West Seattle Fence

We recently hired West Seattle Fence to replace the fence that surrounds our property. I had my heart set on a horizontal fence. We live on a hill, and the fence would need to travel along the slope, and be dog-​safe. We got bids from four different fencing companies, and all grumbled about the extra work and money it would take to give me the fence I wanted. All, that is, except for West Seattle Fence. Not only did they not complain, they came in well under everyone else’s bid.
They are a small business — it’s really just the owners and a couple of people on their crew. As a result, it can take a while to get on their schedule. We initiated contact in June, and weren’t able to get a spot until October. That isn’t entirely their fault — there were a couple of delays on our end as well.
And they operate in a fairly small radius around West Seattle (luckily, we live in Beacon Hill). If you’re in Edmonds, or Kent, or Bellevue, this may not be the company for you.
We did have a couple of hiccups in getting together with James to review the job and finalize the design, however, the wait was well worth it. We have a truly gorgeous new fence.
The job took three days — one day for demo and post-​setting, one day for the fence, and one day for the trellises. They even came and finished the job on a Saturday.
James is a stickler about his materials, and the quality truly is exceptional. I can’t stop staring at my beautiful new fence! The workmanship is second to none — everything lines up perfectly.
James and his wife, Patty are wonderful. They truly care about their clients’ satisfaction with their work. They made a special visit on the weekend when the work was done to make sure it was up to their standards.
I can’t recommend them enough.

We had a new fence put in this July. James was very patient making a couple of visits and providing suggestions on how to create more height and privacy in the back yard with lower height and a feeling of openness on the sides of our home. The guys did a great job putting in a high quality fence and left the yard spotless when they were done. We had a problem with some of our caps splitting a few weeks after the fence went in but Patty and James were very responsive in correcting the problem. Within a week they replaced our caps with ones from a new lot and we haven’t had a problem since. We’re very happy with how responsive Patty and James were throughout the entire process. We’ve received many compliments and inquiries in the few months since the fence went up. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend West Seattle Fence to our family and friends– great service and high quality product!

I loved working with James and Patty, and I honestly prefer to hire smaller family companies I feel like it’s better for our community. They and the whole crew were wonderful. They did a top notch job and then some. They were here when they said they would be and finished the job beautifully. James made a suggestion of adding the cedar fence to a portion that had chain link before and it was a great change. I would hire them again in an instant! Awesome company, really nice people.

So here’s the deal. It’s an actual mom-​and-​pop shop operated by a couple of neighborhood locals with a small staff and limited infrastructure.
They responded to my request for a bid pretty quickly but then it took a while to confirm the date and that date was pretty far out.
However, if you live in West Seattle and have a bit of patience, they are awesome. Nicest people in the world, gave lots of great recommendations.
Furthermore even though their promised date was about a month and a half from the time we wanted, they showed up exactly when promised and did a fantastic job.
So if you live in Renton or whatever, don’t bother. Sorry. But if you live in West Seattle, they are really great and worth the wait.

Amazingly unprofessional. Don’t hold your breath waiting for returned phone calls or emails, even after you’ve committed to working with them. If you’re overwhelmed and in the weeds West Seattle Fence, and you don’t want to risk your reputation for top notch fence work, get some help! Hire an assistant, even a virtual one! There’s just no excuse, grown ups in business treat clients with respect and courtesy.

Very happy with Patty’s service and Jame’s craftsmanship We got a beautiful, high quality fence from West Seattle Fence and have already heard many compliments from our neighbors.
I suspect we’ll be making more recommendations in the future.

When a company can’t return calls or show up without even the consideration to communicate that, then it’s all just excuses, excuses.
Notice that Patty takes a lot of time to respond to the poor reviews here and even tries to justify their lack of common courtesy by telling everyone how small, busy, and overworked they are. Never mind that they only work in West Seattle!
How hard is THAT to ask before telling people you’re going to be somewhere only to leave them hanging?
No, there is NO EXCUSE for any company to not communicate with the customer.
Imagine what the situation will be when these «too busy» for courtesy people need to come out and correct something and they’re not making any money at it.
Let this be fair warning. Please read the long-​winded excuse Patty wrote about why they stiff people after arranging to meet.
Then add to it that I haven’t been able to contact them or get a call back in four business days.

West Seattle Fence is a fantastic company! I highly recommend them! James is a real artist! He was able to design a custom gate based on a picture my husband sent him. He is a VERY hard worker and was willing to stay late to get the job done. The whole experience with the company was great… from Patty via phone and email to James and Jacob working hard to put up a gorgeous fence. James went above and beyond when he helped with another section of a previously installed fence. They are a great company that does outstanding work!

