Thirty Years of Doing Things Differently — and Better
In 1996, Aaron and Renee Smith started A to Z Quality Fencing out of a garage in West Allis, Wisconsin. They had a simple goal: do good work, treat people right, and build a company they could be proud to put their name on.
Even the name has a story.
In the days when homeowners found local contractors in the phone book and Yellow Pages, starting with the letter “A” meant A to Z would appear ahead of much of the competition. For a brand-new fence company trying to get noticed, it was a practical decision.
It worked.
As we celebrate our 30th anniversary this year, A to Z has grown far beyond that West Allis garage. We’ve expanded into Minnesota, developed specialized fence installation equipment, pioneered new installation processes, built a fence supply and fabrication operation, trained other fence contractors on methods we’ve spent years refining, and continued looking for better ways to take care of the homeowners who trust us with their properties.
Thirty years in business says something about staying power.
But we didn’t get here by doing things the same way for 30 years.
Some Things Haven’t Changed
Aaron and Renee still own A to Z together today, just as they did when they started the company in 1996.
Aaron served in the U.S. Army, and Renee served in the U.S. Army Reserve. Together, they have built A to Z as a family-owned, woman-owned, and veteran-owned company.
And despite how much the business has grown, ownership has remained remarkably hands-on.
Anyone who has visited our team page may have noticed Aaron’s official title: Owner | Janitor.
It gets a laugh, but there’s some truth behind it. No one here is too important to stay close to the work. That mindset has been part of A to Z from the beginning.
So has a willingness to ask a question that has shaped much of our growth:
Is there a better way to do this?
Over the past three decades, the answer has often been yes.
Building Better Ways to Build Fences
Fence installation has traditionally relied on digging large post holes, setting posts in concrete, and dealing with the dirt, disruption, and long-term problems that can come with it.
We believed there was a better way.
Driving posts into the ground was not a new concept. It had long been used in chain link fencing. The challenge was figuring out how to bring the benefits of that approach to other fence materials that traditionally depended on digging and concrete.
So we worked on it.
A to Z adapted driven-post installation for vinyl and aluminum fencing and developed equipment and processes to make it work. Cedar presented another challenge, so we developed specialized equipment in-house that allows cedar posts to fit over driven galvanized steel posts.
Those innovations became the foundation of what we now call our No-Mess, No-Dig™ installation method.
Instead of digging large holes and filling them with concrete, we drive galvanized steel posts directly into the ground. The process creates minimal disruption to the surrounding property while providing a strong foundation designed to resist the problems that can come with traditional installation methods.
Over the years, we’ve continued to refine the equipment, materials, and installation techniques behind the process.
And we haven’t kept what we’ve learned to ourselves.
Today, A to Z trains its own crews in these methods and teaches fence professionals from around the country who come to us to learn how to incorporate driven-post installation into their own businesses.
For a company that started out installing fences from a garage, becoming a company that helps teach other fence contractors how to build them better is a milestone we’re especially proud of.
Better Installation Needed Better Materials
Improving how a fence is installed naturally led us to another question:
Could we improve what we were installing, too?
In 2012, we launched American Manufactured Vinyl Fence to supply our own projects with contractor-grade materials. That operation eventually became A to Z Fence Supplies, expanding beyond our own installations to serve other fence professionals.
Today, we source and fabricate the vinyl, aluminum, and cedar fencing used on A to Z projects, giving us greater control over the materials going into the fences we build and allowing us to design those materials specifically around our installation methods.
It also gives us greater control over what happens after installation.
Our Three Phase Warranty protects the three things that ultimately determine how a fence performs: the foundation in the ground, the workmanship that puts it together, and the material itself.
That warranty represents a promise about the future.
After 30 years, we can also point to the past.
A lifetime warranty means more when the company standing behind it has already demonstrated that it intends to be around.
Thirty Years Teaches You Where Things Can Go Wrong
Experience isn’t just about getting faster or better at installing a fence.
After thousands of projects and three decades in the business, you learn where homeowners run into problems, including problems that may have very little to do with the fence itself.
One of the biggest is knowing exactly where that fence belongs.
Property lines aren’t always as obvious as they look. Survey pins can be buried, disturbed, moved, or paved over. An old fence, hedge, retaining wall, or mowing line may have been treated as a property boundary for decades without actually being one.
When a new fence is installed based on an assumption and that assumption is wrong, the consequences can be expensive.
The homeowner may have to move the fence. A neighbor dispute can follow. Or the problem may not be discovered until years later when the property is surveyed during a sale.
Permitting creates another layer of responsibility. Requirements vary by municipality, and getting them wrong can create problems long after installation day.
For years, the fence industry has largely put those responsibilities on the homeowner.
Once again, we asked ourselves whether there was a better way.
The Next Innovation Isn’t a Machine
Some of A to Z’s most important innovations over the years have been physical things: equipment we’ve designed, tools we’ve built, and materials we’ve improved.
Our newest approach is different.
It’s about improving the customer experience.
We created three service levels, Gold Medal, Silver Medal, and Bronze Medal, to give homeowners a clearer choice about how much responsibility they want to take on themselves and how much they want A to Z to handle for them.
Gold Medal is the level we recommend because it allows us to take responsibility for the project from the ground up.
A to Z coordinates the licensed survey, handles permitting, and assumes responsibility for fence placement. If we install a Gold Medal fence on the wrong side of the property line, that’s our problem to fix, not the homeowner’s.
Silver Medal is designed for homeowners who already have appropriate survey documentation and want to provide it for the project.
Bronze Medal gives homeowners the option to take responsibility for survey and permitting themselves in exchange for a lower project cost.
It’s a different kind of innovation, but it comes from exactly the same place as the equipment we’ve developed over the years.
We saw a part of the traditional process that could work better.
So we changed it.
From a Garage to Two States — and Still Growing
A to Z’s path from 1996 to today hasn’t been a straight line.
The company moved from West Allis to Kewaskum, then West Bend, before establishing our Wisconsin operation in Hartford in 2019.
When part of our family relocated to Minnesota in 2017, A to Z expanded with them. What began in Lakeville is now our Farmington location, allowing us to serve homeowners throughout the Twin Cities area while continuing to grow our manufacturing and installation capabilities.
Along the way, A to Z has grown from a husband-and-wife fence installation company into a business that installs fences, fabricates materials, develops equipment, trains contractors, and continues to experiment with what fencing can become.
But growth for the sake of getting bigger has never been the point.
The goal is to keep getting better.
Thirty Years In — and Looking Forward
Thirty years is worth celebrating.
It’s three decades of fences and families. Three decades of employees, customers, challenges, mistakes, lessons, new ideas, and figuring out better ways to do the work.
It’s also three decades under the same ownership.
The same two people who started A to Z in a West Allis garage in 1996 are still responsible for the company today. They have watched installation methods change, materials improve, technology evolve, the business expand into another state, and A to Z grow into something much larger than the company they started.
Increasingly, though, the story of A to Z isn’t only about what Aaron and Renee have built. Three of their children now work in the family business and aspire to become owners themselves. After 30 years under the same ownership, there’s something especially meaningful about the possibility that the next chapter of A to Z could be carried forward by the next generation.
What hasn’t changed is the expectation that we can always do better.
Better equipment.
Better installation methods.
Better materials.
Better protection for our customers.
And now, a better way to guide homeowners through the entire fence project.
Thirty years in business gives us a history we’re proud of.
It also gives us a responsibility to keep building on it.
Thank you to the customers, employees, partners, friends, and family members who have been part of A to Z Quality Fencing’s first 30 years. We’re excited to show you what we do with the next 30.