Fence repairs Melbourne
Repairs for leaning, broken and storm-damaged fences
Fence repairs across Melbourne: our installers fix leaning posts, broken palings and damaged Colorbond sheets. That often saves replacing the whole fence. We repair timber, Colorbond, cyclone and farm fences across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
- Your quote is free and comes in writing
- Our installers are insured
- We replace posts, rails, palings and sheets
Get a free fence repair quote
We've ticked Fence Repairs for you. Add your suburb and what's broken on the next step.
How it works
How getting a fence repaired works
Tell us what's wrong
In the box that asks "Anything else we should know?", describe the damage, like a section that leans, a snapped post or a sheet blown out.
We look at it if needed
When the damage is hard to judge from a description, we come out to check the posts and the ground.
You get a written quote
It's free and shows what we'll replace, so you can decide in your own time.
We fix your fence
We take out the broken parts and fit new ones in their place. When a job needs a welder or a concreter, we bring one in.
What we repair
Common fence repairs
Tell us which of these you're seeing.
Leaning fences and loose posts
A fence leans when a post rots at ground level or works loose in wet clay. We reset or replace the post and pull the fence back into line.
Broken palings and rails
Palings are the upright boards. Rails are the timbers running between the posts that the palings are nailed to. Both crack and rot where they stay damp, often behind a garden bed or a creeper.
Damaged Colorbond sheets
Sheets dent when something hits them, and strong wind can push a sheet out of its rails or bend the post holding it.
Gates that sag or won't latch
We straighten or replace the hinge post, fit new hinges and rehang the gate so it closes and latches again.
Gates
Saggy cyclone fences
Re-tensioning means pulling the mesh and its wires tight again. We re-tension slack chain wire and replace bent top rails and torn mesh.
Cyclone fencing
Farm fence repairs
We fix slack wire, broken posts and strainers knocked over by stock or a fallen tree. Strainers are the heavy end posts the wire is pulled tight against.
Farm fencing
Timber paling fences
Timber fence repairs
New posts
A snapped post, or one rotten right through, is dug out. Its replacement is set in concrete and the rails are nailed to it. Before we dig, we check Before You Dig Australia's free plans of buried pipes and cables.
Concrete spurs
A concrete spur is a short concrete post set in the ground beside a timber post and bolted to it. It props up a post that's gone soft at the base but is still solid higher up.
Palings
We replace split, warped or missing palings to suit the style of the fence. New pine is paler than the old timber around it at first.
Rails, plinths and capping
A plinth is the board along the bottom of the fence, and capping is the board along the top. When a rail, plinth or capping board rots or splits, it can be replaced on its own.
Steel sheet fences
Colorbond fence repairs
A Colorbond fence is made of sheets, the corrugated steel panels that slot between the posts, held in a top rail and a bottom rail.
A new sheet
The bent or dented sheet slides out of its rails. A new one goes in at the same height and profile, the shape of its ribs.
Rails and posts
A bent rail is replaced. A leaning post is straightened, or replaced and set in new concrete if it has rusted at the base.
Matching the colour
New parts are ordered in your colour from the current Colorbond fencing range. If you know the colour's name, put it in the message box.
Faded sheets
Years of sun can fade a sheet, so a new one in the same colour may look brighter than the old ones beside it. If your colour isn't in the current range, we'll go through the closest options with you.
Repair or replace
Repair or replace your fence?
How much of the fence is damaged, and the state of the posts, usually decide it. We'll say on your quote which makes more sense.
A repair is usually enough when
The damage is in one or two bays
A bay is the stretch of fence between two posts. The bays around it stand straight.
The posts are firm
They don't rock when you push the fence, and the timber isn't soft at ground level.
Parts like yours are still made
Matching palings, sheets and rails are easy to get, so the new parts fit the old fence.
A new fence makes more sense when
Posts are failing all along the fence
Rot or rust at many posts means the fence keeps leaning, however many palings are replaced.
Timber fencingThe repairs keep coming
If something new breaks every few months, that money may be better spent on a new fence.
You're ready for a change
Steel doesn't rot, and a Colorbond fence mostly needs a hose down.
Colorbond fencing
Storm damage
Fence repairs after a storm
We repair fences knocked down by wind and falling branches.
