Most fence pages show a finished photo and a phone number. That skips what homeowners want to know before they sign. How many days will people be in my yard? What happens on each one? When does it start looking like a fence?
Here are three real cedar jobs we finished this year, described the way we would describe them to a neighbor. Footage, days on site, and what the yard looked like at the end of each one. No prices in this post. If you want market ranges, our Wichita fence cost guide has them, sourced, with the math shown.
Job one: 202 feet in Andover
A new build lot with nothing behind it but open field. The ask was simple. Close the yard in.
Two hundred and two linear feet of cedar privacy, built over four days in late June. One walk gate, landing in the corner where the run meets the house, the tightest spot on any fence to get square.
Day one was layout, holes, posts and concrete. At the end of it the yard looks worse than when we started. Steel posts in fresh concrete and a lot of dirt. That is normal, and it is the day the fence is actually decided. Day two the pickets went up and the yard changed. Days three and four finished the far runs and the gate.
The stain went on a couple of weeks later, in mid July, as its own scheduled visit. We shot the photos the evening the crew finished, so every one shows bare wood. The full run is on our work page.
Job two: 264 feet in Derby
This one was about the color as much as the fence. Two hundred sixty four linear feet of cedar privacy, built over four days in mid August. Full privacy, no gaps to look through, and the homeowner wanted a brown darker than the cedar tone most yards end up with. Gates got black hinges and a black latch, so the hardware reads as a deliberate line against the wood.
The stain went on five days after the last picket, as its own visit. We use Wood Defender, an oil based penetrating stain that new cedar can take within days of the build. Coming back for the finish also means the whole line gets looked over twice.
A dark stain is unforgiving. It shows every wave in a line, so the line has to be right on day one, before anybody opens a can. When you want stain, it goes on the quote from day one, never sold to you after the fence is standing.
Job three: 284 feet in west Wichita
The biggest of the three, and the most gates. Two hundred eighty four linear feet, built over five days in July. Three gates, all four foot, their posts set through concrete. Parts of that yard run shorter four foot sections instead of full height privacy, because that is what those sides needed. The back run is sloped, which changes how the sections step down the hill.
The homeowner left it as raw cedar. That is a real choice, not a lesser one. Unstained cedar silvers out over a few seasons into a soft gray, and plenty of people want that.
Three gates is more work than people expect. A gate is not a section of fence with hinges on it. It is a squared, braced assembly on terminal posts that go deeper than line posts. Three of them is three times that work, which is why a bid with three gates is not a bid with one.
The day before day one
A customer asked us for physical samples on a Sunday. They had them in hand the next evening. Actual cedar, actual hardware, on a kitchen table before anybody committed to anything. That is what should happen when somebody is about to spend real money on something they cannot picture yet. Photos flatten wood. A picket in your hand does not.
The rhythm, in general
The pattern holds across all three.
- Removal. If there's removal, we do that on its own day. Old fence out, old footings out, hauled off.
- Day one is digging holes and setting posts. Every post is galvanized steel, a Halco PostMaster, concealed inside the cedar so the finished fence reads as all wood. Posts go 30 inches down, past the local frost line, with close to two eighty pound bags of concrete in each hole. Then it sits.
- Day two is throwing up pickets and gates. Rails, boards, hardware, gate swing and latch.
- Then stain, if you chose it. Its own visit a few days later.
Some contractors try to do it all in one day. The problem is Kansas wind. Pickets catch the wind, and your fence can be leaning after day one because the concrete hasn't fully set. Once a post has moved in green concrete, nothing you do to the pickets fixes it.
The reverse is also true. If the posts never moved and a fence has only lost pickets to wind, sprinklers, or a dog, that is a picket job. Our Fence Tune-Up handles it in a single fixed-price visit.
The exception is vinyl. On a driven post job where we don't do any concrete, we can potentially get the entire job done in one day. Nothing cures, so nothing can lean while it cures.
What the homeowner actually does
Very little, on purpose. You make the layout decisions at the sale. Which side gets the finished face. Where the bottom of the picket lands. Stepped or racked on a slope. Gate swing and latch, per gate. Those get written down and initialed before material is ordered, so nobody decides them in your yard with a nail gun in hand.
We call 811 before we dig, on every job. We flag your real property line rather than trusting the old fence. We are fully insured, and we pull permits on every job that needs one, which our Wichita fence permit guide walks through.
The spec is the same on all three jobs: concealed steel posts, thick full dimension cedar pickets, stainless steel ring shank fasteners two per rail. The detail lives on our cedar privacy fence page.
We are at 5.0 stars across 14 Google reviews, and the reviews on our reviews page come from these same yards. That pairing matters more than the star count. Reviews that line up with photos and job records are worth something. Reviews floating free of any job are not.
Fence project questions, answered
How long does it take to install a fence?
Our recent cedar privacy jobs, 200 to 285 linear feet, have taken four to five days on site. Removal of an old fence adds a day. A driven post vinyl job with no concrete can finish in one.
How long should you wait to stain a new cedar fence?
It depends on the product. The Wood Defender we use is oil based and penetrating, so new cedar can take it within days. On the Derby job it went on five days after the last picket. Water heavy stains need the wood far drier, which is where the wait-a-month advice comes from.
Do fence companies remove the old fence?
We do, and we give it its own day rather than folding it into the build. Ask any bidder whether removal and haul off is in their number. It is one of the most common things missing from a low bid.
Can I see fence material samples before I sign?
Yes. Ask for them. We have had a customer request samples on a Sunday and hold them the next evening. A cedar picket in your hand tells you more than any photo on a website, ours included.
Want yours described like this next year? We will walk the yard and put a real number in writing before we leave.