Ovora vs. a Typical Wichita Fence Contractor: What Actually Differs

This arithmetic is easy to check on any bid in town. Pour one 80-pound bag into a 10-inch hole and it fills 13 inches of depth. The remaining 17 inches are backfill dirt. That fence is not held by concrete; it is held by loose soil, and Kansas soil moves.

Volumes calculated from hole dimensions; bag yields per Bob Vila’s concrete-per-post guide. Ovora digs 10 to 12 inches wide and sets posts 30 inches below the surface, which is the depth Master Halco publishes for the steel post we use.

The published spec on the post we use, the Master Halco PostMaster+: 4-1/2″ × 1-1/2″ line post at .100″ wall, 3″ × 3″ corner post at .12″ wall, G90 zinc coating at 0.90 oz/ft², 50,000 psi yield strength, a 6″–10″ hole diameter and 30″ embedment depth, concrete at a minimum 3,000 psi 28-day compressive strength, and a residential lifetime limited warranty tied to owner tenure (Master Halco PostMaster+ specifications). The steel carries the wind load; the cedar carries the look. Most crews in this market still set a treated 4×4 and ask the wood to do both jobs. See how it goes together on our privacy fence page.

A wider, thicker board does real work on a Kansas fence line: fewer board edges per hundred feet means fewer places for a gap to show, and more wood left holding the fastener after a decade of expanding and contracting. It also cups and checks less as it dries through its first Kansas summer — none of it a marketing distinction, all of it measurable with a tape at the fence line. Cedar shrinks across the grain as it dries, which is exactly why we also offer board-on-board construction: a second layer of boards laid over the first layer’s gaps, so no sightline ever opens no matter how much the wood moves.

Be straight about what that means on a bid: 7/8 by 8 cedar costs more per board and more per linear foot than 5/8 by 5-1/2 stock, and running fifteen boards where twelve would cover the same section is deliberately buying more cedar — 105 square inches of board per section against about 61. That difference is sitting in our number. It is not margin hiding somewhere; it is more wood. If two bids are far apart, ask both contractors what picket they are quoting, in inches, and how many go on a section. Those are the two specs a homeowner can check standing in the driveway.

Typical spec per Home Depot and Lowe’s standard cedar dog-ear picket listings.

How the run is divided. Fence sections run about 8 feet. A yard almost never divides evenly into full 8-foot sections, and what happens to the leftover makes a finished fence look intentional or improvised. Ovora spreads the leftover across the last three sections instead of dumping it into one odd panel — no random short 2-to-3-foot section at the end of a run, no stretched-out one-off, a layout decision made at the sale, not a problem discovered at the last post.

Which side gets the finished face. A privacy fence has a finished side — the smooth picket face — and a structural side, where the rails and posts show; only one side of the property gets the finished face. Pickets facing out, so the neighbour or the street gets it, is the most common choice; pickets facing in gives it to your own yard. It can also vary by side of the property, worth deciding on purpose, not by default, especially along a line you share with a neighbour.

Where the bottom of the picket lands. Two options, both standard: flush to grade, or raised about 1.5 inches above grade for more airflow and clearance from moisture. Neither is an upgrade or the “right” choice — it’s a preference call, on the sheet, so it’s yours, not the crew’s habit.

How slope is handled. If the yard has any fall to it, a fence can follow the ground two ways. Stepped keeps every section level and steps down the hill in stages. Racked, or contoured, angles the rails to follow the grade continuously while the pickets stay plumb. Neither is better than the other; they simply look different, and you pick the look. Flat lots skip the question.

Gates. Swing direction is yours: toward the house or yard side, which usually clears a walkway or patio, or toward the neighbour’s or street side, which keeps the swing out of your own yard. If the job has more than one gate, the swing is recorded for each one separately. Latch is a second, separate choice — the standard gravity/thumb latch is included in the base gate price and covers most jobs; self-closing spring, magnetic, and keyed lockable latches are available per gate as an upcharge. The self-closing spring latch is the one to raise if a pool or a pet requirement means the gate has to close itself.

Ovora writes these six down at the sale, prices anything that carries an upcharge, and has you initial and date the sheet with the salesperson before any material is ordered.

The reason driven posts hold is counterintuitive. A dug hole permanently destroys the soil column around the post, and backfill never regains the density of what came out. A driven post is gripped along its whole embedded length by soil that was never disturbed. It also sidesteps the classic concrete failure mode: a collar that traps water against the post and cracks with frost.

Neither method is universally better — any contractor who tells you otherwise is selling you their equipment. What matters is you’re offered both, and told why. One firm rule on our side: the .280 heavy-wall vinyl post we specify for open country with no south or west windbreak cannot be driven, so those jobs get concrete.

Nebraska Plastics, which makes Country Estate Fence, states it furnishes replacement materials and covers “reasonable labor charges necessary to install the replacement materials,” under a 50-year or limited lifetime residential warranty, non-prorated (Country Estate warranty). The vinyl most commonly quoted against us in this market states in its own warranty document that labor is not included, and that removal, disposal and reinstallation costs are the customer’s (competitor vinyl warranty PDF). Both exclude wind, hail and tornado damage, which is a reminder that in Kansas the installation is the warranty. The full material breakdown is on our vinyl fence page.

Wind is the other half. The same code table lists a residential design wind speed of 76 mph, or a 90 mph three-second gust. Wichita Eisenhower National Airport recorded a 102 mph gust on 17 June 2025, the highest in its record (NWS Wichita top wind gusts). Real Kansas wind has already exceeded the code’s design basis. A post set in one bag of concrete at 18 inches isn’t engineered for that — it’s hoping.

Fence styles beyond cedar and vinyl are on our chain link and ornamental iron page. Grading, patios and plantings are on landscaping and hardscaping, and pergolas, pavilions and shade structures are on outdoor structures. City-specific detail is on our Derby, Andover and Bel Aire pages.

Call (316) 640-1590 or email contact@ovoraoutdoor.com and we will walk your yard, measure the run, and show you the spec before you sign anything.