Artistic Fence Inc

They did a beautiful job. It was spendy. It was a lot because it was all cedar and it was kind of custom done. It is very pretty. Their pricing was not inexpensive, but I think the quality of their work and the value were there.

his was one of my worst experience using a contractor.
The project was supposed to begin on August 20th, but was delayed until the week of the 27th. The final issue, a latch that was installed upside down, was not resolved until October 21
This is the list of everything that went poorly with Artistic Fence:
1. One section was installed over a garden, due to the property line adjusting slightly due to a plat survey that was completed prior to the install. This section was installed over decorative stone work in the garden instead of following the slope of the land. This put it at 8.5" high on one side and 4" high on the other. When I pointed this out I met resistance but ultimately they agreed to rebuild that section.
2. Artistic Fence originally recommended that the front gate post be attached to the house instead of set in concrete in the ground. Actually, it was to be a cedar 2x4. I let them know that I had had issues in the past getting things to attach to the brick house but hey said they were not concerned. Ultimately they had problems also using the standard concrete screws and had to go to a concrete anchor. They didn't set the bolts for the anchor inside of the 2x4 so there were basically steel bolts sticking out of the side of the post. Not only was this less than ascetically pleasing, it was dangerous for anyone walking through the gate. I discussed the options with the crew and they recommended setting a post. I was fine with this since it was what I thought they were going to do in the first place. When they came out to set the post however, they ended up not putting it in cement. In addition it is shorter than the post across from it. Also, instead of building a new gate, they cut down the one that was in the previously larger opening when it was a 2x4 instead of  a post. This would be okay potentially, if they did a good job of it, but the newly cut down gate has bite marks from where the circular saw was twisted during the cut. When I pointed this out, they agreed to build another gate.
3. A board on the back of the fence is bowed out (warped) outwards. This had to be obvious to the installer. I pointed this out and they agreed to replace it.
4. A board on the back of the fence is dry rotted and has holes in it. This had to be obvious to the installer. I pointed this out and they agreed to replace it.
5. An entire section of fence that was attached at an angle was mounted incorrectly. Basically they mounted the long part to the outside of the angle resulting in an overhang. I pointed this out and they corrected the problem.
6. All of the post caps were loose. They had tried to attach them using adhesive caulk, but the calk didn't make contact with the post so they were basically just sitting on top. When I pointed this out they corrected the problem by nailing them in.
7. A gate latch was mounted upside down.
8. Two boards warped in the rain after the job was complete leaving me to wonder at the materials used on the project.
9. Artistic Fence rarely came when they said they would. In general, when a day and time was agreed upon, I ended up waiting for them and have to follow up to find out what the delay was. Sometimes they still made it that day, sometimes they rescheduled for another day.
I hesitated to write this review last year because I wanted to make sure I made it through the winter without any more issues with more boards warping. So far so good. In the end the fence does look great but it was not an easy road to get there.
Amy and Mark have showed a willingness to work on each issue which is nice. At the same time I should be able to hire them and not have to be their foreman.  Nearly every issue was a self-inflicted wound that all could have been avoided.
Communication, punctuality and quality control are seriously lacking at Artistic Fence.

As usual they were out here when they said they would be.  They are prompt, efficient and easy to work with.  they always clean up their mess and I will have them back if needed.  They always ask me to contact them if there is a problem but we have never had an issue with there fine work

I am very dissatisfied with them.  The final cost was higher than expected.  They quoted us one price and then it cost us more.  We specifically specified we wanted bidirectional gates and we paid for bidirectional gates but we did not get them.  They told us the gates were not available with the type of fence we went with.  Then I said, okay but if we paid for it, we should have got a refund.  Also, they took shortcuts, they gave us too big of a gate for the front and too small a gate for the back and the back gate had to be redone at our expense.  We paid $765 for them to come back out and do it the way we wanted it done in the first place.  Amy the person that gave us the quote said that is how we wanted it but why would I want a four-foot gate to span a twenty-two inch sidewalk in the front and a five foot gate to span a six foot sidewalk in back, that didn’t make sense.  However, the whole thing would have made sense if they had put in a four-foot gate in the front and that will allow them to use only a single panel instead of two smaller panels and a smaller gate.  In the back, a five-foot gate is less expensive than using a four-foot gate and a two-foot gate, which we eventually wound up going with, which is what we wanted in the first place.  They did that so they could save money and then they tell us that is what we wanted, is not true, I didn’t want that.  Even if we wanted that, it was their job as professionals to tell us that were not going to work too well but they didn’t.  The gate they put in at the back was completely unusable and we had to pay them extra for them to make it usable.  I thought I could live with the front gate with the way it was even though it is way too big of a gate but after the first freeze, it became apparent, it is not livable because the hinges busted when I tried to open the gates.  So I cannot and I have not been able to use the gate at all, all winter long.  I would only use them to come back out and fix what they should have done right the first time.  If they still want to charge me, I will take my business to somebody else and I will take them to court and try to get my money back.

