Fencing
What should be in a fence contract
What should a fence contract include?
The scope in specifics — materials, post type and depth, linear feet, gate count, tear-out — plus who pulls permits, the payment schedule, and what happens if something was missed. If it isn't written, it isn't agreed.
The scope, in nouns
Not 'cedar privacy fence'. Post material and setting method, picket style and layout, rail count, cap and trim if any, total linear feet, and every gate with its type and size.
The test is whether a different crew could build the right fence from the document without asking you anything.
What's being removed
Tear-out and haul-off of the existing fence, stated explicitly, including old posts and concrete. This is one of the most common gaps between a cheap quote and a real one.
Permits and approvals
Who is responsible for pulling any permit, and who handles HOA submission if there is one. Both, named. Assumed responsibility is how a project sits still for a month.
Money and timing
The payment schedule and what triggers each stage. A start window rather than a promise nobody can keep, and what happens to the schedule if the ground is too wet to dig.
Change orders
How changes get priced and approved, in writing, before the work happens. This is the clause that decides whether a surprise is a conversation or an invoice.
Our own view: a change order should mean you changed your mind, not that we missed something. Whatever a contract says, that's the standard worth holding it to.
Not legal advice
We build fences. This is what we'd want to see in a document as a homeowner, not a legal opinion. For anything genuinely contested, talk to someone qualified.
If it isn't written down, it isn't agreed. It's just remembered differently.