To what standard of work should be expected from a fencing contractor?

Hi all. Not sure if this is the right place for this post but here goes.
Out of curiosity to what standard would you as a paying customer expect from a fencing contractor?
My reason for asking is yesterday I passed this field that had some proper kit 3 big tractors with Parmitter drivers on the 3pt linkage. On way back from work passing said fields I noticed how shockingly sh:t there work was. Half the posts were put in so p:seed I couldn't belive they could expect to get paid for the job. Admittedly I was impressed by the amount of fencing they had done in the time given. They were erecting post & stock fencing. I'm unsure from looking at it if this is intended to permanent or tempery but even so surely the quality of work should still be upto standard. There's some civil engineering wrk going on as there were a few mini diggers & bigger 360s around some of the fields doing some big project. The fencing was done by what I assume to be proper fencing contractor by the kit they were using. I'm a fencer by trade, slowly establishing my own fencing business (mainly domestic housing etc) although I have & do agricultural fencing & in process of getting the machinery together to do more agricultural wrk (tractor & post driver etc) As a paying customer even "if" the fence is tempary or perminant too what standard of work would you expect ? Due to lack of funds so for any agricultural fencing I done I've either put the posts in with a hand held post knocker (tube with handles ) or dug holes out by hand with graft & either back filled & consolideded the soil bit by bit as I back fill or dig & concrete each post hole ( mainly for gate posts ) keeping every post true & level. I wouldn't be happy knowing I'd been paid good money for doing such a sh:t job.
What as farmers & paying customers would you expect from a fencing contractor ??
I'm interested to hear if you would be happy to pay for p:seed posts & that don't run in a straight & true line.
Thanks Stu.
 
An old school friend of mine is the son of a fencing contractor. When we started hanging around it wasn't long before they started doing all of our fencing. They work with a 30 year old tracked dumper with a modest sized post hitter attached to it whilst their rivals are running about in 200hp brand new tractors.
When it comes down to it though, they put up a very good fence though and thanks to their track machine, they don't leave a mark.

Three line wires on every fence, line wires lashed onto the net. The wire is tight enough that you could play music on it.
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
Sounds like a temporary fence whilst civil engineering job is being done. It will probably done to a very tight price with a very basic aim of lasting as long as the job takes then rolled up again.
Hardy relevant to proper permanent fencing.
I'd say you are spot on , if there were 3 post drivers there IT was more than a farm fencing job , we have fenced on road jobs and pipeline jobs , pure crap fencing put up as fast as possible at a low price , usually taken up and dumped in a year or two. On the other hand when we are doing permanent fencing ,it has to be straight , all posts level and the wire good and tight with good tidy tie offs on the wire.
 

gav0994

Member
An old school friend of mine is the son of a fencing contractor. When we started hanging around it wasn't long before they started doing all of our fencing. They work with a 30 year old tracked dumper with a modest sized post hitter attached to it whilst their rivals are running about in 200hp brand new tractors.
When it comes down to it though, they put up a very good fence though and thanks to their track machine, they don't leave a mark.

Three line wires on every fence, line wires lashed onto the net. The wire is tight enough that you could play music on it.

If it's Jim you are on about, then I agree wholeheartedly with you. He does a fantastic job and takes pride in his work. His machine is ideal and as you say, leaves next to no marks on the land.
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
I know that just making him aware of the thread
It was us!

Only joking!

I wouldn't worry about standard of work like that they never last to long, we have done a few jobs sorting things out like, braying posts in further than 6 inch, knocking nails in after rails have been tacked on with a nail gun, resetting gates that dint swing, cutting un level post tops on post and rail. We arnt all perfect but bugger me there is some bad workmanship sometimes
 
Having gone past again today I would agree there's some fairly big cival wrk going on. Even so my original post I was trying to say that even IF it's getting taken down I still think the work is very poor. I fully understand about working to tight budgets etc however I still think the job should be done properly especially considering the machinery they have to do it. Top of the range post drivers etc. surely if your doing any job you should at least "try" to do a decent job. I personally wouldn't feel right knowing I'd done such a sh:t job even if it's coming back down. If your going to do a job then do it right. That's only my personal oppinion.
Thanks Stu.
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Having gone past again today I would agree there's some fairly big cival wrk going on. Even so my original post I was trying to say that even IF it's getting taken down I still think the work is very poor. I fully understand about working to tight budgets etc however I still think the job should be done properly especially considering the machinery they have to do it. Top of the range post drivers etc. surely if your doing any job you should at least "try" to do a decent job. I personally wouldn't feel right knowing I'd done such a sh:t job even if it's coming back down. If your going to do a job then do it right. That's only my personal oppinion.
Thanks Stu.
We still put the same standard fence up if it's temporary!
 
ARW has hit the nail on the (excuse the pun) if it was me personally I wouldn't feel right. Every time I drove past those fields I would be thinking how sh:t is that. Like any job surely if your going to do it then do it right, if for no other reason than your own peace of mind. If the buget is so small I would rather walk away from it than put my name to such poor workmanship. Out of interest (never having done any tempary or civil wrk) what sort of price difference would you think there would be on such a job compaired to say erecting the same spec fence permanently for a farmer rather than the civil engineering firm?
Personally if I was pricing similar spec fencing for a customer I would put the price somewhere around £6-00 to £7-00 a metre depending on full spec & length of fencing required. How does this price compair to what people would expect to charge/pay for the same work ?
Look forward to replies.
Thanks Stu.
 
