Working With Us
How do I choose a fence contractor?
Start with registration. Pennsylvania requires home improvement contractors to register with the Attorney General, the number must appear on contracts and advertising, and it is verifiable on the public state registry. Then read the estimate — a real one is written, and it specifies material grade, post size, post depth and footing, rail count, gate hardware, tear-out, and who files the permit and the utility mark-out. Ask whether the crew is employed or subcontracted, and get the workmanship guarantee in writing rather than as a sentence in the driveway.
Verify the registration yourself rather than taking the number on the truck at face value. Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Contractor registry is public and searchable, and the registration number is required to appear on contracts and advertising. Insurance is the second check: ask for a certificate of general liability and workers compensation sent to you directly by the agent rather than handed over as a photocopy. If someone is injured on your property working for an uninsured contractor, that exposure has a way of becoming yours. JHL Fence Company is licensed and insured, registration PA035784.
An estimate that is only a per-foot number and a total is not an estimate, it is a guess, and it is the document that changes on installation day. A written estimate should name the material and its grade, the post size and spacing, the depth of the footings, the rail count, the gate sizes and hardware, whether tear-out and haul-away of the existing fence are included, and what happens if the crew hits rock. When you compare two quotes and one is markedly lower, the difference is almost always in the specification rather than in the margin.
Ask directly who files the municipal permit, who prepares the HOA architectural submission, and who places the PA One Call utility mark-out. All three should be named in the contract rather than assumed. A contractor who tells you the permit is your job is telling you something about how they work, and one willing to dig without a mark-out is telling you more — the mark-out is a legal requirement before excavation and it costs nothing. On our contracts all three of those sit on our side of the line.
Ask whether the crew that shows up is employed by the company or subcontracted, and who the on-site lead will be. Subcontracting is not disqualifying on its own, but it decides who you are calling in year two when a gate needs adjusting, and whose insurance applies while the work is underway. Ask too whether the same crew sets the posts and hangs the fence, because splitting those across two outfits is where handoff errors live. JHL is family owned and is not a national franchise.
A workmanship guarantee is worth what it says on paper and no more. It should state what is covered — leaning posts, failed gate alignment, defects in the work itself — what is excluded, how a claim is made, and how quickly the contractor responds. Coverage that comes from a material manufacturer is a separate thing from the installer's workmanship, and the two should never be described as one. Get it in the contract. Every JHL installation carries a written workmanship guarantee, and our estimates are free and written.
