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Well, with several phone calls, a few estimates, one insurance adjuster, and a pittance insurance check later, we are now well on our way to a new fence...

After seeing the damage, we realized that we needed a completely new fence, around the complete house. We knew the adjuster was only going to give us money toward the section that fell; despite my wife pleas and reasonings, the adjuster wouldn't do any more for us. After our deductible, not much was left. Fortunately it wasn't too much, and we have good credit; a home equity loan was procured. On the upside, the new fence will add better value to our house, should we ever decide to sell (not likely: the house is worth way more as a rental to us).

My wife, outside-of-the-box thinker and genius she is, came up with a interesting method to come up with a good list of contractors to call in order to get estimates: She called a local brick and block manufacturer. She asked the guy on the other end "If you were going to hire one of your customers to build you a fence, who would you recommend?". The man gave her a list of names, but he should have just told us to go with the first guy he named, because that is who we ultimately went with. I think, given the work I have seen so far, we went with the right guy.

But first, a little about the other guys who didn't make it - I won't name any names (indeed, I am saving the name of the guy we chose until the end of this whole ordeal, so stay tuned!). But fair warning to anyone planning to hire a contractor: DO YOUR HOMEWORK! One of the guys we had come out seemed drunk and desperate for work, one guy didn't even seem to understand how to use his own tape measure, and another guy was condescending to my wife (and women in general): He "little lady'ed" her, and she hates that. At one point he insinuated that women "belong in the kitchen". What a douche!

In the end, we went with the first guy. He was courteous, and very professional. He was always prompt to answer the phone and return all of our calls. Before we had completely decided on him, I called him with some questions. Initially I had to leave a message, but he returned the call within five minutes! We talked on the phone for 20 minutes, and he answered all of my questions. We looked up his information and standing on the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (new window); he's been in business for close to 30 years, and has only a couple of minor issues which have both long been resolved. We also contacted the BBB (Better Business Bureau), and while he isn't a member, they didn't have any records of complaint for him. Overall, we were comfortable with our decision to utilize his services and crew.

They came out early this morning, around 6:30am: Two trucks and several workmen. Inside of 20 minutes they had the entire old fence taken down and were carting it away. I don't have pictures of the work, but it was completely manual labor, no machines involved; just the guys, and some wheelbarrows - these were left at the end of the day along the side of our house when I got home:

Fence Work: Wheelbarrows Questions or Comments?

   

You can see the rebar and footers for the gate which will exit alongside our house toward the front yard. Laying in the yard is part of the old wooden fence with some hastily made "bug-fixes" Jared and I hacked into place one day while he was over (it was really rickety, and I feared that our dog would get loose if we didn't do something). Our new gate is going to be much wider than the one we had. We'll now be able to get a riding lawn mower into the back yard if we want (not that we need to any time soon; we have lawn service currently).

Fence Work: Rear Wall Footers Questions or Comments?

Down along the rear wall of our yard (west is to the left of the image, and the view faces north) is more footer. We are having a small "pedestrian gate" installed approximately where I am standing taking this photo, directly to my left. This will give us easy access to the path which runs along the drainage channel; currently we have to walk a distance to get to an area that is accessible by the public. To the north you can see the temporary fencing they put up to guard against the neighbor's pool being a hazard (we were tempted to have a gate installed there for access).

Fence Work: North Wall Footers Questions or Comments?

   

Fence Work: North Wall Pool Pump Questions or Comments?

These two images show the footer poured for our north wall. This wall was the one which originally fell (see the parent article for pictures). Several panels fell onto the paver patio you see here; amazingly, only a couple ended up broken! We plan on removing the broken ones, and replacing them with the unbroken "loose" pavers you can see in the picture (these apparently came from the "backside" of the paver patio, where they butted up against the original fence).

Something to note in the first image:

See the diving board slab? When the neighbor had it installed, they butted it up next to the old fence. Now, the new fence footer runs right next to it, and is actually "on top" of it in placement. I am not certain what they are going to do (ie, how they are going to lay the block and such), so it will be interesting to find out as work progresses tomorrow. They were real careful when they worked around that area as well as the neighbor's pool pump, as you can see in the second image. No damage occurred - impressive!

Fence Work: North Wall Shed Questions or Comments?

This last image faces the opposite direction toward the west (south is to the left side of the image, north to the right). More footer and rebar, and they worked carefully next to the shed (that black arm thing on the side of the shed is a solar shed light that wasn't worth the $20.00 I paid for it). The wall also extends a bit to the north up to the neighbor's metal post and wall section. This is the standard practice on these type of old fences made with concrete formed panels; because the chicken wire reinforcement rusts on the inside of the wall sections as they age, they become brittle. If they tried to saw off half the panel or such, it would fall apart. Instead, they remove it, then install the block needed to make up the space. This was something we had to do on all four corners of our fencing; none of our neighbors offered to recompense us for this. Sometimes you can get neighbors to do so, sometimes you can't. No big deal.

Tomorrow the crew comes back to put up the fence. Supposedly they will erect the entire fence of block tomorrow. On Friday the finish work is done; capblocks, the "ironwork" (I don't know if it will be iron, it will probably be steel) of the gates and our "view panels" will be installed, and the project will be complete. Stay tuned for more!