WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR OLD FENCE?

So you have ordered a new Colorbond or Timber fence. The date has arrived and the fencer is pulling down your old eyesore. It's served you well and a pang of regret runs through your heart as the barrier that has protected your family for the past twenty years gets cut up and loaded on a truck. As you watch the fencer pushes it over easily and the palings fall off. You wonder why you weren't robbed. Maybe it's because thieves are actually stupid! Or is it that we allow bad news stories to make us think that the world is worse than it is.

The fence is cut into full or half panels depending upon the strength or tenacity of the fencer or removalist. The posts are often redgum and the clients can request to keep them for firewood. If not, they end up as firewood at the tip and the money goes into the pockets of the tip owner.

Modern Treated pine fences usually have the less useable Cypress or Hardwood posts which will be used as firewood in the future I am sure.

The fence is then loaded on to a trailer and taken to a Waste management station where the timber fence is piled up and eventually run through a mulcher. A little larger than the one pictured below, and able to handle the nails and old and hard redgum timber.

The timber chips are then sold as mulch to anyone who needs it. The need for this type of mulch waxes and wanes depending on projects running. During the final stages of building Peninsula link in Melbourne, Victoria. A lot was needed to cover the ground each side of the full length of the new road. As there are no really big infrastructure projects it is getting harder and more expensive to dump old fence panels at a lot of suburban tips. 

The peninsula link project showing the use of mulch.

For more information click here.

https://www.peninsulalink.com.au/Page/Features/Landscaping

So your fence becomes a water retaining and heat stopping barrier to encourage the growth of vegetation along a major highway. Or ends up on other people gardens. 

Contact your local tip if you want mulch.

When should you replace your old fence?

Timber fences are great and can last 30 years if well maintained. However, they are rarely maintained as people regard fences as unimportant as long as they do the job. Some timber fences look great and suddenly they fall over because the post has rotted through. Keeping the ground around a fence as dry as possible can prevent this. Keeping the ground higher around the fence posts stops water pooling and soaking in.

A fence may need replacing long before it falls over and does damage. Yearly inspection before storm season is essential. Physically shaking the fence will expose any weakness in the posts and show any loose palings. Remember replacing the fence long before palings are falling off is essential if there are swimming pools involved. A child can easily push off old palings and get through. Ten minutes with a nail gun will temporarily fix this problem till the fence is replaced. Steel fences are a lot better for around pools as they do not fall to pieces after time and they cannot be climbed easily.

Installing fence sheets

Some people have asked me "How do you re-install sheets quickly and Easily?" I have watched people trying and the invariably try to place the rail over the sheets in one go. This is almost impossible. This will hopefully help you next time you try to put a panel back in that was taken out for access.

a. Leave the rail on top of the posts sitting over one side. This prevents the sheets blowing over, outwards.

b. Next place two of the three sheets at each end of the bay.

c. Next carefully place the middle sheet between the two sheets you previously placed there. The overlap must be correct or the sheets will not sit flush. You may need to refer to the panel near you.

d. This takes some practice and may seem difficult at first. I would recommend doing it on a calm day, no wind. Grab the rail around the center and place the end of the rail onto the corner over the edge of the sheet, push it into the c-channel, this may require some force and manipulation. Fastening it with the screw will make it easier. Once you have done this ease the rail down slowly easing each flute of the sheet into the rail as you lower it.

e. Some manipulation may be required as you get to the edge of each sheet. The sheets may need to be moved sideways each way to allow the rail to be lowered over the sheets. The last bit is the easiest, as long as the rail is not too long.

YOU DID IT!

Fence rakes

Fence rakes are not rakes left leaning against a fence. They are the intermediate panel dividing high parts of the fence from the low part. Low parts of the fence are very important to car and pedestrian safety on our roads and footpaths. Too often I see fences at full height going all the way to the front of a property. This creates problems. Picture a child too young to use the road riding along a footpath. You decide to pop out to the shop and you reverse out your drive way cant see anything coming up the path of course...the inevitable happens. However a fence that is only 900mm high you can view all the way up the footpath and the road.

They are not only for safety but in a community where neighbors like to talk to each other, a low fence keeps the street nice and open and less like a prison community.

Boxing around trees

Many homes in Melbourne are rented properties and so they are sometimes neglected. This means trees that come up as suckers or seedlings grow under or very close to fences, This can shorten fence life spans dramatically. So it is imperative that fence lines and boundaries are kept clear as much as possible. This fence line pictured has too much growth close to it and unless it is chopped back will push against the fence and damage it. In some cases the tree cannot be removed and the fence needs to be built around the offending tree.

The completed box can barely be seen at a glance.