Twice a year
Two visits a yearThe standard plan, and the right one for most drawknifed work. Spring and autumn: enough to catch a failing rail long before it matters.
Three schedules
Twice a year, quarterly, or monthly
Most drawknifed locust wants the first one. Barked work and bigger properties want more. We will tell you which you need after we have walked it, and we would rather sell you the cheap one that is right than the expensive one that is not.
Quarterly
Four visits a yearFor barked work, exposed runs and anything doing heavy duty. Barked locust wants replacing in sections every two to five years — this is how you stay ahead of that rather than behind it.
Monthly
Twelve visits a yearLarger properties and big barked installations you want kept immaculate. Effectively a standing groundskeeping arrangement, with the woodwork as the centre of it.
Ask for a figure when we walk the property. It depends on the length of the run, how much of it is barked, and how weathered you are happy to let it get.
What it depends on
What decides the schedule — and the price
Three questions, asked on the walk. Between them they decide both how often we come out and what it costs.
How much there is
A forty-foot garden run and a half-mile of paddock fencing are not the same job. Length of run, number of gates, how spread out it all is, and how much of the property we have to cover to get to it.
What it is made of
Drawknifed black locust needs the least attention of anything we build. Yellow locust needs a little more. Barked work needs the most by a wide margin — and pressure-treated, composite and decking each have their own clock.
How rustic you want it to stay
Some people want it looking the day we left. Others want the grey, the moss and the weathering, and only want us stepping in when something is genuinely failing. That tolerance changes the visit count more than anything else on this list.
Bark on, or bark off
Drawknifing takes the bark off and the softer outer layers with it, down to wood that will not rot in a hurry. It is the reason a locust fence lasts. Some people want the bark left on anyway, for the look, and we will build it that way — but barked work is inferior to barkless in every measure of longevity, and it typically needs sections replaced every two to five years. If that is the look you want, the maintenance plan is how you keep it.
On the same visit
It does not have to stop at the locust
A visit is a visit. Once we are on the property with the truck and the tools, there is no good reason to look at the fence and ignore the deck, the siding and the beds beside it.
If we built it, we will keep it. If somebody else built it, we will still take a look and tell you honestly whether it is worth keeping.
- Locust fencing, rails, gates, arbors and structures
- Board, pressure-treated, chainlink and composite fencing
- Decking, porches and steps — boards, fixings and rails
- Siding, trim and exterior carpentry
- Screening, enclosures and screen doors
- Mulch topped up, beds edged, pavers re-set
- Mowing and seasonal clearing on the same visit
On the day
What a visit actually looks like
No mystery, and no invoice you did not see coming.
01
We walk the whole run
Every post, every rail, every gate — not just the stretch you called about. Most failures are found by somebody who was looking at something else.
02
You hear what we found
What is fine, what will need doing next year, and what is going now. If nothing needs replacing we will tell you that too.
03
Worn sections come out
Replaced before they take a neighbouring section with them, which is the entire economic argument for doing this on a schedule.
04
The next visit is booked
Before we leave. Lake Toxaway is close enough that coming back is not an expedition — which is most of the reason to hire somebody from here.
Already have a fence going grey?
It does not have to be one of ours. Call and we will come and look at it, tell you honestly whether it is worth keeping, and what it would take to keep it.