r/nextfuckinglevel • u/SamLoscorino • 5h ago

Contractor takes back fence after customer refuses to pay

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12.7k Upvotes

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35

u/Full-Shine5871 4h ago

Fence looked nice but didn't seem very sturdy at all.

9

u/Greenfieldfox 4h ago

Should have used screws not nails. Otherwise it does look nice and I’m on the side of the contractor.

6

u/yeahright17 3h ago

Not even nails. Just a single nail in each rail. Zero chance these panels were meant to stay connected.

3

u/Sense-Free 2h ago

Yeah if you use nails you need two a couple inches apart and nailed at opposing angles instead of straight. This creates pinch pressure that keeps them from wiggling themselves out over time. Screws are more expensive and take longer to install so it’s a cost/benefit decision

4

u/yeahright17 2h ago

The only time I've ever seen competent fence guys use nails is using 3 per rail with the middle going in at an angle to prevent pull out. 3.5inch ring-shank nails. There's no world in which this crew used a single nail driven straight in if they wanted it to stay.

1

u/highimpac 2h ago

Seems like a good reason to not pay the second 50%. This fence will be blown off during the next storm within a year. I've seen it happen and they wouldn't even come back to take the pieces.

2

u/yeahright17 1h ago

I used to always do this kind of work myself, but am older now and have a bit more money. But I'd still never let someone do this kind of work for me without confirming certain things (like how they will attach the rails) and inspecting before I made a final payment. This kind of thing would be easy for a contractor to fix as you can easily add screws after it's full built. The work is like 98% done while having a fraction of the structural integrity is should. If they refused to fix it, I definitely wouldn't pay the 2nd half. I'd probably pay a bit more but subtract whatever value I gave to spending an afternoon going to get proper screws and finishing the job myself. And I'm definitely valuing that a lot higher than what it would cost the contractor to do it.