Welcome! We have been building and repairing fences for the last 20 years. Wood fences, chain link and ornamental iron are the big three with wood being the type of fence we repair most. One of the biggest things we have learned over the years is people are ready to throw their fence away before it's time. While we still build new fences regularly, repairs are where we focus our business. What do we repair? Posts broken off at ground level are our #1 repair followed by picket replacements, broken/stuck gates, panels that have come free from their post and broken rails (the horizontal 2x4s the pickets are attached to). Repairs provide and economical solution to keeping a fence up and doing it's job.
What's in it for us as the repair company? Don't we make more money by convincing everyone to throw their fence away and build a new one? Yes and no. Were in and have been in this business for the long haul. Were also confident in our work so giving up some profit now comes back to us later. If we provide you with a repair your happy with, you might tell a friend about us and they might tell a friend too. You might need another repair a few years from now. If we stick the landing on all the repairs and you pick up an honest vibe from us, we might be in a good spot for that future new fence your gonna need in 10 years too. Beyond that, there are a lot more customers in the $200 to $1000 range so doing the small stuff keeps us busy year around.
The Math
Depending on material type, how many linear feet of fence are being replaced and a number of other factors, replacing your entire backyard fence is typically going to cost between $3500 and $9000. The useful life of this fence is going to be between 8 and 20 years. Most fences typically get replaced between years 10 and 12 if they are not maintained from day one.
For this example, let's assume your fence would cost $5000 to replace. After 20 years of both repairing and replacing fences, we can say that 8 out of 10 fences a customer is prepared to throw away can be repaired. Typically, the first repair is going to cost between $200 and $1000. Won't the fence just break again? Definitely! In 2-4 years, your going to need a few more posts replaced, maybe a rail and some more pickets. This repair is another few hundred bucks. The fence is going to need one more round of maintenance and your at year 10. Taking the high side of the repair estimates above, you have increased the life of the existing fence 10 years for $1600.
The alternative was spending $5000 out of the gate for a new fence.
At the end of 10 years, both the new fence and the fence you repaired and maintained are both ready for the burn pile. They were both structurally sound for their entire life span and the gate on the maintained fence closed properly while the gate on the new fence required some muscle and cuss words to close after about year 5. Anyway, now your 10 years in. Both fences are trash. One burn pile cost $5000. The other burn pile is $1600, or maybe it was free depending on how you play that $5000 you didn't invest in the fence on day one.
If you take that $5000 and stick it in a brokerage account, the stock market has returned about 10% year over year. Using simple interest to keep this simple, after sitting in the brokerage account for one year you have $5500 less whatever repair #1 cost. Lets call it $1000 for repair number 1. $5500 less $1000 for the repair leaves you at $4500. The money earns $500 a year for the next 9 years and you have $9000 at the end of year 10 less $600 spent for additional repairs. This means repairing put you $8400 ahead of replacing and you have a solid fence either way the whole time.
Is that realistic? Absolutely not! Most people live life so the $4500 they didn't spend on the fence was used to catch up some bills, take the kids to Disney or a Caribbean Cruise or two. Maybe it just pays for 30 great date nights. The point is, you get to do all these fun Kodak moments because you repaired and maintained your fence instead of throwing it away when the fence wasn't done yet.
How do we know this? We repair fences for investors all the time and have been doing it for a couple decades. Investors string their fences along until there is nothing left to repair.........that's why they have money to keep investing. As the curator of all these investment property fences, we have watched hundreds of fences go through their life span, can speak to the necessary repair intervals and have a really good idea when a fence can be repaired and when it's completely depreciated.