Short story - Workers truck leaked oil on our recently sealed driveway - workers tossed cigarette butts all over
They didn't center the posts where I asked to avoid puncturing sprinkler lines - causing 4 breaks in my lines
Shadow box was so spotty that we had to have them out 2 times to re-board gaps (this was with in a week)
Gate was crooked had to come back out and repair
We had asked 2 for quotes on our deck to be returned with none
Overall finished product was very nice - just to many bumps in the road to get there

I was absolutely delighted to deal with a woman as competent and helpful as Amy. I received estimates for this work that ranged from $4500 - $15,000, and Amy's was right in the middle. She provided me with a very thorough estimate, worked with our insurance agent, and even gave us an excellent price on having some add'l work done at the same time (stairs and porch railing for the front). She was extremely patient with my incessant questions, and her crew were CRAFTSMEN, not just fence guys. The work they completed was far beyond anything I expected in terms of quality, promptness, and soliciting feedback from me. I would not hesitate to use them and to recommend them - they are extraordinary!! In a world where customer service is usually just paid lip service by others, Artistic Fence goes far beyond the expected, and are extremely professional to work with - thank you, Amy and your crew!

The project went very well.  Storm damage caused by two trees coming down on two sides of the fence was repaired in 2-3 hours.  The workers reviewed all needed work from the estimate prior to beginning the work.  They even volunteered to replace a top rail from another section of the fence, not included in the estimate, that had been bent in a storm many years before.   The workers were very thorough, did not damage any plants or grass around the damaged areas and cleaned up after themselves.  The workers were knowledgeable and polite.   They made sure everything was nice and straight!  Everything looked very nice when they were finished.  The workers were approximately an hour late from the start time I had been given.  I called and was told they had gotten a late start.  Their good work made up for the lateness.

Chain link fence was damaged by large tree. Fence was repaired with poor workmanship and parts missing (caps for two poles).  As for cleanup a worker was caught throwing fence poles with concrete and bent railings into the wooded area behind the house....when confronted he did retrieve materials and place them in appropriate pile. Top of fence did not line up with top rail.  Beware of this company.

We love our fence-- it's beautiful!  Yet, while the final outcome was"A" worthy, a few bumps along the way unfortunately weigh down my overall rating.
When I reached out to Artistic Fence through Angie's List, I got a timely response and an estimate soon followed.  I liked the samples of their work, the price seemed fair and reviews on Angie's List were strong so we signed the work agreement and made our deposit without delay.  
The bumps were essentially the result of some inconsistencies in the way of customer service.  Namely, we were not impressed with the crew that did the tear-out of the old fence and placed the posts because of their general lack of professionalism and regard for our property.  I feel pretty strongly that every crew working residential jobs needs at least one person who has the soft skills needed to, at the very least, introduce themselves to the homeowner and say what they are there to do.  If there was such a person in this crew, he did not introduce himself, which caused some unease.  Plus, they did not space two of the posts correctly so one needed to be dug up and moved by the builder.  I believe with more proactive and detailed communication from a project manager, my expectations could have been managed more effectively.  For instance, I was expecting the crew in the morning of the first day so I stayed home from work to get them set-up with power and water.  After a couple hours I inquired about their whereabouts.  Turned out they didn't arrive until the afternoon and then worked for only an hour and while I understand the weather's heat was likely disruptive, I felt out of the loop.  Or, perhaps that was part of the project plan all along, but based on my expectations they were late, left early and threw the job off schedule. Things turned around after I expressed my frustration over having a torn-up, exposed yard and  being told the job would not be finished by the agreed date or two days after that when we were slatted to host an event in our backyard or two days after that. 
They responded with great service recovery?moving things around to send out their ?best builder? (perhaps owner too) to get things very close to finished allowing us to get our yard cleaned up in time for our party.  He was great?friendly, understanding, and detail-focused.   He was very apologetic about our experience with the earlier crews.  He communicated how he was going to approach the build.  When he finished, he gave his recommendations on care, including staining.  He let me grab some scrap pieces to test stains.  He even offered to haul away some old concrete footings from a separate project, which was very helpful.  And, like I said at the beginning, the finished product is really lovely and has helped us enjoy our backyard so much more.
Based on the final product, I think it?s a shame this project didn?t earn an A because the fence is truly excellent.  The process in total was good, just falling short of great.  I would certainly recommend Artistic Fence and I would use them again in the future.