Wow! We have worked with West Seattle Fence for our backyard project and they have been so amazing!!! The work is incredible We weren’t able to pay for the whole thing at once so they worked with us and did one half until we were able to pull together enough to get the rest of it done and we are SO HAPPY! They went the extra mile too in dealing with all sorts of unforeseen issues (a beehive, electrical cords, a collapsing retaining wall). And when we came home we were in awe of the special touches they did (including putting all of our plants back and cleaning up.
The workmanship was amazing!
We love supporting local businesses and after dropping off the check at their cute house with their adorable kids outside, we knew we were supporting the right people.
HIGHLY recommended!

I love supporting local businesses. I hate writing bad Unilocal reviews. I also hate wasting my time and especially when someone knowingly wastes your precious time. I chose West Seattle fence because of their good Unilocal reviews. What I failed to do is look at the «reviews that are not currently recommended» because the two other 1 star reviews under there also had the same terrible experience I had.
The good:
–I got responses from Patty promptly. She chose her own date and time for availability to meet and discuss the project
–20 minutes after our agreed meeting time and date, I had to call and email Patty for another 25 minutes before I got an email from her apologizing that they couldn’t make it. (This is now almost an hr after the time we were suppose to meet).
–Patty apologized and quickly promised to meet us on another date and time. Again, she chose the meeting date and time.
The TERRIBLE:
–Guess what? They didn’t show up the 2^nd time either. Both my husband and I called, emailed, called, texted, and emailed again. We’ve heard nothing since. No apology… nothing. West Seattle fence seems okay with not showing up and wasting your time.
–on the phone, Patty did ask if we had talked to any other contractors. I told her that we had not, but we would be doing so because it seems like a smart consumer idea. Patty didn’t seem very happy about that and told me that they have the best Unilocal reviews. I did wonder why she cared if I would talk to other contractors.
–I wish I hadn’t given them a second chance. Both my husband and I had to leave our jobs early twice, waste both our times in traffic twice, waste well over an hour waiting for Patty and James, and worst of all, they are so unprofessional that they don’t even apologize. Instead they never pick up the phone when we were calling or email to let us know they weren’t coming. But we were also dumb enough to give them a 2^nd chance.
If you look closer at West Seattle Fence’s reviews, you can see they have a pattern of treating other potential customers in the same manner. That is so unprofessional and unkind. If you have lots of extra time on your hands or you like being disrespected… then do business with West Seattle Fence.
On a side note, both my husband and I work for large Seattle companies and many of our coworkers were waiting to see how our experience was. It obviously wasn’t a good one. We’ve been very honest about our experience.

No stars if I could. Tried contacting them several times. Why am I the one trying so hard to get their business? Picked this place based on their total stars but should have read the reviews more carefully, including the ones hidden by Unilocal.They either have five star or one star reviews. Seems suspect. Read one review that stuck up for their bad behavior. I know plenty of construction places that call customers back, show up on time, and provide good customer service. If you don’t, you’ll be out of business soon in this economy. I work hard for my money and want to work with people who respect my time and money, too. Ended up using All City Fence instead.

I called Patty to set up a time for James to come and give me an estimate, she emailed me back the times and I choose March 4^th at 8:00 am. Several days had passed and I emailed her back to confirm, she emailed me back and said she was sorry she did not get back to me no worries. So I took the day off of work on March 4^th and drive to the rental house where the appointment is at 8:00 am as it is after 8:10 am I take out my phone to call and receive a email from Patty saying that James can not make it he has to pick up supplies in Fife can I reschedule. I was very upset taking the time off work and drive to rental only to get I wont make it, the email was sent at 7:22 am on the day of the appointment. I will be looking for another company to do business with that can communicate better then this.

We recently purchased a new home and the fence was in serious need of replacing. After months of deciding what style we liked best we called around to get quotes. We met with 3 different contractors and in the end we went with WSF.
James came out and took the time to walk the yard with us. We discussed options, what we wanted to keep out/​in the yard and the pros and cons of each piece. We’re pretty picky, detailed people so we asked a ton of questions and at no time did it seem like he was annoyed or in a hurry to leave. In fact he was happy to answer all of our questions.
Patty is behind the scenes, I call her the project manager :) She handles all of the communication, scheduling, invoicing and general wrangling of all the information. She was so accommodating to my busy work schedule and was so nice to let me email her back and forth with questions throughout the course of planning. She was great about our slight change of plans and put together a great quote with a couple of different options. This was incredibly helpful to us as we’re on a tight budget and really needed to nail down what was really important and what wasn’t.
We booked the work a few months out; we called during busy season in July but knew we wouldn’t be ready for a couple of months, we booked an October start date. I highly recommend doing the same. They’re busy, and for good reason. The fence looks amazing! We really couldn’t be any more pleased with the work that the team at WSF did. They even took extra care with the posts (it was cold and the posts didn’t all set correctly, so they had to reset a few so that cracks could be avoided). I really can’t recommend the team enough. Quality work all around!

