03Who builds
Zovtira is a fence contractor in Austin, TX that does fence installation and gates on private lots and nothing else. One crew lead walks the line with a wheel and a tape, then sits down and writes the scope: post positions, post depths, concrete bag counts, the date. The install crew builds exactly what that paper says.
A · Who runs this
Zovtira trades at zovtira.com. It is a residential fence and gate contractor, a small one, based at 40 Mill Street, Büro 5, Austin, Texas 32477, United States. The yard office is where material gets staged and scopes get printed. It is not a showroom and nobody sells anything from a counter there.
The photo is a normal Tuesday. One installer holds a level on two faces of the post. The other pours. Nobody walks away from that post until it reads plumb both ways and the concrete is crowned so water runs off.
B · The work, specifically
No decks, no patios, no pergolas, no handyman calls. A fence company that also builds decks is a deck company with a fence crew on loan.
What we actually build is on the fences and gates page, one section per type with its own spec table. Short version below.
Inquiry only. Nothing is sold or paid for on this site.
C · Who does what
Comes to the lot, walks every foot of the line, checks the property pins where they can be found, looks at the grade change and the soil. In most of Austin that means caliche or limestone within a couple of feet, which decides whether we auger or break rock. Then writes the scope that night.
The same person is back on site the morning we dig to stand on the string line with the crew. If a post position on paper doesn't match the ground, it gets fixed then, not after concrete.
Two people to a crew. One crew runs cedar and horizontal work, the other mostly steel and gates, though both do both. They don't subcontract a run out on a busy week. If the calendar is full, your start date moves and you're told the date in writing.
A crew finishes a typical 120 to 150 ft privacy run with one walk gate in two to three working days, because concrete under the posts sets overnight before rails go on.
Usually the person who measures, from a truck. If it rings out, leave the street and the rough length and you get a call back the same working day. Questions that are easier to type go to the chat or [email protected].
D · Install day
Times are a typical summer day. In July we start earlier and stop pouring by early afternoon, because concrete in 100 °F heat flashes before it's worked.
Truck on site. Utility locate flags checked against the scope. If a flag sits within 18 inches of a marked post, that post moves and the change is written on your copy before anyone digs.
String line pulled corner to corner. Post positions painted. Gate openings measured again, finished width plus hinge and latch clearance, because a 48 in opening on paper is not a 48 in gate.
Holes. Line posts 24 inches deep, gate posts 36. Auger where the ground allows, rock bar and breaker where it's limestone. Old posts come out whole, concrete footing and all; we don't cut them at grade and leave the stub.
Posts set. Concrete mixed with water and tamped in lifts, never dry-mix poured into a dry hole. Every post plumbed on two faces and braced. Tops crowned so rain runs away from the steel.
Old fence hauled, panels sorted, the yard walked for nails with a magnet sweeper. Dogs stay inside until we say the run is closed or temporarily blocked.
Rails and pickets or panels on cured posts. Gates hung last, adjusted until they swing shut under their own weight and latch without a lift. You test the gate before we sign off, not after we leave.
E · The written scope
Every Zovtira scope has the same lines in the same order. This is a sample for a typical backyard cedar run; the right-hand column is why each line is there.
Run: 142 lf, 3 sides, 1 walk gate
Linear feet measured on the ground with a wheel and checked with a tape at every corner. Not off a satellite photo, which misses a 6 ft jog around a tree every time.
Line posts: 19 × 2-3/8 in galv. steel, 8 ft o.c., 24 in deep
Each post position is numbered and drawn on the sketch. 8 ft spacing matches 8 ft cedar rails, so there is no rail splice floating between posts.
Gate posts: 2 × 4 in square steel, 36 in deep
The extra foot is what keeps a gate latching in year five. We don't hang a gate over 4 ft on wood. Ever.
Concrete: 2 bags per line post, 4 per gate post = 46 bags
You can count the bags on the pallet when it arrives. If we use more because a hole broke into a void, the scope says what happens, and it doesn't come as a surprise on the invoice.
Rails: 2x4 western red cedar, 3 rows
Three rows on a 6 ft run, not two. Two rails let the middle of the pickets bow outward after one summer.
Pickets: 1x6 WRC, board on board, 1-1/2 in overlap
Cedar shrinks across its width. The overlap means you still don't see through the fence when it does. Species is written so nobody substitutes treated pine and calls it cedar.
Gate: 48 in steel frame, cedar clad, adjustable hinges, gravity latch
The finished opening, the hinge type and the latch side are all written. Tell us now if the latch needs to be reachable from both sides.
Tear-out & haul: 128 lf existing wood, footings removed
Old concrete footings come out. Leaving them means the new post goes beside the old hole in softer ground.
Start: written date · Duration: 3 working days
A date, not a week. Rain over half an inch moves it, and you get the new date in writing the same day.
F · Materials and why
We buy from lumber yards and steel suppliers that sell to trades, by the bundle and by the stick, and we look at the boards before they go on the truck.
2-3/8 in round, schedule 40 weight or close to it, hot-dip galvanized inside and out. A cedar post in Central Texas clay lasts somewhere around eight to twelve years before it softens at grade. Steel fence posts don't rot, and termites have no interest in them. On horizontal work the steel gets wrapped in cedar so you never see it.
Gate posts step up to 4 in square steel. That is the single change that stops most gate sag.
Pickets, rails and slats are WRC, not treated pine. Pine is cheaper and moves more; it twists as it dries and grey checks open on the face within a year. We reject boards with loose knots through the full thickness.
Standard bagged concrete mixed with water and tamped. Dry-mix dumped in a dry hole and sprinkled from a hose cures unevenly and leaves a powdery core. We don't do it.
Stainless or hot-dip galvanized screws and ring-shank nails. Bright steel nails bleed black streaks down cedar within a season.
Adjustable heavy hinges rated above the gate weight, gravity or magnetic latches, drop rods on double driveway gates. Pool gates get self-closing hinges and a self-latching latch mounted at the height pool rules expect.
Welded, not crimped, for the ornamental steel fence. Cut ends are touched up the same day so rust doesn't start at the one spot the crew drilled.
Call +1 (415) 555-2801 or write to [email protected]. A person answers calls on weekdays from 7:00 to 17:00 Central; calls missed while we're on a site get returned the same working day. Emails and form inquiries get a reply within one working day, with a proposed measuring slot.