We hired them to custom build a fence in our backyard, to match our neighbor's fence in design and style. When digging the post holes, they managed to break a piece of our house siding off. Furthermore, many post holes were dug on our neighbor's property (despite surveyor's stakes) and had to be removed and reinstalled. Things didn't get better as the project progressed. First, despite assuring us they would be able to match our neighbor's fence, the fence they built was a foot shorter and the custom design was very poorly executed. After negotiations, we ended up with a nice fence as long as you don't know it is supposed to match the neighbors. The office staff were always very pleasant and professional. They paid for and coordinated repairing our siding. Overall though, we would not use this company again.

I had high expectations of them given their standing on Angie's List. In some respects they met those high expectations. For example, Amy and team at Artistic fence were always responsive and polite in all interactions and communications. She went the extra mile coming twice to our home to finalize layout and options. The work was done at the price quoted, and there were no nasty surprises in that respect. However, our job had to be postponed multiple times due to staff issues they were having. Moreover, I found some of the work wasn't as top-notch in terms of professionalism. For example, after they cleared away excess debris, the yard was littered with bits ad pieces of fencing material that were hard to see, and usually we found them the hard way -- after stepping on them. There were also communication & coordination issues from time to time where the job crew would tell us things that were different from what Amy would. And after they reported the job done, I found a not-so-small section of fence that just hadn't been secured to the posts properly at all. To their credit, they took responsibility for that and showed up the next day to correct it. All told, I would recommend them as the end product has been good so far, and their pricing was quite competitive. I would just caution folks to build in some of these issues and annoyances into their expectations, until at least they sort through whatever staffing issues they said they were experiencing.

Fine

We had the fence installed in early June of 2012 and the problems with Artistic Fence began almost the moment the project started.  The most consistent problem with Artistic Fence though is the complete lack of responsiveness and follow through.  Multiple calls and emails will just simply go unanswered.  And not just unanswered for hours - they do not respond to emails or calls for days on end.  I have never seen another small business act so unprofessionally as does Amy Nosbush Reinke and Artistic Fence. 
Just two example of this complete unprofessionalism by Artistic Fence: 
1).  After our fence had been installed in early June 2012 (the project finished the day of June 4, 2012), we were still missing all the post caps for the vinyl portion of the fence 2 weeks after the project had ended.  It took numerous emails and calls to Amy Nosbush Reinke before she would respond to the fact that the post caps were missing and the project was not completed.  Once we finally received a call back from Amy, it then took weeks for them to get the post caps from their vendor and to actually come back to our property and simply place them on top of the fence posts. The caps were not placed on the fence until June 28.  This was after weeks of emails and calls made by us asking them to please tell us when the caps would be placed and the project completed. 
2).  The most recent example of their total disregard for professionalism is when the ground froze this winter the post that latches the gate of the fence shifted significantly away from the gate and we were unable to close the gate for months (which made the fence utterly useless to us since we had it installed to keep our animals in place and not out roaming around the neighborhood).  I first contacted Amy about the problem on January 21, 2013.  She indicated that they would be in touch with us in the spring (totally understandable) to come out and replace the post (which Amy indicated they believed hadn't been set correctly below the frost line which caused the post to shift so far).  We never heard back from them.  So, I contacted Amy again on June 6 and she indicated that they would be out to reset the post the Thursday or Friday of the next week (June 13-June 14).  I had to contact them again on Sunday, June 16 because no work had been done on the Thurday or Friday they were scheduled to be out to reset the post.  The back and forth of emails and calls to Amy to try to determine when someone would be out to fix the post went on for weeks - most of this time was spent waiting for Amy to return our calls and emails on when she would have someone out, but they inevitably didn't show up on the day they were scheduled.  Amy finally confirmed on July 3 that Joe would be out on Monday, July 15 to replace the post and latch.  Joe arrived today and only replaced the latch.  The post is still leaning and will likely have problems again this winter. 
At this point, we will likely have to seek resolution in small claims court.  This small business is unprofessional at best and unethical at worst.  We will never use them again.  We will tell all our friends and family to not use them.  And I encourage anyone out there considering a new fence to find another company - this one is not worth the constant headaches that ensue from their shoddy work and disregard for customer service.

Working with Artistic Fence was a great experience.  We needed a fence that could contain a dog that can climb chain link, but didn't want a privacy fence to cut us off from our neighbors.  Amy from Artistic Fence came and looked over our property, talked about our options for our fence, and wrote out a bid right there.  She answered all my questions, and was very helpful and professional.  Their bid came in on the low end of the quotes we got.  Their building timeline was reasonable, even though it was the busy season for new fences, and the folks that came to build the fence where prompt, and impressively efficient.  The fence is exactly what we hoped for, and is beautifully done.  We couldn't be happier with it.  
I really recommend Artistic Fence.

