Fencing by the metre, and what that price omits

Fencing quotes in metres because the customer thinks in metres. The material does scale that way, and almost nothing else does.

The hours live in the ground, the corners, the gates and the access, and a rate per metre prices none of them.

Five things move the hours, and length is only one

• The ground. Sand, clay, rock and reactive soil each dig differently, and rock can double a day.
• The slope. A raked or stepped fence needs setting out that a flat run does not.
• Corners and ends. Every corner is a braced post and a setting out decision.
• Gates. A gate is its own small job: posts, hardware, hanging and adjustment.
• Access. A machine that reaches the line saves hours, and a wheelbarrow through a house costs them.

Two hundred metres across an open paddock and two hundred behind four townhouses share a number and nothing else.

Count the posts, because the posts are the job

Panels go up quickly. Holes do not, and the hole count comes from the post spacing, the corners and the gates rather than from the total length.

A quote built from a post count prices the real work. A quote built from a metre rate prices the material and hopes.

Walk the line before quoting anything long

A site visit on a long run pays for itself once. Services, rock, tree roots, retaining and a neighbour's existing fence are all invisible from a map.

Photographs from the walk carry into the quote and settle the variation conversation later, when the ground turns out to be what the photograph showed.

Name what happens underground

Rock, services and fill are the three that stop a fencing job mid morning. A quote that says nothing about them has priced a guess.

The clause is short. A stated depth sits inside the price, and anything deeper carries a named rate. The customer hears about it before the digging continues.

Neighbours change the job more than the ground does

A boundary fence has two owners, and a job agreed with one of them is a job half agreed. The other one can stop it on the morning.

The quote should name the customer, the agreement with the neighbour and whoever pays. A fencing contractor standing between two parties without that in writing is carrying somebody else's dispute.

Record dig time separately from build time

Those two costs move for different reasons, and a single hours figure hides both. Dig time tells you what the ground did and build time tells you what the design did.

After a season the split prices a new suburb accurately, because the soil in it is now a number rather than a rumour.

Removal of the old fence is its own job

Pulling out an existing fence takes hours, fills a trailer and often reveals concrete footings nobody priced.

A separate removal line gives the customer a real choice and protects the quote when the footings turn out to be substantial.

Disposal costs money at the tip, and that fee belongs on the same line rather than inside the build rate.

Weather moves a fencing week more than most trades

Wet ground stops post holes and turns a site into mud. A week with two digging days and three building days survives rain better than five digging days.

Our guide to scheduling around the weather covers the same pattern for a trade that lives on it.

What to change first

• The quote prices posts, corners and gates rather than metres alone
• A long run gets walked before anybody quotes it
• Photographs from that walk travel into the quote
• A named depth sits inside the price, and anything deeper carries a stated rate
• The quote says who agreed the fence and who is paying
• Dig time and build time record separately, per job