Hiring a fence contractor is a significant decision that can impact your property’s appearance, security, and value. With so many options available, it’s essential to ensure you’re working with a professional who not only understands your needs but also has the expertise to deliver quality results. To help you make an informed choice, here are the top five questions you should ask before hiring a fence contractor.
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One of the first questions you should ask any contractor is whether they are properly licensed and insured. A licensed contractor has met the necessary qualifications and adheres to local regulations, which can give you peace of mind that they’re capable and trustworthy. Insurance is equally important, as it protects you from liability in case of accidents or damages during the project.
Why This Matters: Hiring a licensed and insured contractor reduces your risk and ensures that the contractor is professional and responsible. If they lack either, you could be left vulnerable to potential legal and financial issues.
CR Fence & Rail is a SLC licensed fence contractor and carries $1M product liability insurance, $1M general business liability insurance, and worker's comp.
A reputable fence contractor should have a portfolio of completed projects and be willing to provide references from past clients. Seeing examples of their work and hearing directly from satisfied customers can give you confidence in their ability to deliver on your project.
Why This Matters: References and examples allow you to assess the contractor’s craftsmanship, reliability, and attention to detail. It also helps you determine if their style and quality meet your expectations.
CR Fence & Rail has a long record of past customers and references. Here is one from one of our past customer:
Your browser does not support HTML video.The choice of materials can significantly affect the longevity, appearance, and maintenance needs of your fence. A knowledgeable contractor should be able to recommend the best materials based on your specific needs, such as climate, budget, and intended use.
Why This Matters: This question tests the contractor’s expertise and ensures they are familiar with a variety of materials and their respective pros and cons. Their recommendation should reflect both your preferences and the practical considerations of your property.
CR Fence & Rail has a variety of product we recommend and more importantly, our goal in our site visit is to help you identify the best material for your fencing needs specifically. We manufacture and install a variety of fencing products, ranging from composite wood fencing to standard white vinyl fence.
Understanding the timeline for your fencing project is crucial for planning and setting expectations. Ask the contractor for an estimated start and completion date, and inquire about factors that could cause delays, such as weather or material availability.
Why This Matters: A clear timeline helps you manage your schedule and reduces the likelihood of unexpected disruptions. It also shows that the contractor is organized and respects your time. Be wary of vague or overly optimistic timelines that may not be realistic.
Once you decide to get started with CR Fence & Rail, our production manager will be in touch with you every step of the way, to make sure that you are aware of when the project will be starting, if there's going to be any sort of delays, any specifics you might need to know, etc. We are with you all the way, even after the fence installation is done with our Lifetime Craftsmanship Warranty.
A solid warranty is a sign that the contractor stands behind their work. Ask about the details of their warranty, including what it covers, how long it lasts, and the process for addressing any issues that may arise after the installation is complete.
Why This Matters: A comprehensive warranty provides protection and peace of mind, ensuring that any defects or problems will be handled promptly and professionally. It’s also an indicator of the contractor’s confidence in the quality of their work.
With CR Fence & Rail, we offer BOTH product & craftsmanship warranty.
Product Warranty:
Craftsmanship- Lifetime warranty for the life of the product.
Asking the right questions before hiring a fence contractor can save you time, money, and stress. By ensuring your contractor is licensed and insured, has a strong track record, offers expert material recommendations, provides a clear timeline, and backs up their work with a solid warranty, you can make a well-informed decision. These questions not only empower you as a homeowner but also position your chosen contractor as a knowledgeable and trustworthy partner in enhancing your property.
There’s definitely a right way to build anything, and that’s true with your home security gate or fence.
Mulholland Brand has been fabricating and installing gates and fences throughout Southern California for over 25 years!
Roughly 70% of our business has been repairing and reinstalling gates erected by another contractor.
We’ve put together a brief report about the more common and most expensive mistakes that we have seen in fence and gate making. Your primary defense against making such mistakes is in your knowledge about them.
Another good defense is to work with people who have been successful at doing this with your friends, family, and neighbors.
When people have gates manufactured and installed correctly, they are proud of their gates and happy to talk about their success…even with strangers.
Cheap or improperly treated wood is one reason you will see a lot of bad-looking gates and fences around your neighborhood. One or two hot Southern California summers followed by even a mildly wet winter (or just your sprinkler water hitting them) can have your gate warp out of shape and end up looking (and working) terrible, quick.
Metal gates or fences should also be of high gauge and high-quality alloy. A thin gauge gate will slowly bend and warp out of shape as they open and close over even a few years. This common problem leads to clearance issues with the ground or failure to latch and keep gates closed properly. A high-quality alloy will have sufficient strength to avoid this.
Fortunately, these problems don’t happen overnight. Gates or fences made out of improper materials can still look good and even operate well for a few months or even a couple of years. However, eventually, these issues make for costly repairs or replacements. Once the wear and tear of the climate or regular use sets in, you will regret not finding a better contractor or selecting better materials.
If you have decided on metal fencing, you’ll see articles throughout this site nudging you towards aluminum. But aluminum will not be right for everyone, always.
When iron (steel) is your choice, ideally you will spend the extra money to make sure they are zinc dipped to give them a galvanized, rust-resistant finish. (Note that this will probably add up to more than aluminum, and less dependable.)
When installing a custom fabrication for a gate or fence on sloped terrain, you need to do everything right the first time.
It’s challenging to make a gate on a hill. Engineering requires accommodations for all elevation changes of your gate path. In addition, calculations are different for swing or sliding gates. The fabricator then needs to sketch this out or input it into a software program to make sure it is all going to work. If the initial measurements are off, the fencing won’t be perfect.
