Fence Installation in Sydney: How the Job Actually Runs

Fencing is a trade where the visible part is the easy part. Panels go up quickly. What decides whether a fence is still straight and tight in fifteen years is everything that happens before and beneath them. Here is how a fence installation actually runs on a Sydney block, and where the decisions that matter get made.

Start with the boundary, not the fence

A dividing fence should sit on the boundary. The complication is that the boundary is rarely exactly where the old fence is. Fences get replaced in the same trench for decades, and each rebuild can wander a little. On older subdivisions through the Inner West, St George and the Sutherland Shire it is common to find an existing fence sitting a few hundred millimetres off the true line.

For most straightforward replacements that does not matter, because both owners are happy to rebuild on the existing line. It starts to matter when a fence is going in where there was none, when a new structure such as a carport or pool sits close to the boundary, or when either neighbour has reason to dispute the line. In those cases a registered surveyor is the only way to establish the boundary properly, and paying for one is far cheaper than moving a finished fence.

The neighbour conversation, and who pays

In NSW, dividing fences are covered by the Dividing Fences Act 1991. In general terms, adjoining owners share the cost of a sufficient dividing fence, and the practical sequence is: talk to the neighbour first, agree on the work, then book it. A fence built without that conversation can leave one owner carrying the whole cost even where a share would otherwise have been recoverable.

Two points are worth knowing. If one owner wants something above a sufficient standard, such as a taller or more expensive fence, the extra is usually theirs to fund. And if your neighbour is a tenant rather than the owner, the conversation has to reach the owner or the managing agent to count for anything. This is general information rather than legal advice, and NSW Fair Trading and your local council are the places to confirm specifics.

Access is the biggest variable in the price

Two identical 30-metre Colorbond fences can differ substantially in price purely because of how materials and spoil move. Access is the single most underestimated cost driver in fencing.

• Side access width decides whether panels, posts, concrete and an auger can be wheeled in or have to be carried by hand.

• Rear-lane and no-side-access blocks, common through Balmain, Erskineville and parts of Paddington, can mean every post and bag comes through the house or over a neighbour's yard.

• Resident parking and narrow streets add time before the first post is set, and on some jobs an early start is the only workable answer.

• Established gardens, paving, air conditioning units and pool equipment along the line all slow the run and sometimes need protection or temporary removal.

• Rock. On sandstone country through the Shire, St George and the Eastern Suburbs, footings can go from a quick auger hole to coring, which is a different rate and often a different day.

None of this is a reason to hide the site from a contractor. It is a reason to have them walk the actual line before quoting, so the number that comes back is the number that gets invoiced.

What a proper site measure covers

A measure that records only total length is not a measure. It should capture the run and every change of direction, the fall of the ground along the line and whether the fence will step or rake, the gate openings and their swing, where services run, whether existing structures or trees sit on the line, and where the old fence goes when it comes out. A contractor who spends ten minutes doing that is the one whose quote is least likely to move later.

Removing the old fence

Removal is real work and real money, and it is where quotes most often diverge. A paling fence with timber posts in shallow concrete comes out quickly. Steel posts in deep footings, a fence with masonry at the base, or a fence with a garden built hard against it, do not.

Two things are worth settling in writing: who disposes of the old material, and what happens to the yard in between. Where the fence comes out and goes back the same day, the gap is not an issue. On a longer run, or where a dog or a pool is involved, temporary fencing needs to be part of the plan rather than an afterthought. If the fence forms part of a pool barrier, the pool cannot be left unenclosed, and that is a compliance matter rather than a convenience one.

Footings: where installations are won or lost

Almost every leaning fence in Sydney is a footing problem, not a panel problem. Post depth and footing diameter have to suit the soil and the fence height, and Sydney soils vary enormously over short distances: reactive clay through parts of Canterbury-Bankstown that shrinks and swells with the seasons, sandstone shelf across the Shire and the Eastern Suburbs, and filled or loose ground on old subdivisions and along creek lines.

A taller fence is a bigger sail and needs more footing, not the same footing. Gate posts and end posts carry the most load of anything in the line and should be upsized and set deeper. Ask what depth is being used and whether concrete is included, and be sceptical of a quote that is cheap because the holes are shallow: that saving is repaid with interest in about five years.

Sloping sites: stepped or raked

Very few Sydney yards are flat. Where the ground falls along the fence line there are two approaches. A stepped fence keeps each panel level and drops in increments, which suits Colorbond and panel systems and leaves triangular gaps at the bottom that can be closed with a plinth. A raked fence follows the ground continuously, which suits timber paling and picket construction and leaves no gaps but costs more in labour.

Two knock-on effects are worth knowing before the day. On a slope, fence height is measured from finished ground level at each point, so a fence that reads 1.8m at the top of the run can be well over 2m at the bottom, which matters where a council height limit or a pool barrier is in play. And where the fall is severe enough, a retaining wall may need to come first, which changes both the sequence and the budget.

What installation day looks like

A typical residential replacement runs as: set out and confirm the line, remove the old fence, dig or core the post holes, set and concrete the posts and let them go off, then fix rails and panels or palings, then hang gates and adjust hardware. On most suburban jobs that is one to three days, sometimes split across two visits so footings can cure before panels go on. Rain, rock and access are the three things that move that schedule, and a contractor who says so upfront is being accurate rather than pessimistic.

What a complete installation quote includes

• Total length, fence height, material and profile, stated as measurements

• Post type, spacing, footing depth and diameter, and whether concrete is included

• Whether the fence steps or rakes, and how any gaps at the base are closed

• Removal and disposal of the existing fence, and temporary fencing if it is needed

• Gate sizes, hardware, and whether gate posts are upsized and set deeper

• Who is responsible for confirming the boundary, and whether a survey is assumed

• What happens if rock is hit, stated as a rate rather than left open

• Site protection, clean-up, and who removes the spoil

A Cut Above Landscaping & Carpentry installs fencing across the Sutherland Shire, St George, Canterbury-Bankstown, the Inner West, the Eastern Suburbs and the wider Sydney area, working under NSW Contractor Licence 484384C in Structural Landscaping from a base in Miranda. For a site measure on your own boundary, get in touch, see the full range of fencing services, or check the areas we service.

Also worth reading: what drives fencing costs in Sydney, when to replace a fence instead of repairing it, picket fencing in Sydney, and retaining walls in Sydney.

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Read next: installing a fence on a slope. If a driveway opening is part of the job, our guide to Colorbond driveway gates covers what to settle before anything is ordered. Also worth reading: how long fence replacement takes in Sydney.

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