Hi...we are taking bids for a standard 6' privacy fence with kickboards. As usual there is a huge range in prices. So, I have a few questions.

Redwood vs cedar for the fence boards?

Kickboard vs no kickboard? We do have dogs and there is a slight grade so it currently touches the ground on the back of the fence.

And how do you guarantee what quality of wood they purchase for the fence boards? Since the bids range considerably and some of the proposals are more vague than others.

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A bit more information. We had one contractor that couldn't make it yesterday. Huge wind storm so he was busy and called to reschedule. No probelm, but my husband went over the bids and picked a contractor last night.

I was going to save the guy, who didn't make it yesterday, a trip out here and called this morning. But decided to ask him about the guy my husband picked and he said that he didn't like to talk badly about anyone. To be expected. And said that other contractor hired all his guys who he fired for bad work. Also that the other contractor used a poor quality cedar that split and cracked rather quickly. While he used redwood that stood up better and a higher quality as well.

So that got me questioning our choice. Certainly, he is trying to win the bid. But we also questioned the wood quality last night ourselves despite that first constractor's proposal being the most detailed of all of them. Which is one of the reasons we picked him.

We are in the Central Valley in CA, so sunny and hot weather for the most part. A few days of freezing temps over night and some rain in the winter, but windy a lot of the year.

Sorry for the length but tried to supply all the info you might need.

Thanks.

Karma__

Rather than leave these unanswered. I thought updating this post with some answers and opinions would help someone else running across the same issues.


Redwood vs cedar -

Both are good for similar reasons, resistance to bugs and rot. We had asked for bids with cedar, but the contractor we hired came in with a good price for 1"x 8" redwood. Compared with the 1"x 6" cedar boards the other contractor we were considering was bidding. We felt that the smaller cedar board would be more prone to splitting based on our experience with fence boards. The other fence contractors came in with prices much higher for the 1"x 8" cedar fence boards, kickboards, or hauling it away.

Kickboard vs no kickboard -

Also known as a grassboard. My opinion it looks nicer and is more sturdy. Where wood touches the ground is the most vunerable to water damage/rot. Some of the contractors suggested no kickboards, others stated it kept any possible water damage limited to the kickboard and required only one piece of wood be replaced rather than several fence boards. Our neighbors have a fence without a kickboard and it looks like a weaker picket fence compared to ours. Especially when the fence boards started to shrink with age.

Frankly, I used this question as a way to gauge the fence contractors when the first contractor was trying to sway me towards that version of fence. He pointed out the failures of my neighbor's fence stated he used 3 - 2x4s across the 8' sections because on their fence the middle of the fence boards bowed in and out as they aged by only using 2 -2x4s. Basically, it just confirmed my thoughts about it being a weaker fence rather than sell that version of privacy fence.


Guarantee the quality of the wood -

Well this one question didn't seem to be answered in the proposals we received. We did pick a contractor that was listed with the BBB, with a license, etc. But that was no guarantee that what he was saying about the quality of wood was true. This is a question I should have asked all of them but the last contractor was telling us his wood quality was better and he was right. So, hope you do better than I did on this front.

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A few more thoughts. While trying to read up on redwood vs cedar it seemed like if the source preferred one over the other they would claim the lesser wood was more prone to splitting and cracking. And that the lesser wood needed to be treated with a water repellent to prevent these issues. So when the contractor said to treat the wood with a water seal before it rained, I had already planned to just in case. We bought one for natural wood and with mildew and UV protection. All the issues that were of concern at those sites complaining about the other lesser wood.

A tip about spraying on the water seal. It is like water and will run down the board so you need to get a paint brush as well as the chemical sprayer. There is no other way to guarantee complete coverage without brushing each of the fence boards. The thing that strained my back was picking up the sprayer to reapply more water seal to the top of the board. A chair solved that trick. It placed the sprayer high enough to reach both the top and bottom of the boards. And saved my back for painting on the water seal.


Hope this helps.