When you drive around town, you’ll see that people living on hillsides often leave their gates open. There are greater stresses on hillside installations. Gravity is a lot bigger factor on a slope than on the level ground.
Poorly measured, fabricated, or installed gates may work passably at the time of installation but will go out of adjustment soon. A typical result of this is the gate failing to close fully or properly. What’s the sense of having a gate that you can’t close properly?
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“Not such a big deal!” you may think! But it is!
As beautiful as it may be to have straight-and-level lines, it’s not only for aesthetics. Having an installation that’s level or “plumb,” affects the strength of the entire system. An inaccuracy by just a couple of degrees can compromise the integrity of your entire installation, making it weaker than expected.
It is rare that manufacturers inadequately finish a fence, but it happens. When it happens, it a bigger hassle to get the manufacturer to remedy the situation than it is to just have your installer fix it.
More often an installer will accidentally “nick” or lightly damage your finish in the installation. When this happens, most contractors are quick to remedy the situation.
Probably the oldest and most often heard remark heard amongst people in the fencing industry is “Come on fellows, we’re not building a piano here!” Workmen will push each other to get the job done rapidly and to not get so careful that nothing gets done.
The primary tools used in fencing include saws, hammers, rivet guns, jackhammers, and other powerful machines. These are not “piano building tools”! When installing fencing, workmen sometimes need to push and hammer things into place. This is because of the earth itself being an uncooperative foe more than it is because of any negligence or poor performance of the workers.
They do their best, but in any fence work being done you are going to see some damage attendant to the carrying out of a fence project.
The fence finish is where there is the most frequent minor, repairable damage.
Installers often paint or seal after the installation, but not always. Both iron (steel) and aluminum are always finished before installation. So, there are going to be a few areas where the workmen need to go through the job and touch things up; blending in some paint to cover these areas.
But even the best workmen can make a mistake and miss these, infrequently. So, either before you have made your last payment, or as soon as possible after installation, be sure to tour the work to make sure they caught and corrected these problems.
It’s important to make sure the manufacturer or contractor correctly finished your fencing to protect it from the elements and give it a longer life.
You can install a small motor on smaller gates, or iron gates on level property. But heavier gates and gates on inclines require larger motors.
Gates get heavier when they get taller, thicker, or wider.
The material used is also a big factor in gate weight. A wood or iron gate often weighs 2-3 times more than an equivalent aluminum gate.
To add to all the problems encountered in gates installed on a hillside, for a gate of any real size, you’re going to need a powerful motor to open and shut your gate. That’s because, either to open or close your gate, your motor’s going to be working “against” gravity as it travels uphill and the motor will also work to “brake” your gate as it opens or closes “with” gravity.
Motors for gates prices vary, but the ones that can handle “less weight, less often” are less expensive. So, a contractor inexperienced with gate manufacture and installation can, to minimize costs, choose an incorrect motor for your gate.
In choosing the correct motor, you can also spend money unwisely by not taking into consideration the frequency of use. A motor designed for a community gate that used dozens if not hundreds of times a day would be an overkill for a single residency and much more expensive.
So, you can get too weak a motor for your gate, or one too strong! Either way, you end up spending too much money.
Gates and fences weigh a lot. And the posts that the gate swings from must firmly anchor into the ground to avoid sagging and alignment issues. These are more important in ratio to the weight of the gate panels.
To get a clear understanding of this, pick up a paint bucket or item of similar weight, and bring it up directly to your waist. You’ll probably be able to hold it there for quite a while. Now, take that same object and attempt to hold it at arm’s length, parallel to the ground. Your arm and then your back will tire. You’ll get an idea of how strong your gate must be and how firmly your post must be in the ground.
A gate post must be adequately footed in the ground. Without this firm foundation, the post will lean because of the weight of the gate.
Another important consideration is the material of the post. Moisture, insects and even bacteria that is present in the ground can really create a lot of trouble for a gate or fence. Wood is the most susceptible to these issues. So it’s important to treat and maintain a wood installation properly.
Even a material such as iron can corrode and weaken by an irrigation system or natural moisture.
If you’re choosing iron or steel, be sure it’s galvanized and powder coated to protect it from these issues. Or consider a material like Aluminum so you solve these issues before they start.
There are a few things that you can do to make your gate shopping experience easier and more pleasant. When you look through the net for home security gate or fence installers in your area, it’s important to look for the principal things that show they are a reputable company. Here’s a simple checklist to review before even making a call:
• Is their contractor’s license displayed on their site?• Do they have a Better Business Bureau rating? If so, what is it? (The BBB’s highest rating is A+.)• Does their site state that they are insured and that they offer a written guarantee?• Are they promoting that they are on websites like Houzz or AngiesList? If so, have they earned any awards for superior service?
If they have these listed on their site, call them and arrange a presentation. Beyond looking at their pretty pictures, you want to see their work for yourself and talk with past customers if possible.
The best gate and fence installers will have plenty of people who will be happy to talk with you and show off their beautiful products in person.
When you meet with a contractor, ask for verification of their licenses and insurance. Ask for a written guarantee. Ask for an itemized contract that states everything you’ve agreed to verbally.
And ask all the questions you want. The more informed you are, the more confident you will be when it comes time to decide.
Regardless of whether you work with us or another company for your home security gate or fence, our primary goal is to make sure you’re educated about purchasing a gate, fence, railing system, or pergola. The more educated you are, the more comfortable and confident you will be in the decision-making process.
If you’re interested in working with us, call us! 800-562-
We’re happy to answer all your questions, show you everything we do, and how we do it! You can even visit our factory in Canoga Park, CA to see our manufacturing process.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of security fence manufacturer. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.