Fence Design & Specification
Deciding what is going in, and writing it down properly, before anybody is asked to price it.
Why people bring this to somebody outside
Most fencing in New Zealand is specified by the person who is going to build it, in the ten minutes they spend walking the line with a quote pad. That is not laziness. It is how quoting works, and on a small job it is usually fine. On anything larger it means the fence you end up with is the fence that contractor builds most often, at the spacing they always use, out of whatever they have in the yard.
I start from the other end. What has to be contained or excluded, what the ground will allow, what plant has to get through the gateways, what the asset has to still be doing in twenty years, and what the budget actually is. Then it goes on paper as a plan and a specification, with a materials schedule attached, in a form you can hand to three contractors and get three comparable prices back.
The same discipline applies whether it is a high-security perimeter around a port, a boundary treatment through a residential subdivision, or the laneway and paddock layout for a farm conversion. The details change completely. The question - what is this asset for, and what is the cheapest honest way to make it do that job - does not.
A development platform where the barrier fence was part of the earthworks design rather than something added at the end.
What this covers
Fence design and layout
Where the lines go, and why they go there rather than where the old ones were.
Farm conversion fencing layout and development planning
Staging a conversion so the fencing follows the water, the races and the cashflow instead of fighting them.
Subdivision, paddock and laneway design for new and existing farm developments
Paddock sizes and lane widths set by how the property is actually run, not by a grid drawn on a map.
Preparation of fencing plans and specifications for tender and construction
Documents a contractor can build from and a client can hold them to.
Product selection and specification
Post, wire, mesh, panel and hardware chosen on service life and site conditions, with the reasoning written down.
Rural, commercial, security and residential fencing solutions
Four different problems that get treated as one, and should not be.
Port and high-security perimeter fencing
Perimeters where the specification has to satisfy an operator, an insurer and an auditor as well as a builder.
Value engineering and alternative design options
Priced alternatives, so a decision to spend less is a decision rather than an accident.
Who this is for
- Corporate and investor owners buying rural land who need the fencing scoped before settlement
- Developers and civil contractors who need a boundary treatment specified for consent and for tender
- Ports, utilities and industrial sites replacing a perimeter that has reached the end of its life
- Farm owners and managers planning a conversion, a subdivision or a laneway network
What you get
- A fencing plan showing every line, gateway and change of type
- A written specification covering materials, spacings, assemblies and workmanship
- A materials schedule you can price, or hand out to be priced
- Priced alternatives where there is a genuine choice to be made
Costed and agreed before I start, never after. A phone call about a straightforward question is usually free.
Often taken together with
Quantity Surveying & Cost Planning
What the fencing should cost, worked out from the job rather than from last year plus ten per cent.
Read more →Tender & Procurement Services
Getting the job to market properly, so the prices that come back can be compared and relied on.
Read more →Compliance & Standards
Which rules actually apply to this fence, and whether what is proposed will satisfy them.
Read more →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.
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.