Red Gate Fencing

I was very happy with Red Gate Fencing, from start to finish. Owner Stephen Snyder came to the house within two days of me reaching out to him, and he provided a quote to us on the spot for the removal of our 18-year-old wood fence and the installation of a new vinyl fence. After we committed to the work, he ordered the materials, and his crew came to do the demo and installation about a week later. They were polite and professional, and the fence looks great! I was so glad they were able to do it in the middle of January - and just before we got some snow!

I don't like leaving negative reviews and have tried to just forget about the whole experience, but every time I look at or think about the new fence, a latent indignation returns from the back of my mind and I am inconsolable, so here we are. I had to coordinate with a tree service and a neighbor to take out a massive, ancient dying oak tree, requiring removing part of the fence and access over our neighbor's yard, so I was getting desperate for anyone to take the job, let alone get another quote (Mistake #1 for me). Red Gate's sales rep went on at length that their crew were dedicated fence guys whose above average pay really showed in expertise and quality workmanship, which I really wanted to believe (Mistake #2). I'm not sure what to think about the intricate work in other review photos now. I wanted powder coated steel posts (40+ year life, superior performance in nearly every other way) rather than plain pressure treated direct bury wood (20 year life if you're lucky). As I was desperate, I relented when they refused the post upgrade. (Mistake #3: This inflexibility should have been another red flag.) The job consisted of two parts: Replace a double gate and two adjacent sections in the back corner and replace about 40' of fence on the other side of the yard. The day before work started, the Home Depot-quality materials were delivered. I remember thinking "that doesn't look like enough quikrete for 11 fence posts". (Mistake #4: I should have assumed bad intentions here and counted the number of cement bags?) On the day the crew arrived I noticed they dug the back corner post hole for the gate in the wrong place contrary to my explicit request from their sales rep. My neighbor agreed to let us move the fence back because it was ~14" away from the property line and I needed to widen the gate enough to let vehicles into the yard from the alley. Our neighbor even got *their* fence guy to remove part of their fence to make space. What I didn't notice was it wasn't square to the other side of the gate. Forgive me for assuming a "crack fencing team" would instinctively know to square up a fence corner post to a perfect right angle. When we complained afterwards, they said *I* told them to put it in the wrong place. I estimated it would take 2 or maybe 3 days to finish considering the complexity of the job. The crew that arrived had a completely different objective in mind: get this job done by EoD and became progressively sloppier as the day progressed. The gate was done last and it was so bad I worried it might fall apart before they even left (so much for a 20 year fence). Evidently they thought the same as they were clearly in a hurry to leave (and they hid some of the old fence debris in our yard rather than haul it away). The (not square) gate frames were scrounged from their last few 2x4s and leftover fence boards nail gunned all together. The ground stake went into 8" of pvc pipe that looked like someone stomped it into the ground. I couldn't even lift the stake high enough to get it out. The hinges were too long, so they bent them into awkward shapes to try to hide it rather than use appropriately-sized hardware. The doors were not square with each other, with themselves, or with the posts and the corner was not square. When we complained, they said shoddy work was "a style". If these guys were as good as I was led to believe (I severely doubt it), they didn't do their best work. They even had to borrow a torx T-25 bit from me. They did come back for another 1/2 day to rejigger the gates, but many of the rookie mistakes remain: bent hardware, large gaps, opening backwards, latch hardware attached backwards, the corner still isn't square. The fence on the other side of the yard wobbles severely and I'm worried the first windstorm will damage it. After all that dough (~$700 per section) I still have to go back and rebuild/replumb the gates and dig all the posts to add concrete and the fence will still look like crap: definitely not worth the premium we paid.