About Proud Steel Fence Co. | Austin, TX
Proud Steel is not a franchise. It is not a sales office that dispatches crews you have never met. It is one master welder — Richard Burdick — who built a business around doing the work the right way. Every project. Every time.
✓ Owner-Operated — Richard Burdick ✓ 20 Years of Welding Experience ✓ Coleman, TX Roots — Austin, TX Built ✓ Every Project Personally Overseen
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Meet Richard Burdick — The Welder Behind Proud Steel
Richard Burdick grew up in Coleman, Texas — a small West Texas town where people still believe in showing up early, working hard, and standing behind their word. Long before welding became a career, it was something Richard was naturally drawn to. He discovered early on that working with steel wasn't just a job — it was something he genuinely enjoyed doing.
Ask Richard what it's like when he's welding and he'll tell you he gets locked in. The distractions disappear. The focus narrows. The heat, the arc, the metal, and the movement all come together in a way that's difficult to explain unless you've spent years behind a hood yourself. After more than twenty years in the trade, that focus has been refined through thousands of hours of hands-on experience working on structural steel, pipe systems, commercial projects, custom gates, fences, railings, and specialty fabrication.
Over the years, Richard has worked alongside some of the most talented welders in Texas and developed a reputation for quality workmanship and attention to detail. He takes pride in doing things the right way, not the fast way. The finished product speaks for itself.
Proud Steel Fence Co. was built around a simple idea: provide Austin homeowners and businesses with steel fences, gates, and railings that are built to last. No shortcuts. No sales pressure. No layers of management between the customer and the craftsman doing the work.
When you call Proud Steel, you're talking directly with the people responsible for the project. The same team that designs it, fabricates it, and installs it. That hands-on approach is what allows us to maintain the quality, accountability, and workmanship that our customers expect.
That is Proud Steel. Built stronger. Built right.
20 Years Across Every Welding Process and Project Type
Most people who call themselves welders have experience in one or two processes. Richard Burdick has spent twenty years mastering all of them.
Stick welding — the foundational process. Wire feed — the workhorse of structural fabrication. TIG — the precision process that aerospace and architectural work demands. Flux core — for heavy structural steel in field conditions. Brazing — for joining dissimilar metals where fusion welding is not appropriate.
Every position. Flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead. Every material. Carbon steel, stainless, ornamental iron. Every project type. Structural buildings, pipe systems, custom gates, residential fencing, interior architectural railings, and commercial perimeter systems.
This range of experience is not common. It is the result of twenty years of deliberately taking on every type of welding challenge available — working with the best crews in the trade, on the most demanding projects, in conditions that forced precision and speed in equal measure.
When Richard shows up at your Austin property to weld your fence, your gate, or your interior railing — he is bringing all twenty years of that experience to your project. Not a crew member. Not an apprentice. The owner.
The Standard Every Proud Steel Project Is Held To
Proud Steel is a new Austin business. But the standards it operates by are twenty years old. Here is exactly what every client — residential homeowner, commercial property manager, or custom home builder — can expect from every Proud Steel project.
What We Build
The Work Is Done On Your Property
Proud Steel does not deliver pre-fabricated panels and adjust them to fit. Every fence, gate, railing, and architectural steel feature is measured, cut, and welded directly on your property — custom to your exact dimensions, your terrain, and your design. What gets built on your property was built for your property.
Every Site Gets Assessed Before the First Post Goes In
Austin's terrain is not forgiving. Blackland clay expands and contracts. Limestone sits at unpredictable depths. A site that looks straightforward from the street can present very different conditions once you start working with the ground. Proud Steel assesses every property before any installation decision is made — because how a fence goes in matters as much as what it is made of.
You Get a Straight Price Before Any Work Begins
Every Proud Steel estimate is itemized and digital — line by line, material by material, labor by labor. No handshake pricing. No vague allowances that inflate at invoice. If the scope changes you hear about it before we act — not after. The price you agree to is the price you pay.
