All those videos I referred to a couple weeks ago? We’ve decided to start leaking them.
Here’s the next one. It’s not the most polished video in our reservoir, but it’s an important one. It features Joe, whom we affectionately call Clever Joe, and talks about how he came up with the idea behind digless vinyl fence. We have no real affiliation with Joe other than licensing his patents and a lot of camaraderie.
Joe is the mastermind behind the digless fence concept
Every once in a while someone comes up with a revolutionary idea that really changes things. Usually these ideas are so radical that they are met with resistance at first. After all, it takes time to start a movement.
Meet Joe. He is an idea man, an inventor- the sort of wild-haired guy who does crazy things. He’s cycled across North America, resided in Cuba off and on for years (no, he’s not a communist!), written a book and invented a solar-powered oven utilized in third world countries where power is scarce.
Joe is a hard working guy who loves to putter. A professional fencer by trade, a dozen or so years ago he was having a few issues installing vinyl fence. One, it took too long and was too messy. Two, the cold in Manitoba Canada was so intense that even if the posts were put in cement footings 3-4 feet into the ground, the frost would often heave them out of the ground.
So Joe put on his inventor hat and started to tinker.
First he started experimenting with driving pipe into the ground. It worked quite well, but there was a critical problem with this: it was virtually impossible to get every pipe perfectly straight into the ground, which resulted in slightly crooked fence posts.
Joe went to the drawing board and came up with a couple of simple devices that would compensate for the slightly crooked posts. What Joe came up with was not complicated or outrageous. It actually was really simple. But it worked, and worked well. In short, he invented a simple adjustable post collar to sleeve over the pipe so the fence would be easy to make straight and level.
Within a short amount of time, Joe was installing fence a new way. To old fencing friends who had invested in expensive equipment and were accustomed to installing fence the traditional way, this new concept seemed absurd. But when Joe’s fences went up much faster than theirs and performed just as well, his competitors eventually had to embrace the concept to keep competitive. Plus his reputation soon grew so that this new system was used to replace heaving fence posts that were concreted in the ground.
It’s now been 12 years and there’s a growing movement across Western Canada. Most professional fence companies are installing fence this way. We think it’s such a cool idea that we want to help spread the word.
Sure, it’s only fencing. It’s not going to solve world hunger problems or help mankind live on Mars. But time is important to everyone, and this idea is so clever that it will save homeowners a lot of time and hassle. In short, we’ve been lucky enough to stumble on a movement and we want to spread the good news. We want to change the world of do-it yourself vinyl fence.
Ben is an asset to our team
Say hi to Ben, a member of our WamBam team.
You might think that you need to be slightly crazy to work at WamBam Fence, but Ben is pretty normal and easy-going. I think it’s the easy-going part that makes him jive here. For instance, Steve’s 4 year daughter was in the office the other day. She walks up to Ben and shamelessly stares at him. Ben is a polite guy and doesn’t say anything. Finally I ask, “Kate, why are you staring at Ben?”
She gets all shy and responds, “Because I liiiiike him.”
Fortunately Ben doesn’t have to be a heartbreaker because a few minutes later she informs us that she won’t marry him because she’s too young to get married.
Anyway, Ben primarily works on our product development. He essentially takes ideas and transfers them to technical drawings and specs, mainly for our ornamental aluminum fence program. He’s also bailed me out of more than one jam with some great product renders. He’s a busy guy, because not only does he work 20-30 hours a week at WamBam Fence, but he’s also studying Engineering as a full time student at the University of Charlotte.
Ben is a man of few words. Steve will try to pull conversation out of him, and it works best when he asks questions about NASCAR or politics. Ben works out and every so often Steve asks him in jest to flex his biceps. He politely declines with a grin.
“Ben, do you have anything you would like to say on our blog?” I ask him.
He smiles and shakes his head.
We’re thankful for Ben and the work he does here. He’s an asset to our team. With his help we’re creating a do-it-yourself vinyl fence system that doesn’t require digging holes or pouring concrete. It’s fence that’s easy to install.
He may have turned down Steve's request to flex for the camera, but he's got a good sense of humor.
inforetailradio.com approached me at the Hardware Show and asked if they could steal a few minutes for an interview. I was surprised because they were interviewing huge companies like 3M and Char-Broil, but they said they were intrigued by the company name and wanted to feature us as well. They have released the podcast, which you can listen to here:
Info Retail Radio Interviews WamBam Fence
(If you don’t have time to listen, it’s all about our do-it-yourself vinyl and ornamental aluminum digless fence that can be shipped UPS.)