DIY vs professional fencing in Pakenham.
We are a fencing contractor telling you when to not hire a fencing contractor. Real 30 metre numbers, the three things that catch DIY fencers out on Cardinia clay, and the two jobs you should never attempt yourself.
The real saving on a 30 metre Colorbond run.
Nobody in this trade wants to publish this table, which is exactly why we are going to. Take the most common job we quote in Pakenham: a straight 30 metre rear boundary, 1.8m Colorbond, flat block, old treated pine fence coming out. Thirteen posts at 2.4m centres.
Doing it yourself. The Colorbond kit supply-only through a trade yard in Pakenham or Officer runs about $55-75 per metre for posts, rails, sheets and capping, so $1,650 to $2,250. Concrete is the number people forget: thirteen holes at 750mm deep and 300mm diameter is roughly 0.69 cubic metres, which is about 69 twenty-kilo bags at $9-11 each, so $620 to $760. A petrol auger from a hire shop is $90-140 a day and you will want it for two. A 4.5 cubic metre skip for the old fence is $380-450. Add a string line, a spirit level you can trust, post props, and the two tanks of fuel you burn driving to the yard three times. Call it $2,900 to $3,700, and 3-4 weekends.
Having it installed. Thirty metres of Colorbond at our published $120-180 per metre is $3,600 to $5,400, plus demolition and disposal at $25-45 per metre, which is $750 to $1,350. All up $4,350 to $6,750, done in a day. Ask for the workmanship warranty and the public liability certificate.
So the honest saving is roughly $1,400 to $3,000. That is a genuine number and for some people it is worth having. What it buys you is the right to spend most of a month of weekends doing something you have not done before, on soil that is less forgiving than it looks, with no comeback if it moves. Whether that trade is good value is your call, not ours. What we can do is tell you exactly where those weekends tend to go wrong.
The three things that catch DIY fencers out here.
One: post depth, because the hire auger decides it for you. Nearly every hire-shop auger in the south east comes with a 600mm flight. So the hole is 600mm, because that is what the tool does. On a sheltered infill block in central Pakenham that can be adequate. On the exposed paddock estates it is not. Under AS 4055, most blocks in Cardinia Lakes, Heritage Springs and the Officer fringe classify at N3, which is a 50m/s peak gust design wind speed, and some fringe lots rate N4 at 61m/s. Load on a 1.8m sheet scales with the square of wind speed, so an N3 site is carrying well over half again the load a sheltered N2 site sees. We go to 750mm as a minimum and 900mm on runs that sit broadside to the prevailing south-westerly. There is a whole page on Colorbond post depth on Pakenham paddock blocks if you want the reasoning in full. If you are doing this yourself, hire the auger with the extension.
Two: concrete bond in reactive clay. The clay belt through Officer and the southern edge of Pakenham is the same geology that drives AS 2870 footing classifications on every house slab out here, and most corridor lots come back H1 or H2. That clay does something specific to a fence footing. Augered wet, the hole wall glazes to a smooth skin and the concrete plug never keys into the surrounding soil, so it slips under wind load even though the concrete itself is perfect. The fix is not more concrete. It is slightly under-sizing the bore, chipping the walls to give the plug something to grab, and letting the hole air for half an hour before you pour. Nobody tells DIY fencers this because it is not written on the bag.
Three: set-out. This is the quiet one. If post one is 30mm off the string, post thirteen is 200mm off, the run reads bent from the back deck, and Colorbond capping will not disguise it. Professional set-out means the string is pulled from the title pegs, not the old fence, because the old fence has moved. On a shared boundary that matters legally as well as visually.
When DIY genuinely makes sense, and the two jobs it never does.
We will say it plainly. DIY makes good sense on a short internal run that is not a boundary: a courtyard divider, a bin screen, a 6-8 metre side return between the house and the garage, a dog yard inside your own line. Nobody else is affected, the consequence of it moving is that you re-plumb a post one Saturday, and the money you save is a real percentage of a small job. It also makes sense on rural mesh at $45-90 per metre where the margin for us is thin anyway and the tolerance for a slightly wavy line is high. If you have got a paddock boundary out toward Nar Nar Goon and a spare fortnight, have at it.
