Three years after Carli Fence finished a job, frost heaves pushed some of the posts up. In a 2024 review the customer said the crew came back, spent the whole day at the property and put it right, and that Tom Carli told him at the end they wanted to be sure he was happy. Another homeowner, writing in August 2025, had trouble show up on a fence installed five years earlier and said they came over immediately.
The shop has been on Union Street in Medford since 2006 and in the fence business far longer. By the family's own telling, Ralph Carli — a Somerville firefighter on Engine 7, Ladder 4 — started it in 1950 with a 1948 Dodge pickup, and it now runs in its third generation, Ralph III and Tom Jr. working alongside their fathers, with a Carli on every customer's job. The Better Business Bureau has accredited it since March 2005, grades it A+ and records seven employees. They sell and install wood, vinyl, ornamental, metal and chain-link fencing, gates and dumpster and pet enclosures, and they plow in winter: a resident writing in January was out shovelling when a Carli front-end loader cleared the spot for them.
Quotes come quickly. A customer in July said Tom replied to the inquiry right away, came out within a few days with an estimate and options on the spot, and had a long property-divider fence down, removed and replaced in one day. A 2023 reviewer said the price came in around $800 under another company's and the fence went up less than two weeks later. In January 2023, Tom, Ralph and Felipe fitted vinyl and chain-link around a big rocky yard to keep a dog in.
Two things to pin down first. A one-star reviewer in October 2024 said the company did not follow the town's residential fence rules on height near the sidewalk and setback, and called the tall solid fence that went up a safety hazard. Separately, one of the eight permits listed on BuildZoom — an $8,800 chain-link-to-wood replacement in Somerville — is marked rejected for failure to provide required documents. The same page shows the licence as "Unable To Verify", which is what a fencing-only contractor looks like, since Massachusetts exempts fencing-only work from home improvement contractor registration. And the 2023 customer who got the good price came home to find the crew already at work with no call beforehand.
For a straightforward residential fence around Medford and the towns near it, this is a long-established family shop that quotes fast and, going by customers years down the line, comes back when something shifts. Before you sign, confirm the height and setback your town allows, settle who pulls the permit, and ask for a call the day before the crew arrives.
