Who an Albany fence is for
A fence gets judged by how it looks on the day the crew drives away, yet it is lived with by people and animals for years afterward. One way to plan it is to go through everyone it will touch and ask what each of them needs from it. The answers can settle height, face, gates and placement before a single company comes out, and they give each bidder the same brief to price.
The people inside the house
Start with your own household. Stand at the windows you look out of most and decide what you want to see from them: the yard, a run of boards, the street, the house next door. Boards butted tight together can screen a patio from view, though they also block sunlight and moving air there. Gaps between pickets, or an open metal pattern, can outline the yard while leaving the view in place. You may want different answers on different sides of the yard.
Think about small children too. If the fence is meant to keep a toddler in the yard, ask each company how the gates latch, where the latch sits, and whether a gate can be made to close by itself.
Dogs and other animals
If a dog will share the yard, describe it to every bidder: how tall it stands, whether it jumps, whether it digs, and whether it squeezes through narrow gaps. Those habits can point toward a taller fence, a tight face low down, or a bottom edge set close to the ground. Ask each company how its design answers what you described, and whether it would add anything along the base.
The households next door
Your neighbors may see the fence as often as you do. Show them your plan before the stakes go in. Ask which face they would rather see, whether a tall section near their windows would bother them, and how they will reach their side to mow or trim.
Visitors, mail and deliveries
Walk the route a guest or a delivery driver would take from the street to your door. Should a front gate stay unlatched in the daytime? Is there room for a package to be left inside the fence, or a place for a meter reader to pass? A front fence that marks the edge without closing it off can be a different style and height from the one around the back yard, and each can be priced as its own line.
NOAA figures for the station named Albany
NOAA's engineering weather data lists a station named Albany at 292 feet of elevation. For it, NOAA gives a 1% summer design temperature of 86°F, with a mean coincident wet-bulb temperature of 72°F, and a 99% winter design temperature of 1°F. NOAA also counts, in an average year at Albany, about 160 hours with the wet-bulb temperature above 73°F and about 820 hours above 67°F.
Drinking water: the Feura Bush plant
Albany's water treatment plant at Feura Bush was constructed from 1928 to 1932 and can process up to 32 million gallons a day.
The crew that builds it
A crew needs a way in. Picture how posts, panels, concrete and an auger will reach the back of the lot: through a side yard, past a narrow gap beside the garage, over steps. Tell each company about tight spots, and ask whether its price assumes easy access. Ask where materials will be stacked while the work goes on, and what protects your lawn and beds along the way.
Where the lot ends
The fence will sit near a line that the yard itself may not show. The papers from your purchase may include a drawing of the lot; if they do, set it beside what you see on the ground, and if the two disagree, a land surveyor can mark the corners for you. Then settle with each company where its posts will stand relative to that line, and who looks over the stakes before the first hole.
Buried lines
Underground lines deserve a conversation before any digging. Find out from each bidder who arranges for utility lines to be marked, how much notice that takes, and whether work holds until the marks appear. Lines you or an earlier owner put in, such as sprinkler pipe, a feed to a shed or lamp post, or a buried pet fence wire, may not be part of that marking, so point each one out to the crew lead on the first day.
Paperwork with the city and any association
Ask the city whether your fence, at the height and style you have chosen, goes through any review, and what an application would ask for. If a homeowners association covers your street, ask whether it approves fences and whether that comes before the city's step. Then ask each company whether it handles any application and whether a fee is inside its price.
The license question and proof of coverage
Put one question to every company: "What state license or registration, if any, covers this work, and what is the number?" Ask, as well, for proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation before work begins. Call your own insurer with any question about how your homeowner's policy treats a crew in the yard.
What to ask for in writing
When the proposals come in, look for the same items in each one: a sketch of the route with its length and every gate marked, the height and face for each side, the post material, size, spacing and how each post is set, each gate's width, swing, latch and hinges, removal of any old fence, hauling and cleanup, the material and workmanship warranties as separate terms, the payment steps and a start window, and the answers to the license and coverage questions. If one proposal leaves an item out, ask that company to add it before you weigh the totals.