Never DIY a pool barrier. Not because we want the job, but because you cannot certify your own work and the failure mode is a drowned child. Every pool and spa in Cardinia Shire has to be registered with Council and inspected against AS 1926.1 by a registered building surveyor or inspector, and re-certified every four years. The tolerances are tight and unintuitive: 1200mm minimum height, maximum 100mm gap beneath, nothing climbable inside the 900mm non-climbable zone, gate self-closing and self-latching from any position including 10mm ajar. Our page on AS 1926.1 pool barriers in Pakenham walks the clearances. Failed DIY barriers are the most common call-out we get, and the owner has usually paid twice.
Never DIY anything that retains. The moment a fence holds back soil it is a structure, not a fence, and it needs a VBA-registered practitioner and often engineering. On the sloping blocks around Beaconsfield Upper and the cut-and-fill lots in the newer estates, the line between a fence with a plinth and a retaining wall with a fence on top is thinner than people think, and it is a line Council draws, not you.
One last thing worth knowing before you start. If the fence is a shared boundary, the Fences Act 1968 says the neighbour pays half of a sufficient fence, and their share is calculated on what the fence reasonably costs to build. You cannot invoice your own weekends. So the DIY saving frequently gets eaten by the cost-share you forfeited by not serving a proper Fence Notice with an installed quote attached. Our page on the Fences Act in Pakenham explains the notice process, and we will write you a formal quote for that purpose whether or not you end up using us to build it. That part is free and we do not chase you afterwards.
Areas we fence.
Frequently asked: DIY fencing in Pakenham.
Can I legally build my own fence in Pakenham?
For a standard dividing fence under 2 metres on a flat block, yes. The Building Regulations 2018 do not require a permit for most domestic fences under 2m and there is no licence needed to build on your own land. The exceptions: a pool barrier must comply with AS 1926.1 and be signed off, anything that retains soil is structural and needs a VBA-registered practitioner, a fence over 2m or on a corner splay needs a Cardinia Shire building permit, and a shared dividing fence is governed by the Fences Act 1968 so the neighbour has a legal say. Owner-building does not exempt you from any of it.
How much do I actually save doing a Colorbond fence myself in Pakenham?
On a 30 metre 1.8m run, roughly $1,400 to $3,000. DIY materials land at $2,900-3,700 once you count the kit at $55-75 per metre, about 69 bags of concrete for thirteen 750mm footings, auger hire at $90-140 a day and a skip at $380-450. Installed is $4,350-6,750 including demolition and disposal. The saving is real, but it is 3-4 weekends and you no longer have a warranty.
What goes wrong most often on DIY fences in the Cardinia corridor?
Post depth first, because hire augers carry a 600mm flight and 600mm does not hold an N3 wind classification on the paddock estates. Then concrete bond, because reactive clay glazes when wet and the plug slips. Then set-out, because 30mm of error at the first post is 200mm at the thirteenth. All three surface at year two or three, not at handover.
Can I DIY a pool fence in Pakenham?
You can build it but you cannot certify it. Every barrier in Cardinia Shire must be registered with Council and inspected against AS 1926.1 by a registered building surveyor or inspector, then re-certified every four years. The clearances are unforgiving: 1200mm minimum height, 100mm maximum gap underneath, nothing climbable in the 900mm non-climbable zone, gate self-closing and self-latching from any position. This is the one job we tell people plainly not to attempt.
Does a DIY fence affect the neighbour’s cost-share under the Fences Act?
Yes, usually against you. The Fences Act 1968 has the neighbour contribute half the cost of a sufficient fence, calculated on what the fence reasonably costs, and you cannot bill your own labour. In practice you recover half of materials only. Serve a Fence Notice with an installed contractor quote attached and you recover half of that instead. The DIY saving is often smaller than the cost-share you gave up.
Get the quote first, then decide.
A written quote costs you nothing, and it is the document you need for the neighbour cost-share whichever way you go. Have a look at Colorbond fencing or timber paling first if you are still weighing materials.