are set deep there is some responsibility on the side of the homeowner int terms of proper drainage by shedding water away and by using irrigation such as a soaker hose, drip lines or sprinklers.
Notice how our north texas soil recedes and causes the post to heave in dry months.
4. Always do some Due Diligence before you hire a sherman tx fence contractor, don't just take their word or anyone else's word for it. It's always better to try before you buy, so to speak but in this case the best way to do so is by looking at other fences they have done and talking with former customers. I would recommend looking at some that are 5 plus years old. Ask the customers they have done work for if they felt like they performed and done what they say they would do and if they were 100% completely satisfied. They way i do it is this: if you are not satisfied, I will either make it right or I will not charge you a dime. Look at some of their google reviews and don't just look at the good reviews, look at the ones that are negative. As of today, the only negative google review that I have as a sherman texas privacy fence contractor is a 3 star rating from a really young couple that I never did any work for, all I did was give them a quote and then they told me to do it. I took the time of purchasing all of the materials and obtained the building permit. When I showed up at their house they had someone come in and slap a fence up without giving me the decency of a cancellation or anything. I expressed my frustration with them and they expressed their's by a 3 star review. Since being the #1 rated fencing company in sherman texas, I could probably count on 2 fingers how many unhappy customers I have had and it was something that was beyond my control and fell into the category of not knowing specifically what they wanted.
As a Sherman Texas fencing company I pride myself in accepting all of the risk to ensure my customers feel comfortable with their decision to choose Mike Downs Fencing. It is a privilege for me to serve Sherman, Denison, Pottsboro, Van Alstyne, Gunter, Gainesville, Whitesboro and surrounding counties and I look forward to serving you. Cedar privacy fences, cedar board on board fences. Metal fences. Wrought Iron fences. Fence Staining.
If you would like to talk about a new fence, feel free to call.
Mike Downs Fencing
(903) 814-8118
http://www.fencingplusmore.com
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