Fibro fence removal in Traralgon

Spotting a fibro fence in a Traralgon yard

Two kinds turn up. The first is flat cement panels set in a timber or steel frame, often with a moulded cap running along the top. The second is corrugated sheet, the same wide profile as a super six roof, standing on its own with the sheets overlapping. In our reading of the town's history, both were common boundary fencing through the decades when APM, the Housing Commission and the Loy Yang building boom were filling Traralgon's streets.

Age gives it away. A fifty-year-old sheet goes chalky where the paint has worn back, grows lichen on the shady side, and chips at the bottom edge where the whipper snipper has been at it. Modern fibre cement fencing looks similar when new, which is why a sample test is worth it if the fence could be either. See testing and inspection.

Until you know, leave it alone. Don't drill it to hang a privacy screen, don't cut a post out with a grinder, don't pressure-wash it before painting. Those are the moments old sheet sheds fibres.

Measuring the fence the way a removalist does

Length times height gives the square metres, and that number decides more than the price. At 1.8 metres high, a fence passes 10 square metres after about five and a half metres of run. So nearly every real side or back fence is over the line, which means:

• WorkSafe gets the longer, five-day written notice before the crew starts.
• An independent inspector checks the site afterwards and issues a clearance certificate.

Worked example: a 12 metre side fence at 1.8 metres is 21.6 square metres. A 20 metre back fence at the same height is 36.

What happens on the day

Expect the crew in disposable coveralls and fitted respirators. They tape off the work area and put up asbestos signs, which keeps kids, dogs and the neighbours clear. A hose on a gentle mist keeps the sheets damp the whole time; a pressure washer has no place here.

Fixings come out by hand, and each panel is lifted out in one piece where it'll allow. Broken panels are wrapped as they are, not snapped down to size. Everything goes into two layers of heavy 0.2 millimetre plastic, taped and labelled, before it leaves the taped area. Then the crew works along the fence line picking up the chips and flakes that decades of mowing have knocked into the grass, with a special vacuum rather than a broom.

Posts and rails either stay for your fencer or go with the sheets, depending on what's going up next. Say which at the quote. The paperwork either side of the day, from the WorkSafe notice to the record of where the load went, is set out once on the services page.

Splitting the cost with next door

Victoria's Fences Act counts pulling down an old dividing fence as fencing works, the same as putting up the new one. Neighbours are generally liable for equal shares of a sufficient dividing fence, but only if the right steps come first.

The step that matters is a written fencing notice under section 13. It sets out the boundary, the work proposed including removing the old fence, who you plan to use, the estimated cost and how you worked it out, the split you're proposing, and a line saying either of you can go to the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria. The state's fencing guidance gives the neighbour 30 days to respond. Start without agreement or the proper process, and the neighbour doesn't have to pay anything.

If you want something taller or fancier than a sufficient fence, the extra is yours. No official source says outright that licensed asbestos removal costs are shareable, so if your neighbour argues it, the Dispute Settlement Centre is where that gets sorted. A written quote with disposal and clearance itemised makes the conversation easier.

There's one exception to the notice rule. If a fence has been wrecked by a falling tree, fire or flood and you can't practically give notice first, the Act allows urgent fencing works. It's exactly the situation a flood like the Traralgon Creek flood of June 2021 leaves behind.

Where the money goes on a fence

A short fence often lands on the minimum call-out rather than the square-metre rate, because the notice, the plastic and the tip run cost the same however few panels there are. Beyond the length, the things that shift it: sheet so weathered that it crumbles under hand pressure, which makes it friable and Class A work; a frame you want gone as well; tight access down a driveway; and the clearance. The cost guide has the published ranges and a worked side-fence example. The new fence is a separate quote from a fencer.

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