Not even tradesmen want to work. Keep getting ghosted for a fence repair.

This is a big reason why I've learned to do a lot of DIY.

I needed a repair for my brick mailbox. Called about 8 different brick masonry contractors and couldn't get a single one to come look at it. Ended up fixing it myself with the help of youtube.

I recently called a guy to do some dirt work. He had done several houses in my neighborhood and came highly recommended. Good looking work. Talked to him, said to text my address, haven't heard from him in over 2 weeks. Called him again, no answer.

Seems like most of them don't want to mess around with small jobs.

I keep hearing that they are just too in demand and can be picky/discourteous because of it. But they all are also constantly complaining about money. So I'm really not sure which it is.

It has started to slow down construction wise here where we live, so guessing it is a regional thing.

That being said, it seems like you get three results when asking for a quote on stuff like this.

1. They never show, and never answer the phone
2. They quote a very large number to make it worth their while
3. They give you a decent price, but are months out.

Good luck

Sounds like you need a handyman. Someone who has a fence company with a few employees has to make a certain amount to keep those employees around.


Find a handyman who doesn't care if he lives poor but free.

Go on Angi's and tell them what you need. You will get a few emails/texts/calls within the hour. We had an Angi's post get done within the week. Replaced some siding on our home and painted the whole thing. Finished the job in about 3 days. Guy initially came to scope out what we needed repaired before painting, sent some people to work all throughout the day the next few days.

For what it's worth, Angi's lists a lot of handyman jobs. You can be specific and find jobs that will require electricians or plumbers, but this sounds like a job that a handyman can easily knock out for you.

Just get yourself a reliable Handy-man to do the job. Something like that is an easy job for anyone with any carpenter skills to undertake.

Same here for Plumber. Called guy I used several times for 3-4 hour job that I’m not comfortable doing and just total ghosting.

quote:

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I need about 1/2 of a fence and plies replaced. First guy wanted $5k to do the entire length of 60 ft. and completely disregarded what I need.

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Respectfully this isn’t really believable. If it’s truly 60 ft, that’s like 2 hours work including showing up and packing up. I see you didn’t want to pay $5k. Well that’s absurdly high, but also if your fence is fricked up replacing the entire thing may have been the only good option to repair it properly.

What everyone is forgetting in here is that new construction is booming and has been for a couple years. When new construction is booming, anyone worth a damn in the trades is doing that. It’s a hell of a lot easier work but more importantly most of the time it’s a full day or multiple days and it’s easier to plan/ quote. They’d rather talk to the GC they work with weekly than a random crazy homeowner.

The other issue is like said, small jobs are just hard to make it worth it. Most guys are looking for full day or multiple day jobs. A 2 hour or 4 hour job has to be combined with another job of the same length that close by. You can’t do a 2 hour job, drive an hour for a 1 hour job, then drive back for an hour to another job and not charge an arm and a leg.

For a simple dog ear fence, that should run less than $2k. That includes demolition/removing the old fence and installing the new fence.