F:ck that I wouldn't even want to do a job if that's the going rate. I'm happy to work for as cheap or even cheaper than most of the fencing firms local to me but I can't see any point in working my arse off for such poor rates.
I fully understand that you have to compete with the competition & prices are very competitive therefore you have to go in low just to get the work but as I'm only just starting out on my own I have to pay more for my materials due to not having the funds or work to justify buying such large quantities therefore my suppliers charge me the normal rate whereas if I was to order a larger quantity of materials I would get them cheaper.
Out of interest assuming you have top of the range driver on a decent size tractor to power it how manny metres per day would you expect to erect?? Personally I have only ever done the odd little bit of agricultural work although I would be happy to do it regularly once I have the machinery so I can compete with the competition.
I've just got a small Kubota tractor with the intention of using it for post driving & other ground care work starting in the spring. My problem is such a small tractor is great for the odd bit of paddock topping etc but having difficulty finding a suitable post driver although I've decided to have auxiliary hydraulics plumbed in so I can run various implements & a post driver from it. Like everything in life it always takes longer than intended to get where I'd like but I'm determined to stick at it I till I get my fencing business where I would like it, even if it takes me a couple of years to get there.
I'm guessing contractors that erect temporary fencing & post & rail etc along new roads etc have to go in cheap per metre & put in as much as possible every day, but at £3/4 per metre you must have to erect a good few metres each day to make any profit.
Thanks for the reply Stu.
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
F:ck that I wouldn't even want to do a job if that's the going rate. I'm happy to work for as cheap or even cheaper than most of the fencing firms local to me but I can't see any point in working my arse off for such poor rates.
I fully understand that you have to compete with the competition & prices are very competitive therefore you have to go in low just to get the work but as I'm only just starting out on my own I have to pay more for my materials due to not having the funds or work to justify buying such large quantities therefore my suppliers charge me the normal rate whereas if I was to order a larger quantity of materials I would get them cheaper.
Out of interest assuming you have top of the range driver on a decent size tractor to power it how manny metres per day would you expect to erect?? Personally I have only ever done the odd little bit of agricultural work although I would be happy to do it regularly once I have the machinery so I can compete with the competition.
I've just got a small Kubota tractor with the intention of using it for post driving & other ground care work starting in the spring. My problem is such a small tractor is great for the odd bit of paddock topping etc but having difficulty finding a suitable post driver although I've decided to have auxiliary hydraulics plumbed in so I can run various implements & a post driver from it. Like everything in life it always takes longer than intended to get where I'd like but I'm determined to stick at it I till I get my fencing business where I would like it, even if it takes me a couple of years to get there.
I'm guessing contractors that erect temporary fencing & post & rail etc along new roads etc have to go in cheap per metre & put in as much as possible every day, but at £3/4 per metre you must have to erect a good few metres each day to make any profit.
Thanks for the reply Stu.
When doing tempory fencing we drive the posts with the 13 t track machine , the digger can move stuff out of the way , break gaps in ditches and do everything , on how much we do a day , when doing 4 bar post and rail with chain link wire we use to average 1000 mt / day on new motorway jobs
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
F:ck that I wouldn't even want to do a job if that's the going rate. I'm happy to work for as cheap or even cheaper than most of the fencing firms local to me but I can't see any point in working my arse off for such poor rates.
I fully understand that you have to compete with the competition & prices are very competitive therefore you have to go in low just to get the work but as I'm only just starting out on my own I have to pay more for my materials due to not having the funds or work to justify buying such large quantities therefore my suppliers charge me the normal rate whereas if I was to order a larger quantity of materials I would get them cheaper.
Out of interest assuming you have top of the range driver on a decent size tractor to power it how manny metres per day would you expect to erect?? Personally I have only ever done the odd little bit of agricultural work although I would be happy to do it regularly once I have the machinery so I can compete with the competition.
I've just got a small Kubota tractor with the intention of using it for post driving & other ground care work starting in the spring. My problem is such a small tractor is great for the odd bit of paddock topping etc but having difficulty finding a suitable post driver although I've decided to have auxiliary hydraulics plumbed in so I can run various implements & a post driver from it. Like everything in life it always takes longer than intended to get where I'd like but I'm determined to stick at it I till I get my fencing business where I would like it, even if it takes me a couple of years to get there.
I'm guessing contractors that erect temporary fencing & post & rail etc along new roads etc have to go in cheap per metre & put in as much as possible every day, but at £3/4 per metre you must have to erect a good few metres each day to make any profit.
Thanks for the reply Stu.

With all the gear, 2 of us, post driver & quickfencer we try and average 200 metres of net + 2x barb a day
post & rail with 4 rails about 150 metres a day
good running we can do more, some jobs you can work all day and only get a few posts in
on big net + 2x barb jobs with 4 staff and two tractors we can knock in up to 800 metres a day and you can wire even more
 
I would love to in a position where I had the equipment to put that amount of fencing in. Although I'm also still happy doing less metres but doing the properly (that's not a pop at contractors working to tight budgets) it's just me. Personally I like to be able to drive past a fence I put in & look at it & think that's a job done well. I can also understand if you've paid a load of cash on machinery it's got to earn it's keep not sit idle half the time.
That's why I went for a small tractor so when I've sorted the implements out for it I can still do a decent job at a fair price without huge overheads etc to worry about.
Thanks Stu
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
I would love to in a position where I had the equipment to put that amount of fencing in. Although I'm also still happy doing less metres but doing the properly (that's not a pop at contractors working to tight budgets) it's just me. Personally I like to be able to drive past a fence I put in & look at it & think that's a job done well. I can also understand if you've paid a load of cash on machinery it's got to earn it's keep not sit idle half the time.
That's why I went for a small tractor so when I've sorted the implements out for it I can still do a decent job at a fair price without huge overheads etc to worry about.
Thanks Stu
The best money out of fencing at the minute is putting up Clipex . It would suit you as a small outfit .
 

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