Straight away
Make it safe
Stay well clear of any fallen power lines. Keep kids and pets away from snapped palings, exposed nails and sharp sheet edges.
Before anything is moved
Take photos
Photograph the damage from both sides if you can, and the tree or branch that hit it. Photos and video help support an insurance claim.
Before you book
Talk to your insurer
Speak to your insurer before you authorise any building work, even emergency repairs, and get their OK in writing. The Insurance Council warns that work done without it may not be covered.
Then
Tell your neighbour
After a falling tree, fire or flood, an urgent repair to a shared fence can go ahead without your neighbour's agreement first. To ask them to pay their share afterwards, give them an urgent fencing notice. It's a written note of what the repair cost and why it couldn't wait, sent with the receipt.
Renting?
Tell your rental provider or agent in writing. Serious storm damage counts as an urgent repair, and the rental provider organises and pays for it. We quote for rental providers and agents too.
Shared fences
Repairing a shared fence in Victoria
Most back and side fences are dividing fences, meaning they sit on the boundary and belong to both neighbours. Victoria's Fences Act 1968 sets out who pays for repairs and how you agree on them.
Read the rules
- Section 7
The cost is usually split
Neighbours pay equal shares to repair a dividing fence so it's sufficient, judged by things like the existing fence, how both properties are used and the fences common in your street. You can agree to split it another way.
- Section 9
Damage caused by one side
If an owner, or someone on their land with their OK, damages the fence on purpose or through carelessness, that owner pays the whole cost. A note in the Act lists creepers, soil piled against a fence and clotheslines fixed to it as things that can damage a fence.
- vic.gov.au
Agree before work starts
Get your neighbour's agreement, or follow the fencing notice process, before an ordinary repair starts. If you don't, the Victorian Government says your neighbour isn't legally obliged to pay anything.
- Sections 13 and 19
If you can't agree
A fencing notice is a written proposal for the work and its cost, given to your neighbour. If they haven't replied in 30 days, the work can go ahead. If you're stuck, the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria offers free mediation.
- Victorian Asbestos Hub
Old fibro fences
A fibro (cement sheet) fence from before 1990 may contain asbestos. Don't cut, drill or break it. Have it tested, and if it contains asbestos, the Asbestos Hub says to use a licensed asbestos removalist. Then we can install a new fence.
- Section 3
Retaining walls aren't fences
The Fences Act doesn't count a retaining wall as a fence, so its rules on sharing the cost don't cover a failing wall under a fence.
Pricing
What sets the price of a repair
Your written quote shows the full price of the repair before any work starts.
How much is damaged
The number of posts, bays, palings or sheets that need replacing.
The material
Timber, Colorbond, chain wire or farm wire, and whether new parts have to match an older style.
Posts and concrete
Digging out an old post and the concrete around it takes longer than bolting a spur beside it.
Access and the ground
A narrow side path, rock, tree roots or a branch still lying on the fence all add time.
The broken parts
Old palings, sheets and posts have to go somewhere. We'll confirm on the quote whether we can take them away.
A gate
A gate that needs a new hinge post or hinges adds to the job.
Fence repair questions
Fence repairs FAQs
A repair to one or two bays nearly always costs less than a new fence. If most of the posts are going, ask us to price a repair and a new fence on the same quote, and compare the two.
Often, yes. If the posts are sound, we can reset them straight and firm them up in fresh concrete. If a post has rotted or rusted through, that post gets replaced and the rest of the fence stays.
There's no set repair price, because it depends on how much of the fence is damaged. Price guides online quote figures per paling, per metre and per job, and they rarely line up. Your free written quote prices the actual damage, so that's the figure to compare.
Usually both owners, half each. If one neighbour wants a dearer fence than the two properties need, Victoria Legal Aid says that neighbour usually pays the difference.
It depends on your policy. The Insurance Council says cover for a boundary fence is usually limited to your share of it, such as 50%, and is usually paid in cash.
When a fence is replaced with a similar one, the Fences Act puts the rails and framing on the same side as before. A repair to a few bays leaves the rails where they already are.
Yes. We cover regional Victoria too, including Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Mornington Peninsula.
Free fence repair quotes
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COLORBOND® is a registered trade mark of BlueScope Steel Limited.