Temporary Fencing in Milwaukee

Summerfest is the busy season for barricade

Festival season on the lakefront is the heaviest stretch of the year for event fence. Summerfest alone runs for days on the lake, and then the smaller ethnic festivals take over the same grounds through the summer. Add the State Fair in West Allis and a full calendar of races and street fairs, and the barricade shelf is thin from June through August.

For a crowd, you want the interlocking barricade with solid feet. Construction panel is not the same thing. Tell the provider what the fence is for, and how many people will be leaning on it.

Waukesha, Wauwatosa and the other suburbs run their own summer festivals and parades, and the same barricade stock serves all of them. A small-town festival may need only a few hundred feet, but if three events land on one weekend, Milwaukee providers run out quickly. Book the date the moment you have it.

Reading a quote in a cold market

A winter quote in Milwaukee is different from a summer one. Panels need to be set on frozen ground, which means more labor, and stand weights need to be heavy enough that a blowing snow load does not push them. Ask the provider to state in the quote what they plan to use. If the line has to be moved or re-set after a thaw, ask whether that is included.

Milwaukee is an old industrial city, and many sites have buried slabs, old foundations and fill. Driving a post into any of it is a gamble, and the crew may find it only when they try. That is another reason to prefer stand-mounted fence on a site with a history.

Where the work is

Downtown, the Third Ward and the Deer District around Fiserv Forum have drawn tower, hotel and apartment work. The Menomonee Valley is the old industrial heart and is mostly reuse of rail and factory property. Out in the suburbs, Wauwatosa has the medical complex and the mixed-use blocks around it, Brookfield and Menomonee Falls have office parks and distribution, and New Berlin, Franklin, Oak Creek and Muskego have warehouse and subdivision work. Waukesha adds a mix of industrial and downtown reuse. West Allis and Greenfield have older commercial blocks where fence goes around demolition.

If your site is in the older neighborhoods, expect narrow lots and neighbors close by. Fence there is about keeping people out of a few feet of dirt, not hundreds.

A small job in those older blocks might be a gas station rebuild or a parking structure repair. Fifty feet of panel is a fine order, and a good provider will still deliver it quickly.

If you are working in one of the suburbs, ask where the yard is, because rush hour on I-94 can turn a short haul into a long one.

Frost, wind and the lake

Frost goes deep in Wisconsin. From December to March, a post will not go into the ground, and the ground a stand sits on may be solid ice. Panels on stands with ballast are the answer, and crews carry heavier weights in winter. Ask what they use.

The wind off Lake Michigan hits the east side hardest. A screened fence on an open lakefront lot acts like a sail, and some crews will not hang screen in a high wind. If the screen is mainly for appearance and not for dust, consider leaving it off.

Milwaukee jobs that start in late fall have a particular risk: the fence goes up in good weather, and the first hard freeze comes a few weeks later. Ask the crew to come back and check the line after the ground has frozen, since a stand that sat on soft soil in October may be tilted by December.

Getting the call right

When you call, say the address, the footage, the ground, the number of gates, the dates and whether the site is in the city or a suburb. Mention if you need pedestrian protection along a public sidewalk, because it changes the product. Downtown and the Third Ward have plenty of sidewalks that cannot close.

If the job is a winter start, tell them. Providers who work year-round have crews who know how to set a line on frozen ground, and others may not want the job. It is better to learn that on the phone than on the day.

One more thing about timing

Construction season in Wisconsin is short, and everyone wants a fence on the same Monday in April. A call in March beats a call in April.

If you can, send the provider a photo of the site before you book. A Milwaukee crew can tell from one picture whether the ground is frozen, whether the gate will clear the snowbank and whether the truck will fit down the alley. It takes thirty seconds and saves a wasted trip.

Ask also whether the provider keeps winter weights separate from summer ones. Sandbags freeze to the pavement, and a crew that shows up in January with summer bags will spend the morning chipping.

Looking for a different city? Here are some nearby.

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