This is a belated review for a fence that James put up for us at the beginning of the summer. I was very pleased with West Seattle Fence/James’s service but I thought it wise to wait for a few months to see how it fared. Still impressed! James offered advice on style, size, and design of the fence and gates. He was patient and reassuring and, sure enough, he was spot on. The fence looks great and is wearing well. The gate and side wings that he fit into an existing pergola integrated so nicely that no one can tell that it wasn’t always meant to be that way. On top of it all I believe his price was the best to boot. Thank you again for the great job. When the other neighbor’s fence collapses you know who we will call.

We too were working with James during the time he was attending a funeral for a family member back east. We had a similar communication experience (not great), but because of all the glowing reviews, we kept at it and adjusted our schedule to accommodate his. His estimate was thorough and because we were asking for some special soundproofing material to be installed as well, it was more complex. James really is a generous spirit and knows his fencing too.
Eventually the fence was built and it made a huge difference. It is very beautiful and we have gotten many glowing comments from neighbors who walk their dogs in the neighborhood and don’t normally comment on much. James also had to build an addition to an older, not so beautiful fence, and managed to install it so that it not only matches but enhances the older fence. And the topping on the cake for us was that he came back just before our wedding in our back yard and installed decorative fencing strips that we couldn’t fit into the initial schedule, that made the fence even more attractive.
Be patient with the scheduling and communications especially during his busy seasons, and you will find it’s worth it. He’s a craftsman of the highest order. Other friends who are contractors have also admired the exceptional detail in the fence (wood on top rail cut at an angle to avoid moisture penetration, fence posts anchored in a bolt anchored in the ground rather than directly in the ground as pressure treated wood in the ground does rot eventually, even high grade pressure treated wood, etc.).

I will give James major consideration for having lost a family member at the same time he moved his business/​home. That being said, communication between us was terrible. When he finally showed for the estimate (which I had to call him twice to remind him of) he was extremely pleasant and presented well. He took down the information/​measurements, shared some stories with me about our neighborhood, and let me know what the next steps were and when I could expect to hear from him. It got worse after that… again allowing for the time travelled for the funeral and his return I had to call multiple times to only have him admit that my information was on a different page of his journal, and he did everyone else’s but mine. He would get on it. I waited. I finally said I was moving on calling other contractors. He called and left a voice mail with my estimate and said if I wanted a copy just call him back. I didn’t.
I called All City Fence (you can read my review of them under their listing). Great experience and feel like I did the right thing.
I am giving West Seattle Fence two stars because of what was going on in his life at the time. And I must say, James’ wife was the one keeping me in the loop and trying to get him to get back to me. She deserves a lot of the credit for anything positive that came out of this experience.

I expected a good job from James of West Seattle Fence. What I did not expect was the exceptional craftsmanship he and Jacob poured into what became a work of art. We live on a busy street in West Seattle and I am amazed as drivers and walkers stop to admire the fence as they pass by. You can and probably will pay more for someone else to do the work but nobody could have done a better job.

We’re in the process of re-​designing our front yard and needed someone to install about 20 ft of fence. We read all the great reviews on Unilocal about James’ work so we thought we’d give him a try. We’re so happy we did. Even though they were booked about 2 months out, James and his on the ball secretary Patty managed to sneak my lil fence project in at the tail end of one of his other jobs. On the day of the project, James showed up around 1:30 in the afternoon while I was at work and had the entire fence finished by the time I came home (that includes a couple trips to the lumber yard)! And what a fence it is! Without a doubt, 5 stars. Thanks James and Patty!

James did a fence on the front of our house a couple of weeks ago, and the previous review stands. Fantastic work, fantastic value, fantastic experience. I have complete strangers complementing us on the fence. My neighbor, who is around more during the day, says he has watched people pull over and take pictures. It looks that good.

If there could be more stars, I’d give them! West Seattle Fence is awesome! James came out to visit with us in late June and spent a lot of time looking over the details of our yard and fence needs. While we waited for him to finish another job, he even came out to put up a couple sections of temporary fencing and a gate to keep our dogs contained.
His quote was very fair, but really, when he was here every day on site during the construction of our fence, I quickly realized his quote was beyond fair! Our fence was quite intricate to put together came out beautifully. Every board was cut by hand and carefully installed. It looks great, is SOLID as a rock in terms of structure, and really goes nicely with the house. James was very helpful in many small design aspects too, using dutch double gates and such. Can’t recommend West Seattle Fence highly enough!