Fencing advice from someone with no fence to sell you
I am Nick Terry. I am a certified fencer who has spent a working lifetime building the things other people only specify, and I now do that part on its own - designing and costing fencing, writing the tender documents, inspecting the work, and giving an independent opinion when a job or a boundary has ended up in dispute. Anywhere in the country.
Everyone else you can ask has a fence to sell you
That is not a criticism of fencing contractors. I am one, and have been for a long time. It is just how the trade works: you describe a job, three people price it, and every answer you get back is shaped by what that business builds, what is in their yard, and what they are set up to do quickly.
So the questions that actually decide whether an asset lasts twenty years or five rarely get asked out loud. Is this the right system for these conditions? Is the spacing set by the ground or by habit? What is missing from the cheapest tender, and is that why it is the cheapest? Has anyone costed what this will need in year twelve?
Custom Fence Consulting is those questions answered on your side of the table. I am paid for the advice, not for the work that follows it, which means I have no reason to recommend more than you need and no reason to be diplomatic about a proposal that has left something out.
If the honest answer is that your tender is sound and you should get on with it, that is the answer you get. It happens often, and it is still worth knowing.
Boundary fencing and retaining built together on a new subdivision. Two trades, one interface, and the place where the cost usually escapes.
Twelve areas of work
Some of it is an hour on the phone. Some of it is a tender package, a condition survey across a portfolio, or an expert report for a dispute. Take whichever parts you need.
What usually prompts someone to ring
Different sectors, different budgets, same shape of problem: a decision that has to be made, and nobody involved who is genuinely disinterested.
It has ended up in an argument
A contractor and an owner who cannot agree on standard or value. Two neighbours and a boundary fence. An insurer who needs to know what the damage really is. What is missing is not goodwill, it is an agreed source of truth - somebody competent who is not on either side.
Dispute resolution →A company has bought a farm
An organisation that now owns several thousand hectares of fencing it has never seen, with a manager on the ground and a board that has to approve the spend. What is the fencing liability, what has to be done first, and what should the new development actually cost?
Asset management →It has to be specified properly
A perimeter that has to satisfy an operator, an insurer and an auditor. A council with no fencing standard, procuring the same thing differently every time. Somebody has to write it down once, and it should not be the contractor who is going to price it.
Councils & large organisations →The numbers do not agree
Three tenders thousands apart, or a feasibility with a fencing figure in it that nobody can defend. Usually nobody is being expensive - they have priced three different fences, and the cheapest is cheapest because of what it left out.
Cost planning →Nobody has written it down
The job is about to go ahead on the strength of a conversation and a walk down the line. A specification, a plan and a materials schedule take a fraction of the contract value and turn three guesses into three comparable prices.
Design & specification →Nobody is checking it
A strainer that is not deep enough looks exactly like one that is. Almost everything that later goes wrong with a fence is invisible by the time the job is finished, which is why inspection has to happen during the work rather than after it.
QA & inspections →Eleven sectors, one question
A port perimeter and a paddock subdivision have nothing in common except the thing that matters: somebody has to decide what the asset is for, and what the cheapest honest way to make it do that job is.
Paid for the advice, not for the work that follows
I am a certified fencer and I also own a fencing contracting business. That is stated up front rather than buried, because it is the first thing anybody sensible wants to know about an independent adviser.
The rule is simple and it does not bend. If I am advising you, my contracting company is not tendering for your job. You can have my advice or you can have my crew, and you cannot have both on the same project, because the moment you could the advice stops being worth anything. If you would rather have the fence built than the question answered, I will say so and point you elsewhere.
It works the same way in a dispute. I give the same finding whichever party is paying for the assessment, and if your position is the weaker one you will hear that from me first.
The contracting business is Custom Fencing Ltd, which is where the experience behind all of this comes from - and it is disclosed here so that you can check it rather than discover it.
FCANZ Certified Fencer. The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand assesses fencers against a practical standard that has to be maintained rather than earned once. The reason it matters here: the advice comes from somebody who still has to go out and build to the standard he is describing.
Straightforward, and it starts with a phone call
There is no retainer and no minimum engagement. Plenty of it never gets past step one, and that is fine.
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Tell me the situation
Ring me or send the form. What the project or the problem is, roughly what scale, and where you have got to so far. If there are tenders, drawings or photographs, send them through.
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I tell you whether you need me
Sometimes the answer takes ten minutes on the phone and costs nothing. If it needs a site visit, a report or a document set, I will tell you what that involves and what it costs before I start any of it.
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You get something you can act on
A specification you can put out to tender, a costed renewal programme, an inspection report, or a written finding you can put in front of the other party. Something with evidence in it, not a conversation you have to remember.
Before you ring
What does it cost?
It depends entirely on what is involved, so I give you a figure before I start rather than after. A phone call about a straightforward question is usually free. A site visit, a specification, a tender package, a condition survey or a written report is quoted up front as a fixed price once I know the scale of it.
Where in New Zealand do you work?
Anywhere in the country. I am based at Waikouaiti in East Otago, but this is a consultancy rather than a crew and a truck, so travel is a line item rather than a limit. Desk work - reviewing a tender, checking a specification, giving an opinion on photographs and a contract - can start the day you send it, wherever you are.
Are you going to recommend your own contracting company?
No, and the rule does not bend. I own a fencing contracting business, which is stated openly on this site because you should know it. If I am advising you, that company is not tendering for your job. You can have the advice or you can have the crew, not both on the same project, because the moment you could the advice would be worth nothing.
Can you help with a boundary fence dispute with a neighbour?
Yes, and it is a large part of the work. I can assess what has been built, say whether it meets a reasonable standard, and put a fair cost on the fence and on each party's share - which is usually what the argument is really about. What I do not do is give legal advice: the Fencing Act 1978 governs how neighbours share boundary fence costs in New Zealand, and questions about notices and liability belong with a lawyer.
Will you work for either side in a dispute?
Yes. I take instructions from owners, from contractors and from insurers, and the finding is the same either way - the assessment is of the fence and the contract, not of who is paying for it. If your position is the weaker one, you will hear that from me first, which is nearly always cheaper than hearing it later.
We are buying rural land. Can you look at the fencing before we settle?
That is one of the most useful times to get me involved. A condition assessment across the property tells you what you are actually inheriting, what has to be spent in the first three years, and what the whole renewal programme is worth - which is a number that belongs in the purchase decision rather than the first budget round afterwards.
Tell me what you are trying to work out
Most people get in touch because they have a decision to make and nobody independent to check it with - a tender that does not add up, a fence line that keeps failing, a dispute that has stopped moving, or a property they are about to buy. Describe the situation and I will tell you honestly whether it needs me, and what it would take.
021 614 100- nick@customfenceconsulting.co.nz
- 130 Edinburgh Street, Waikouaiti 9510, Otago
- Monday to Friday, 7am - 5.30pm
Based at Waikouaiti in East Otago and working throughout New Zealand. Site work anywhere in the country; desk work - a tender review, a specification, an opinion on a set of photographs - can start the day you send it.