A backyard that slopes toward a ravine cannot be made usable with a fence alone, and most fence companies will not take on the grading and wall work that has to come first. Fence Brothers, a family-owned West Michigan contractor, recently took on one of those jobs at a Kentwood property, regrading the lot, building a retaining wall, and installing a full-perimeter cedar privacy fence in one project.

The company has installed fences across West Michigan since 2013 and is run day to day by brothers Alec and Kyle Trierweiler, who handle estimates and field crews themselves out of a 10,000-square-foot shop on East Paris Avenue in Kentwood. Their father spent 34 years in the lumber industry, and the family still sources cedar directly from mills in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Fence Brothers is insured and holds a 5.0 rating on Angi, which named it a 2025 Super Service Award winner based on customer ratings and review activity rather than an application. It is also one of a small number of contractors in the area that runs both a residential and a commercial book of business, and jobs that fold site work into a fence install are among the ones other companies tend to turn down.

The Kentwood property backed up to a wooded ravine, and the ground fell away toward the tree line steeply enough that the family had little flat space to use and no safe edge at the drop-off. Homeowner Raquel Kruse wanted the yard made usable and enclosed for a growing family, which meant the slope had to be dealt with before a single post went in. The lot needed to be regraded and built up with fill dirt, secured against the ravine, and then closed off in cedar along the entire boundary.

The crew flattened the yard and trucked in fill first, because the fence had nothing to enclose until there was level ground to build from. A retaining wall went in behind the fence line next, set to hold the new soil in place so neither the lawn nor the fence posts slide toward the ravine over the years. The cedar fence went up last, with posts set below the frost line so the ground cannot lift them when it freezes and thaws. As on any install, the company pulled the permit and called in Miss Dig, the state service that marks buried utility lines before digging.

The finished yard sits level where it once dropped toward the ravine, held back by the wall and fenced on every side. The whole job was done by one crew under a single contract instead of split among three separate trades, and it came in on schedule. The cedar carries the same five-year workmanship warranty the company puts on all of its fences, which covers post movement, picket separation and structural problems that trace back to the installation.

"Fencing a yard that isn't level doesn't make it usable, it just fences off a slope," said Alec Trierweiler, co-owner of Fence Brothers. "Plenty of companies will quote the fence and leave the grading and the wall for the homeowner to sort out on their own. We would rather own the whole problem, because a fence is only as solid as the ground it stands in."

Homeowners planning a fence or a larger yard project can reach Fence Brothers at (616) 348-9988, with site visits generally scheduled within 48 hours of a request. Photos from finished installations can be viewed on the company's Google profile.

About Fence Brothers

Fence Brothers is a family-owned residential and commercial fence installation company located at 4477 E Paris Ave SE, Kentwood, MI 49512, serving West Michigan since 2013. The company builds wood, vinyl, aluminum, chain link and ranch fencing on-site and also handles related site work such as grading and retaining walls when a project calls for it. Fence Brothers is insured, holds a 5.0 rating and Angi Approved status on Angi, was named a 2025 Angi Super Service Award winner, and backs installations with a five-year workmanship warranty. More information is available at https://www.fencebrosmi.com/.

###

For more information about Fence Brothers, contact the company here:

Fence Brothers
Alec Trierweiler
(616) 901-8492
alec@fencebrosmi.com
4477 E Paris Ave SE
Kentwood, MI 49512