Update: A few months after the fence was installed, a few of the wooden caps that cover the fence posts began to split, assumedly because of water.  I called them, they sent someone out, and replaced the broken parts free of charge under the warranty.

Estimator came and described the fence options.  Competitive pricing for privacy fence.  Contractors completed work per schedule.  After fence was put up cracks appeared in multiple locations and bowing of fence walls created gaps in this new privacy fence. 
Owner came over and observed situation in a few days after contact for these issues, said $100 extra for labor to remove bowed fence walls that were creating gaps.  Not sure why they include this option up front or they could have let me know they were giving me a cheaper option up front (not sure why they would even offer) and then let me know this would have been needed anyways for true quality privacy.  Repair work was done promptly.  IMO its a good price, quality experience was a bit meh, but they give 5yr warranty on parts/workmanship so they'll come back and fix it up in a prompt manner either way.

Fabulous! These guys kicked butt on price, installation and the finished product is great.

Very professional, great price and quality work.

They were great. The person who put up the fence was great and did a terrific job. He made suggestions, did it well and did everything on time. He was efficient and cleaned up. Everything about them was great. I recommend them to others.

Overall, very good.  To protect ourselves from a difficult neighbor, we designed a fence that could be built and repaired from our property only.  Construction was to be in two phases, first, the posts were to be set, then we would excavate and build a small retaining wall, and then phase two was filling in the actual fence.  Only Artistic Fence (Amy Nosebush) took the time to really understand the compexity of the project, its level of difficulty, and our high expectations of work quality.  Accordingly, they had the highest bid, but we expected to pay for the work we felt the project required.  The fence ultimately met most of our expectations.
The low points:  1) On day one, as I was leaving for work, I noticed that one of the concrete forms for the posts was out of alignment.  I talked to the foreman, and he was immediately over-the-top angry and said if I were going to criticize his work "every five minutes", he was quitting the job.  I said little more, left, but called the owner to ask to meet at the house.  When I later checked the rest of the work, most of the forms were in line and the posts themselves looked really good.  I met the owner, explained why the misaligned form was a problem (it meant the retaining wall would be crooked), and he conceded the problem.  We agreed to continue and he would supervise more closely.  2) Before we built the retaining wall, it rained alot.  We discovered sink holes around some of the posts and realized the rain washed dirt into poorly compacted soil.  Most of the posts moved, not from wet ground, but because of poor compacting.  Rather than complain again, I compacted the dirt, trying to keep the posts plumb.  One is crooked, my fault, and of course I notice it all the time.
The high points: 1) To finish the fence, the owner assigned a particular person (Chad I think).  His work is virtually perfect and would make any finish or trim carpenter proud.  2) The fence is now two winters and a summer old, and becuase of Chad's careful work, not a board is warped.  Except for the expected weathering and shrinking, it looks as thorough it was just built.
We highly recommend Artistic Fence.  No one else would have put up with us.  We're sorry we couldn't rate them all A.

Top notch service, great communication, reasonable price. Would recommend to anyone and use again.

Good

Quick response initially, then some lag in actually getting the work date nailed down.  Overall, the work turned out well.  The price was reasonable based on comparative rates, although it seemed very high to me.

We arranged a 6 pm meeting for quote and consultation. The representative was on time and knowledgeable. Took quick measurements and got us a timely quote, We asked for some adjustments that were turned around in timely fashion. Communication was by email after initial meeting. Construction was at tail end of season and there was some adjustment to start time as a result. It took a couple of days longer than scheduled and a Friday finished extended into following Monday, but it was a minor inconvenience. Early in process, crew foreman advised us that fence line could not be straight on one side. There were two exchanges, both verbal. In hindsight, would have been good to get the explanation in writing. While resulting fence is fine, there are a couple of juts that are a bit bigger than we had expected. That said, we're pleased with the fence. The crew left the yard clean each day and remembered to lock garage door as requested -- a small detail, but appreciated nonetheless.

I'm glad I was there at the start.  The crew was going to put the fence in a different place then I had asked.

The saleperson met with us quickly after we asked for an estimate.  She provided a couple of different options as well as pictures of the different fencing.  She was able to provide on the spot pricing.  The pricing was pretty consistent with the others we had quoted and we chose artistic fence because their nicer option was 300 cheaper than the competition.  After scheduling out 3 weeks we were able to make a couple of changes to our original estimate.  The gentlemen that worked on the fence worked diligently and professionally.  It was completed in 3 days.  The only constructive comment I will make is they don't tell you that the dirt accumulated from digging the post holes is your responsibility.  We didn't ask in the first place, but it would have been nice to know that we had some work ahead of us that isn't included in the job.  The gentleman was very good about asking where to put the dirt/clay until I could get to it.  Overall, price was good, fence looks great, and no issues.