Find a trusted fencer in Newcastle

Salt air, wind and sloping blocks

Fences close to the coast have a harder life. In Stockton, Merewether, Redhead and Swansea, salt spray attacks steel sheeting, screws and post bases, and cheaper products can start to rust well before their time. Ask your fencer which steel finish suits your distance from the surf, whether the manufacturer’s warranty covers your address, and whether they use galvanised or stainless fixings.

Wind is the other local test. East coast lows flatten plenty of tired paling fences, usually because the posts have rotted at ground level or were never set deep enough. Steel posts, or well-treated timber set in concrete footings, make a big difference, and steel won’t feed termites. On sloping blocks around Charlestown, Kotara or Merewether Heights, panels need to step down the hill, with plinths to close the gaps underneath. If the fence will sit on top of a retaining wall, sort the wall out first.

Bushfire-prone land and pool fences

Blocks on the edge of bushland, near Blackbutt Reserve, Glenrock or the Watagans, may be mapped as bushfire-prone by council. On those blocks, NSW planning rules can require fencing close to the house to be non-combustible, which usually means steel rather than timber. Check the map before you choose materials.

Pool fences have their own rules. In NSW, pool barriers must meet the Swimming Pools Act and the Australian Standard, with self-closing, self-latching gates and nothing climbable close to the outside of the fence. Pool properties also need the right certificate before they’re sold or leased in NSW, so a lot of local fencing work is bringing older pool fences up to standard before a sale or a new lease. A good pool fencer will know what the certifier looks for.

NSW licence check for fencers

Once a home fencing or gate job tops $5,000 (labour, materials and GST all in), the fencer needs a Building Commission NSW contractor licence in fencing, whatever the fence is made of. A long boundary run can easily go over that figure, so look your fencer up on the Verify NSW licence check before paying a deposit. Our NSW licence checks page explains how.

Fencing costs and splitting the bill

Newcastle fencers tend to quote a little lower than Sydney ones. Expect around $100–$200 a metre, supplied and installed, for a standard 1.8 m fence in Colorbond or treated pine palings, which puts a 30 m Colorbond back fence at roughly $3,600–$6,000 before any sharing. Hardwood runs about $150–$250 per metre, aluminium pool fencing $150–$300 and glass pool fencing $350–$800. Removing the old fence, rock and slopes can add to the price.

The NSW Dividing Fences Act generally splits the cost of a sufficient boundary fence between the two neighbours. Give your neighbour a written fencing notice with the type of fence and the quote before work starts. Stuck? Community Justice Centres run free mediation between neighbours, and if that fails, either of you can ask the Local Court or NCAT to decide. The fencing price guide has more on costs.

How needatradie finds your fencer

No list of fencing companies to work through, and no flood of calls. Give us a rough length, the material you like and your suburb, and we’ll put one local fencer in touch, once we’ve confirmed their licence, insurance, ABN and track record.

Building elsewhere? See fencers in other cities, or the other trades we match in Newcastle. Got the measurements handy? Get a free quote.