A fencing company quotes for forty metres of close board on a flat suburban boundary. The price assumes a normal digging day.
The garden is on made ground with buried rubble from an old outbuilding, there is a drain run along the line and the last four metres are solid clay over rock. What was quoted as a day is two and a half, and the difference comes out of the margin.
1. Ask what the ground is actually like
Soil, clay, sand, chalk, rock or made ground. Customers can describe this reasonably well if asked, and nobody asks.
2. Ask what was there before
Old buildings, hardstanding, a driveway or a demolished structure leave buried material that turns digging into breaking.
3. Ask about the previous fence
How the old posts were fixed, whether they are being removed and whether the stumps are concreted in. Removing old concrete is frequently longer than installing the new fence.
4. Ask about drainage and standing water
Waterlogged ground affects both the digging and the lifespan, and a fence installed into a wet line fails at the posts within a few years.
5. Establish the services position
Drains, cables, water and gas frequently run along boundaries. This is a safety matter and it must be raised before anybody puts a spade in.
6. Ask about slopes
A sloping boundary needs either stepped or raked panels, which changes the material, the labour and the appearance. Customers do not mention gradients.
7. Ask about access for equipment
Whether a post driver or a mechanical auger can reach the line, or whether everything must be dug by hand through a house.
8. Explain the depth requirement
Why a taller fence needs deeper posts, and why a shallow post on an exposed site will not survive a winter. Customers judge a quote on the fence and not on the hole.
9. Explain the fixing options
Concrete, postcrete, driven posts, ground anchors and post shoes. Each suits different conditions and the choice should follow the ground rather than habit.
10. Be honest about concreting near trees
Roots, protected trees and the effect of concrete on them. Sometimes a different fixing method is the right answer.
11. Explain what happens with existing hard surfaces
Posts through a patio, a driveway or a path need coring or an alternative fixing, and that is a different job.
12. Quote with a stated assumption
Based on normal ground conditions, with a stated rate if obstructions are encountered. This is honest and it protects the day.
13. Take photographs of the line
Both ends, the ground, any slope and the existing fence. This resolves more than any description and every customer can do it.
14. Keep the access questions joined up
Ground and access are assessed together, which is the ground covered in ground conditions and access questions before a quote.
15. Keep the permissions questions alongside
Height, boundaries and permissions are established in the same conversation, as covered in fence height and boundary permission questions.
16. Borrow from trades that investigate properly
Larger projects assess this formally, which is the discipline in site investigation and ground condition enquiries. An assistant that asks the soil type, what was there before, whether the ground slopes, whether services run along the line and requests photographs produces a quote that holds, handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot where a boundary is disputed. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under contractors.