Fence company recommendations please

[HokieFan]

We replaced our fence last summer and I can highly recommend Lions Fence.

We have a townhouse with a fence we share with two neighbors. Although we could have asked our neighbors to share in the cost of replacing the fence, we didn't bother because of a couple reasons not worth going into. We were willing to pay for the full cost.

One neighboring house is owner occupied (friendly relationship with them) and the other is a rental with tenants - the owner lives out of state (never met them and this was our first time communicating).

These are the steps we took:

1.) Wrote a letter to the owners of our neighboring houses stating our intentions and requesting their okay to replace the portion of fence we share. We asked them to sign the letter and return one copy to us. For the out of state owner, our HOA asked them to contact us and they reached out via email and that's how we communicated.

2.) Obtained estimates from three fence companies.

3.) Submitted the letters and all other required documents to our HOA for approval. (Kept a copy for our records)

4.) Received approval about 7 days later, and we scheduled the install of the fence.

5.) Gave neighbors on both sides (owners and the tenants (relationship with the tenants is barely cordial)) 24 hour notice of the fence installation since the installers would need to access their backyards as well.

6.) Fence installed as scheduled and it looks great. Happy campers!

We obtained quotes from Long Fence ($$$), HalCo ($$), and Lions Fence ($).

Long Fence was by far the most expensive. They gave us their spiel of being the best in the business in this area, the quality of the wood, the thickness of the posts (better than builder grade), how deep they sink the posts, the depth of their concrete footers, etc. etc. They did advise us that when comparing estimates to take those specs into consideration, and not just the price.

HalCo was about $1000 less than Long Fence with comparable specs except their concrete footers are 2' deep versus 3' deep. FWIW, we had to ask for these details as they weren't automatically provided to us during their visit.

Lions Fence was half the price of Long Fence, and $900 less than HalCo. Their specs were exactly the same as Long Fence. The fence was installed about 7 months ago so it's still relatively new. It looks great and is very sturdy.

Long Fence does offer financing whereas HalCo and Lions did not. So that's something to consider depending on the cost of your fence. And frankly, fences cost a lot more than I thought they would!

FWIW, Prince William County doesn't require a building permit for fences. You should look to see if your town/county does. And we didn't get survey done because 1.) we have the survey from when we bought the house 6 years ago 2.) it's a townhouse so boundary lines are pretty obvious. 3.) we were replacing an existing fence - not a new installation.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by HokieFan

We replaced our fence last summer and I can highly recommend Lions Fence.

We have a townhouse with a fence we share with two neighbors. Although we could have asked our neighbors to share in the cost of replacing the fence, we didn't bother because of a couple reasons not worth going into. We were willing to pay for the full cost.

One neighboring house is owner occupied (friendly relationship with them) and the other is a rental with tenants - the owner lives out of state (never met them and this was our first time communicating).

These are the steps we took:

1.) Wrote a letter to the owners of our neighboring houses stating our intentions and requesting their okay to replace the portion of fence we share. We asked them to sign the letter and return one copy to us. For the out of state owner, our HOA asked them to contact us and they reached out via email and that's how we communicated.

2.) Obtained estimates from three fence companies.

3.) Submitted the letters and all other required documents to our HOA for approval. (Kept a copy for our records)

4.) Received approval about 7 days later, and we scheduled the install of the fence.

5.) Gave neighbors on both sides (owners and the tenants (relationship with the tenants is barely cordial)) 24 hour notice of the fence installation since the installers would need to access their backyards as well.

6.) Fence installed as scheduled and it looks great. Happy campers!

We obtained quotes from Long Fence ($$$), HalCo ($$), and Lions Fence ($).

Long Fence was by far the most expensive. They gave us their spiel of being the best in the business in this area, the quality of the wood, the thickness of the posts (better than builder grade), how deep they sink the posts, the depth of their concrete footers, etc. etc. They did advise us that when comparing estimates to take those specs into consideration, and not just the price.

HalCo was about $1000 less than Long Fence with comparable specs except their concrete footers are 2' deep versus 3' deep. FWIW, we had to ask for these details as they weren't automatically provided to us during their visit.

Lions Fence was half the price of Long Fence, and $900 less than HalCo. Their specs were exactly the same as Long Fence. The fence was installed about 7 months ago so it's still relatively new. It looks great and is very sturdy.

Long Fence does offer financing whereas HalCo and Lions did not. So that's something to consider depending on the cost of your fence. And frankly, fences cost a lot more than I thought they would!

FWIW, Prince William County doesn't require a building permit for fences. You should look to see if your town/county does. And we didn't get survey done because 1.) we have the survey from when we bought the house 6 years ago 2.) it's a townhouse so boundary lines are pretty obvious. 3.) we were replacing an existing fence - not a new installation.

Thanks so much! This plan is is exactly what I needed
Herndon has permit fees for breathing-lol-so I'm sure I'll need that.
I'm going to the hoa first and plow from there.
I will pay for the whole fence as I want it done excellently with no questions on the property lines.
Thanks again!

[leighland]

UPDATE
I got quotes from
HalCo Fence 2100$
MC Fence 2000$
Lion Fence 1800$

My yard is 420sf (Townhouse)
Did all three sides

I'm sure I coulda talked MC down, I really liked her, but Went with Lions because of, CITY DATA (Yay!!)

I got bumped 3 days due to the snowstorm. They got material delivered and job done n one day, 2 guys and the PManager came out 2x to check up

I am very happy! Its LOVELY

I will say Lions is a not the best in returning calls or emails. They didnt call to tell me they bumped me nor did they tell me what day they were showing up so if you're picky on punctuality and communication, Id say go with Melissa at MC and talk her down
THANK YOU CD Family

Id share foto but cant figure out howto on gggl crome