After seeing several examples of their work, my family decided to utilized Darnell Home Improvement to build our new fence. The owner walked the yard with me to discuss the best path for maximizing the yard and providing clean lines. We discussed several styles of fencing and ballpark estimates of pricing for each. I settled on a dog-eared, wooden fence. The quote came back fairly quickly, and the guys started installing the fence about two weeks later. I was very impressed by their materials of construction. They used 4x4s from a local wood supplier (not from the box store) because, in their experience, they seemed to arrive less wet and didn't warp nearly as bad as others. I built a fence at my previous house and can confirm that the big box stores 4x4 were pretty wet and several warped. I didn't notice any warping during construction or since. The owner also uses a higher-grade picket, incense cedar, which he said held up better over the long haul. However, I was most impressed by their method of attaching the pickets - screws - every single picket. I used a nail gun on my previous fence and had many nails back out as the pickets were trying to warp. This seemed to take a little extra time, but I am happy with this method, as I haven't had one picket warp. A few rain delays during construction, but I find this par for the course, as it was the middle of spring. When they finished up after a week and a half or thereabout, we were very pleased with our new fence. It really makes our house stand out and is great for our dogs. The lines that they worked with me to figure out made a bid difference in how the fence turned out. Very appealing. Oh, I forgot about the gates. Our double wide gate for vehicle access is very sturdy. They built the metal frame in their shop (square tubing), and the 4x6s they used for the supports give me confidence this will not sag like my previous gates. The man gates where typical wooden double-Z? framed and are also very sturdy. The hardware on all of the gates are very nice too. I would recommend these guys to anyone who is looking for a well-built fence that will last a long time. Thanks! read more

I've been hiring contractors for many years and have never experienced such a horrible company from start to finish (although they never finished the job!). They bid the job, then failed to start it until a month later but would tell me week after week, "We'll be there tomorrow." It was like listening to a broken record! Overall, they are NOT experienced fence builders. They could not build anything outside of a basic fence, but even in attempting to do that, the work was shoddy. They had to pull and reset all of the posts because they failed to equally space fence posts. They tried to cut corners by not using a full bag of concrete in each post hole. They lacked skills in building basic gates and had issues with building the gates and also with cutting the pickets to shape. They had to constantly be reminded of tasks left undone or things that needed to be fixed or that were agreed upon at the time of the contract. The owner's favorite line was "I don't recall that." He sounded like a well rehearsed witness on the stand testifying in court!!! In the end, I've been left with gates that do not line up properly and close correctly. One of them has warped in just a couple of months and rubs badly when being shut. When they were setting the posts, they ran out of them and actually helped themselves to materials in my garage thinking I wouldn't notice, except that what they took, was used lumber that I easily identified and called them out on. The time it took this company to produce a mere 170 feet of fence and two gates took almost 4 months & yet they never completed the job. Instead they just stopped showing up or responding to my calls and instead, sent a bill that was padded with hundreds of dollars over what the contract stated and they expected to be paid despite not finishing the tasks the owner agreed to finish in writing via text message to me. He denies the text messages exist! I have printed the entire string of messages and took screen shots as proof. I've been left with crooked posts, cracked pickets, stripped screws, poorly functioning gates. The proof is standing on my property, a constant reminder of their subpar workmanship. I would NOT recommend this company for fencimg, communication, responsiveness or integrity. The owner is a poor communicator to both the customer, but moreso, in his ability to relay the tasks to his workers, to supervise and manage them as well. One of his workers simply walked off the job one morning because he became angry because I called him out on helping himself to materials in my garage. As a result, the owner told me that they wouldn't be able to do any work that day and delayed my job even further. I was amazed at his lack of management skills over his workers. I was even embarrassed for him. Overall, the company didn't perform under their contract, nor did they complete the job, or perform it in a timely manner or a workmanship like manner. Disappointed in the overall quality and durability of the work as well as the poor treatment I received from the owner throughout the entire grueling project. read more