Fencing Question

cruibin

Hi All,

am looking at getting some new fencing for my back garden, I will have about 20 meters to erect. Has anyone used metal fencing such as colourfence, whats needed to install it? Post depths, concrete filling etc. I hear metal fencing lasts longer but have yet to get any info independant of sites selling it, I would prefer a personal opinion of someone who has used it or had it installed.

Thx
Cruibin

The Sweeper

I have metal panel fencing, but I'm in Australia.

Still - my fences are colourbond, which is a painted steel product that comes in an assortment of colours. Mine is made of panels hung from posts - panels are about 6ft tall x 7ft wide.

It took two blokes about two half days to erect my fence to one side - 53m of fencing down the side of my property. They set a line first, then marked out the post holes. They dug the post holes using a powered post hole digger (like a huge cork screw). They set the fence posts using rapid set concrete. Then they left them harden overnight.

The next day they returned and hung the panels from the posts. It's good fencing - I have the cream across the back the property, and charcoal grey down one side (just happened that way through neighbour's choice of colour). The dark grey looks better - the creams look dirty very quickly.

If you buy gates, make sure they're well made (most steel panel gates are made to order, and different companies make different qualities) - because otherwise they'll be very noisy in a high wind.

Ours comes with a 10 year guarantee, but they'll easily last longer than that - they can be repainted, though you shouldn't need to repaint in the first decade, which is something I loved. They're also the best privacy fencing.

The Sweeper

PS: in terms of fence post depths, depends on your soil:

Rock, dig 300mm, use 1 bag cement per hole (20kg bag)
Clay/Firm Earth, dig 600mm, use 2 Bags per hole (20kg bags)
Sand/Loose Fill, dig 900mm, use 3 Bags per hole (20kg bags

Those are the guides on the colorbond sites themselves, but to be honest I get the impression that different fencers adjust those measurements to suit themselves. We're on clay - one neighbour has a fence that went to 500mm deep and used one bag of cement per hole, but the guy who did ours went to 600mm and used two bags - and you can tell the difference after a few years in terms of how straight the fence stays and how much noise it makes in windy conditions.

cruibin

Thanks for the response, the ten year guarentee and ease of maintainence are a couple of reasons why I'm looking at metal fencing, and I know its popular in austrailia, its quite recently been introduced here. I may bite the bullet though and get the guys to supply and fit and not do it myself.:)

aidanh31

Hi,,,
Regarding your colourfence enquiry.. Chech out www.colourfence.ie ..they have agents covering all of the republic of ireland depending on your location.. The panels are approx. 6" high by 8" long available in 4 colours Green ,Brown , Cream and Blue .. They come with or without lattice panel . prices quoted by the agents include installation. Hope this is of help to you...