What Should I Ask a Fence Contractor Before Signing?

The four questions that matter most

Fence quotes are hard to compare because the expensive parts are buried — literally. Two bids for “150 feet of six-foot cedar” can differ by thousands and produce fences that look identical on the day and completely different in ten years.

These four questions surface the difference. Ask for the answers in writing, on the quote.

1. How deep are the posts, and how wide are the holes?

Not “to code” — a number. Depth resists frost heave; hole diameter and concrete volume resist the fence being levered over by wind. A six-foot solid privacy panel puts a long lever arm on every post, and a bid that quotes picket-fence embedment under a privacy panel is the single most common reason fences come down in this valley.

2. How much concrete per post?

A deep narrow footing can still rotate in soft ground. Width is what resists overturning. If a contractor cannot tell you roughly how many bags per post, they have not thought about it.

3. Are the old footings coming out?

On a replacement, this is the biggest hidden variable. Extracting old concrete is real work. The shortcut is snapping the posts off at grade and setting the new fence a few inches to one side — which leaves buried concrete that pushes your new post line crooked and gives new posts unstable ground to sit in.

Extraction typically adds $3 to $8 per linear foot and should appear as its own line.

4. What happens if a hole hits rock?

This is the Jerome question, and asking it tells you immediately whether a contractor actually works here.

Jerome County sits on Snake River Plain basalt under three to ten feet of windblown loess. Some lots auger clean; others hit rock at twenty inches. A contractor who has worked this ground will have an answer ready — rock auger, breaker, drill and pin, or shift the post — and will tell you how it affects the price. One who looks blank quoted your fence from a satellite photo.

Get the answer to “who pays for that” before you sign, not on install day.

Questions about the business

Do you carry liability insurance and workers compensation? Ask for the certificate, not the assurance. This protects you if someone is hurt on your property or a buried line is struck.

Who is actually doing the work? Employees or subcontractors is not a wrong answer either way, but you want to know who will be in your yard.

What is the payment schedule? A deposit is normal. A demand for the full amount up front is not.

What is the warranty, and on what? Separate the material warranty from the labor warranty. Vinyl and aluminum carry manufacturer warranties measured in decades; the workmanship warranty is the contractor’s own and is usually much shorter. Both should be written.

Are you filing the 811 locate? Utility locate is free, legally required, and takes two to three business days. A contractor promising to start tomorrow on a job needing a locate is telling you they plan to skip it. Hitting a gas or fiber line with an auger is an expensive way to save two days, and it will be on your property.

Questions about your specific fence

Where exactly is the property line? If survey pins exist, ask that the fence be built to them. If they do not, decide whether a survey is worth it — it usually is, and it is far cheaper than moving a finished fence. Relevant to shared-fence cost splitting as well.

Which way does the finished side face? The Idaho convention is finished side out, toward the neighbor and the street. Board-on-board sidesteps it by looking finished from both sides.

What height am I allowed? In Jerome: six feet in rear and side yards, three feet in the front-yard sight zone, no building permit under seven feet. Different in every other city. See the Jerome permit guide.

How long will it take, start to finish? Including the locate wait and any material lead time, not just days on site.

Warning signs

• A quote with one number and no breakdown. You cannot compare it to anything.
• Pressure to sign today, or a discount that expires this afternoon.
• Cash only, or a large up-front payment.
• No written quote at all.
• Vagueness about post depth. This is the tell. It is a simple factual question about their own work, and hesitation means either they do not know or they do not want to say.
• A bid dramatically below the others. Not automatically bad — but find out where it is cheaper before you accept it, because it is cheaper somewhere.

Two things worth doing yourself

Get three quotes. Not to find the cheapest, but because the middle of three tells you what the job actually costs. Our 2026 cost guide gives you the ranges before anyone visits.

Push on a few existing posts. If you are replacing a fence, knowing yourself how many posts are failing means you can judge whether a repair recommendation is honest. The condition check walks you through it.

How we answer these

Post depth, post size, concrete volume, and footing extraction are on our quotes as their own lines, because they are the job. We check the soil at the estimate specifically so the rock question is answered before you sign rather than after. And if a repair is the better spend than a replacement, we say so — including when it means the smaller job for us.

Estimates are free across Jerome and the Magic Valley.