Salisbury and the northern suburbs
Colorbond, timber and tubular fencing. Most jobs here are an old fence out and a new one in.
Fencing in Salisbury is mostly replacement work, and we handle it end to end with our own machines. Removal and rebuild happen on the one visit, so your yard is not sitting open for a week. If you are still choosing a material, our guide to Colorbond, timber and other fencing in Adelaide sets out the differences.
This is most of what we do in Salisbury. Plenty of these houses are still on the fence that came with them, and it has done its years. Everything comes up, buried concrete included, and the old posts, footings and spoil go out with us rather than being left behind for you to deal with.
What most Salisbury replacements end up being. Once it is standing there is no upkeep at all, and the coating keeps looking the same year after year.
Palings or post and rail in treated pine. Worth a thought where the street still has timber along most of it and you would rather not be the odd one out.
Steel panels finished in a baked on colour. They go out the front, or between a garden and a lawn, where blocking the view is not the point.
Fences on the line between two properties. Because the bill is usually split, we set the quote out so it reads clearly to both households.
Widths worked out around whatever has to pass through, whether that is a wheelie bin, a boat or just the lawnmower. Gate posts get upsized so nothing sags.
Under these yards there is old footing concrete, brick rubble and roots from trees that have stood for decades. The auger runs off the same machines we use for excavation, trenching and drainage, so a stubborn hole is not half a day lost.
Much of Salisbury is post-war and 1950s to 70s housing on generous blocks, a lot of it former Housing Trust stock. Plenty of those fences are still the originals, and they are past their life. What we usually find:
Some of that old cement sheet fencing contains asbestos. It was a normal building material when these homes went up, and a few of those fences are still standing.
We do not touch it. If we think a fence is asbestos, we tell you at the site visit and stop there. It has to come out through a licensed asbestos removalist, and you arrange that before we start. Once the old fence is gone, we come back and put the new one in.
We would rather flag it on day one than have it turn up halfway through the job.
Two things shape a Salisbury fence job. What comes out of the ground with the old posts, and whether a machine can reach the fence line at all.
Pull one of those posts and you can read how it was built. Most of the holes were dug by hand and stopped a spade or two down. The same dirt that came out went back in around the post, tamped with a boot, with no concrete anywhere near it. Steel posts have rusted through in a band right at ground level, where the wet used to sit against them. Timber rails have worked loose at the fixings and dropped off the face, and someone has usually patched a run or two along the way.
These blocks have had decades to fill up. Big gums and fruit trees along the boundary, a shed near the corner, a narrow side path with a rainwater tank on it. That changes how we work, and it changes the price, so we look at it before we quote.
Where the ground drops away along a boundary, a low retaining wall under the fence is usually the tidier answer. We build those too, so the wall and the fence sit on the one quote. See our retaining walls. A new fence line usually leaves a strip of bare ground behind it, so we can follow up with turf and irrigation or wider backyard landscaping.
Five steps. It starts with a look at what is failing and ends with a straight new line along the boundary.
We come out, measure each side you want done, and note where any gate has to sit.
If the old fence is cement sheet, we flag it and stop. Clearing it is a licensed removalist job, and you arrange that.
The figure comes back split by side, by gate and by disposal, so it is easy to share around.
Sheeting, rails, posts and the lumps of concrete under them get lifted and loaded out.
New holes go down, posts set in concrete and left alone to harden, then panels and gates hung true.
Salisbury sits on our regular run, so it is never a trip out of the way. The gear is kept at Mannum and Waterloo Corner, and the Salisbury and Para Hills side of the north is on the standard list. Anywhere else in greater Adelaide we sort out case by case. The names that come up most:
That list is a sample, not the edge of where we work. Ring 0483 905 611 and we will tell you if your street is in.
We also work further north around Gawler. If your place is up that way, see fencing in Gawler, landscaping in Gawler and paving and driveways in Gawler.
We can build the new fence, but we do not remove asbestos. Cement sheet fencing from that era can contain it. If we think that is what you have, we say so at the site visit and you get a licensed asbestos removalist to take it out. Once the old fence is gone, we come back and put the new one in.
This comes up often, where one side has had enough of a failing fence and the other has not. The first move is to get the work priced, so the conversation is about a real number rather than a guess. Put your plan to them in writing as well. If you still cannot agree, there is a process in South Australia for sorting out dividing fence disagreements, and it is worth finding out where you stand before you spend anything. We stay on the building side of it.
A plain fence along a side or rear boundary usually does not, and that is most of what we put in around here. The rules tighten once you add height, build something across the front near the road, or fence a pool. Those ones are set by the City of Salisbury. We work out which apply to your place while we are there measuring, and we ring the council ourselves if anything looks unclear.
Most single boundaries are a day or two on site. The old fence comes out and the posts go in first, then the concrete needs time to go off before the panels go on. Tight access, long runs and old footings add time. We tell you which of those apply when we quote.
Often yes, and where we cannot we use smaller gear or dig by hand. Older blocks have narrow side paths, sheds and big trees in the way. We check the access at the site visit, so the price you get already allows for it.
Leaning posts, rust along the bottom, palings dropping off. Once a fence is at that point, patching it stops being worth the money. We come out at no charge, look at what is standing, and give you a price to put a new one in.