Iron Anvil

The communication with the company is really below par. We called and Vern did come out, drew some preliminary plans and quoted a price. We thought the price was a little on the high side and tried to get alternate bids. Because our job was so small no one else would even bid it out. We went back to Vern and sent him half the price if they would start on the fabrication. Well, about 6 weeks later, right out of the blue, an installer called from Iron Anvil and said he would be over at 1:00 to install our railing and collect the final payment. It was just fortunate that I happened to be home. I was kind of blown away that the job was done. The finished product is fantastic, but the lack of communication is really frustrating. I would recommend them with one important caveat; the customer must exercise an extreme amount of patience!

unknown

I made an appointment with Vern at 4pm on a Monday. At 4:30pm I called iron anvil and asked if he was still coming. They said he was in the shop and forgot about the appointment. Vern showed up at 5:30pm to give me a bid. I did like everything he had to say about fabrication and install of a driveway gate. Vern said he would email me a price the next day. I have not heard from him since then. I do not think it is the customers job to remind him that he has an appointment, or remind him to give me a price. Vern did have some good ideas, which I will use with the person who is actually going to do the work. So I the overall grade is D, even though Vern earned an F in certain catergories from me.

He was fantastic! I made some bad measurements and he was able to fix and change the piece for me.

I would give them all A's.

We originally stopped by the showroom. He has many, many examples of fencing outside so you don't even need to go in. We were looking for an antique fence, though, and the examples outside were all modern (as are most of the examples online). He has a huge yard of scrap and he said we could look around for old pieces of fencing that might work. There was nothing just right so he said he could custom build something for us. When he told us he had made the antique fencing around Trolley Cottages we were sold! It is a great example of old fencing (and we think he should have pictures of it on his website). Vern came by to measure, and he was exactly on time. The bid seemed a little high at first, but since he was custom making it we figured it was a much more expensive option (plus we put in 4 extremely ornate end posts) so we don't feel as though we were taken advantage of at all. Additionally, after talking with him for some length of time it is easy to tell that he isn't the type of person to make a buck at someone else's expense. He is really a true artist, and cares about his product. He emailed the specs, just as he said he would. And he was exactly on time with scheduling the installation. He had to make a few adjustments in the manufacture of the fence to account for a minor slope in the yard and he did a great job. The fence is absolutely perfect, and we had a wonderful experience working with Vern. We originally considered a gate but ran out of money. If we ever decide to install a gate we will absolutely not hesitate in the least to contact him again.