Start at the posts, not the boards

Almost every fence fails from the posts up, and almost every homeowner evaluates it from the boards down. Boards are cosmetic and cheap to swap. Posts are structural and are the actual cost of the job.

Walk your fence and push firmly on each post at shoulder height. A post that flexes an inch or two has lost its footing or is rotting at grade. Count how many do that. If it is a handful out of thirty, you have a repair. If more than roughly a third of your posts move, you are paying most of the cost of a new fence to prop up an old one.

Check the grade line, because that is where wood dies

Wood posts rot right at ground level, where the wood stays damp and gets oxygen at the same time. Six inches up looks fine and six inches down looks fine. The failure is a narrow band at the soil line.

Take a screwdriver and press it into the post right at grade. If it sinks in easily, that post is done regardless of how good the rest of it looks.

When repair is clearly the right call

Storm and fallen-limb damage to one section, a gate that sags or drags, a few rotted boards, or two or three posts that lost their footing are all repairs. So is a fence that is structurally sound but grey and tired, which usually just needs cleaning and re-staining rather than replacing.

A repair on a fence with real life left in it is straightforwardly the better value, and it is what we will quote you.

When replacement genuinely wins

Widespread post movement, rot along most of the run, a fence that was set too shallow to begin with and has been leaning progressively worse each year, or a fence that no longer does the job you need, such as containing a dog that has learned to get over four feet.

There is also the honest case where you are chasing repairs every season. At that point you are paying for a new fence in instalments and getting an old one.

Ask any contractor to show you, not tell you

Whoever you have out, ask them to walk the line with you and physically show you which posts move and where the rot is. A contractor who will not do that, or who quotes a full replacement from the driveway without touching the fence, is quoting their preference rather than your problem.

We will give you that walk and a written answer either way, including the answer that costs us the bigger invoice.

Want this looked at in person?

We will come out, walk the line with you, and give you an itemized estimate with no obligation. We answer every request within one business day.

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