Ideal Fence

Ideal Fence is a small, family-run Watertown shop — brothers Eddie and Mark Nilan have been putting up wood, vinyl, aluminum and chain-link fencing and gates around Boston since the company's own site says 1983 (BBB's records put the business start a couple of years later, in 1985). It's stayed deliberately small: 10 employees, one location, the same two names showing up across reviews for over a decade. When it goes well, it goes well fast. Customers describe a steel fence installed and the old wood fence hauled away in two days; a custom cedar privacy fence built on an uneven, terraced yard, finished ahead of schedule; a fence rushed through before a daughter's graduation on a tight deadline. Eddie in particular gets singled out for being reachable — texted about a loose latch, he had someone out to fix it. Pricing has pulled people in over the big-box alternative: one customer, after two years of research, said Ideal came in roughly 30% under a Home Depot quote and came back to fix storm damage at no charge; another got a $500 patch job instead of a full replacement pitched by five other companies, and it held for years. The pattern worth knowing about shows up when something goes sideways. In an August 2025 review, a homeowner reported fence posts set directly into concrete — not standard practice — and said Ideal refused to fix it when asked, telling them "that's the way we've done it for 40 years." In a 2024 review, a customer said the company cashed a $4,500 deposit and then went quiet for weeks despite repeated calls for a start date. And two 2022 reviews — one on Google, one on Houzz, describing what looks like the same job — report a belligerent, unprofessional reaction when a post-placement error was pointed out. It carries an A+ with the BBB, though the listing also shows the business isn't BBB Accredited. A solid pick for a straightforward install or repair where the crew gets it right the first time — the reviews on execution and pricing are genuinely strong. Worth asking directly, before signing anything, how they handle it if something needs correcting after the fact.