Richard Answers the Phone
Not a call center. Not a project coordinator. Richard Burdick — the owner and the welder — answers his phone. Responds to quote requests within 24 business hours. Takes urgent repair calls the same day. If you have a question about your project before, during, or after installation you call the person who did the work.
How Every Proud Steel Project Works
Every project — from a residential fence installation in Westlake Hills to a commercial security gate along the I-35 corridor — follows the same five-step process. No shortcuts. No surprises.
Step 1 — The Conversation
Richard talks to you directly. No sales rep. No estimator who hands off to a project coordinator. You describe what you need, where your property is, and what your timeline looks like. Richard asks the questions that matter — the ones about your driveway layout, your soil conditions, your HOA requirements, your design direction. The ones that determine whether the job gets done right.
Step 2 — The Site Assessment
Before any estimate is written Richard visits your property. He looks at the terrain, the access conditions, the existing structures, and anything else that will affect how the installation needs to be approached. This is the step most contractors skip. It is the step that determines whether your fence is still standing in ten years.
Step 3 — The Itemized Estimate
You receive a clear, digital, line-by-line estimate before any work begins. Every material. Every labor item. Every scope element. No hidden fees. No vague allowances. If you have questions about any line item Richard answers them directly.
Step 4 — The Installation
Richard and his crew show up on the agreed date and weld everything on-site to the exact specifications in the estimate. The work area is kept clean throughout the installation. Finished surfaces are protected. When the crew leaves your property at the end of each day it looks like they were never there — except for the steel work that is now done.
Step 5 — The Walk-Through
When the installation is complete Richard walks through the finished work with you personally. Every weld is reviewed. Every gate swing is tested. Every dimension is verified against what was agreed. If anything is not exactly right it gets addressed before Richard leaves your property.
Why Richard Brought Proud Steel to Austin
Austin is one of the most demanding markets in Texas for quality trade work. The homeowners in Westlake Hills, Tarrytown, and Lakeway have high standards and the resources to enforce them. The custom home builders working in the Hill Country luxury corridors need subcontractors who can read drawings, pass inspections, and protect their reputations. The commercial property managers along I-35 need vendors who move fast and document properly.Austin also has a wood fence problem. The clay soil. The summer heat. The endless cycle of cedar replacement. A city full of property owners who are ready for a permanent solution — and a service market full of contractors who are too busy or too franchise-bound to serve them properly.Richard saw a market that needed exactly what he has spent twenty years building — genuine welding expertise, personal accountability, and a straight-shooter approach to pricing and communication. Proud Steel is the result of that decision.This is not a side business. It is not a franchise location managed by people who have never welded a fence. It is Richard Burdick's life's work brought to Austin — and it will be built one installation at a time until Proud Steel is the name Austin property owners and builders reach for first when they need steel done right.
Why Richard Brought Proud Steel to Austin
Every repair Proud Steel completes is assessed on-site, addressed at the structural level, and welded to last — not patched to get through the next few months.
Every Residential Project Includes:
- On-site assessment before any work begins
- Honest diagnosis — root cause not just the symptom
- Fully self-powered setup — no access to your electricity
- Structural repair — built to last not patched to hold
- Clear estimate before work starts — no surprise charges
- Austin · Westlake Hills · Tarrytown · Lakeway · Barton Hills · Circle C Ranch · Round Rock · Cedar Park · Leander · Georgetown · Pflugerville · Buda · Kyle · Dripping Springs · Bee Cave · Spicewood · Liberty Hill · Hutto · Manor
New to Austin. Not New to the Work.
Proud Steel is a new Austin business. We do not have fifty Google reviews yet. We are not going to pretend otherwise.What we have is twenty years of welding experience, a five-step process built on site assessment and honest pricing, and an owner who personally oversees every project from first conversation to final walk-through.We are building our reputation one installation at a time. Every client we take on right now is an early Proud Steel client — and that means you get Richard's full attention on your project without exception.If your installation meets the standard we have set for every project — and it will — we will ask you to share your experience on Google. Not as a formality. Because the next Austin homeowner, builder, or property manager doing this research deserves to know what working with Proud Steel is actually like.
