About a month ago my wife and I were looking to install a new electric fence at our property. We didn’t know any contractors and weren’t persuaded by our neighbourhood WhatsApp recommendations. So we looked online.
When we do this – for anything, electricians, plumbers – we usually query between three to five contractors and ask them for a guideline price so we have an idea what we’d be in for. We’ve found the first responders are usually the best. Those that give us a story about how little we know or how they need to see the site first, we discard.
Quintin was the first to respond to us. He chatted to me while busy on another site, got what we wanted and said he’d email us an indicative price that evening, which he did. We already met with him at site by the time most other contractors were first responding.
During the walk-through I got the impression Quintin would give us exactly what we wanted but, because of the nature of our site, he gently made suggestions to the contrary. For example, we have an odd bit of wall that sticks out of the normal boundary circumference and he said it would be easy to electrify it instead of leaving it open and exposed as we intended. The suggestions were based on his experience. Then he left it for us to decide.
He could also be persuaded. He prefers a fence angled outwards because it presents a greater obstacle and deterrent. We preferred upright because of aesthetics. He agreed about the aesthetics but still preferred the greater deterrent. He ultimately installed upright because that’s what we wanted. Also, the neighbour’s fence was in the way of what we intended and, without getting complicated, he came up with a solution of bracing our fence without compromising.
After speaking with him, Quintin was the obvious choice. We appointed him that evening. At the time we had other contractors paving and installing gates. After Quintin and his team got going the other contractors more than once got in his way and destroyed parts of his installation. Not that we heard about it. He resolved the issue directly with them (and in such a way that no one became hostile) and by the time we learned about it everything had been sorted. He’s a team player.
Also, after the site visit Quintin gave us our price and stuck to it. There was none of this being told afterwards that this wasn’t part of the quote and that wasn’t included. If there was an additional cost he told us about it up front. We wanted stainless steel but because our boundary wall is so long he recommended a larger energizer – a smaller one would work but it would struggle. We knew all of this going in.
My wife and I never considered that our boundary wall with its columns and parapets created odd angles and shapes. It didn’t occur to us that matching an upright fence to it and where it met the sliding gates would require major gymnastics. Quintin had to bend standard uprights to match the angles and shapes and ultimately our fence looks and fits our wall like a well-made suit – no shortcuts.
As a last note, we have an existing Ajax alarm system linked to ADT on our property. Quintin’s fence installation needed to integrate with it. We were doubtful it could be done. Sure, it was theoretically possible, but practically we doubted it would work as we imagined. But it can be done. And it does work like we imagined. I was with Quintin at the final integration, when he was on the phone with Ajax, and he knew as much if not more about integrating fence and alarm than the Ajax representatives.
Quintin’s fence will probably last 100 years so we’ll probably never get to use him again. But we can definitely recommend him.
We hope this helps you in your search.
Werner & Sharon
