How we install fencing across Geelong and the Bellarine, from site prep and concrete footings through to the last panel. Worth knowing the process before you book your free quote.
In short: Fence installation in Geelong needs poured concrete footings, not dry-mix, because Greater Geelong sits on reactive expansive clay (Class M to H under AS 2870). Every Drysdale Fencing job covers site measure, post-hole digging, wet-poured footings at the right depth, panel or paling install, and full clean-up. A typical residential run is a day on site. Free on-site quotes: call 0485 577 980.
On paper, installing a fence is simple. Posts in, panels on, done. The part nobody photographs is the part that decides whether your fence is still standing straight in twenty years: what's holding the posts. Greater Geelong is built on reactive clay, and that clay is the whole problem. It swells up in winter and shrinks back in summer, and it'll shove a post around while it does. Tip a bag of dry cement into the hole, and that post leans within a few seasons. We've pulled out plenty that did.
Concrete mixed wet and poured around the post fights that movement instead of giving in to it. Depth carries the rest of the load. A standard 1.8m residential fence usually wants posts down 600–750mm in Geelong clay, and we'll go deeper on a slope or where the ground's especially reactive.
Below: how we run an install, what's actually in a Drysdale Fencing quote (and what isn't), what moves your timeframe, and which materials suit which blocks across Geelong and the Bellarine.
Same four steps every time, whether it's 15 metres of paling or a 60-metre Colorbond run.
We visit your property to measure the run, assess terrain and access, identify any underground services (Dial Before You Dig), and confirm boundary alignment. You receive an itemised written quote.
On installation day we clear the fence line, mark post positions, and set up access. If an existing fence requires removal, we do this before digging begins and remove all material from site.
We machine-auger the holes to the right depth for your soil class, set each post to height, plumb it, then pour wet concrete around it and let it cure. On reactive clay, that's usually 600–750mm deep for a standard 1.8m fence.
Rails are fitted between posts, then Colorbond panels, timber palings, tubular sections, or other materials are installed. Gate hardware, caps, and any automation components are fitted last. We leave the site clean and tidy.
Much of the residential land across the Bellarine, Leopold, Clifton Springs, and the central Geelong suburbs sits on Quaternary clay, classified Class M (moderately reactive) up to Class H (highly reactive) under AS 2870. Those classes rank one thing: how far the ground moves as it wets up and dries out.
Here's what that means for a fence. Set a post too shallow, or in dry-mix, and it'll walk when the clay swells in winter and pulls back in summer. Give it two or three seasons. The post leans, the line goes out of level, gates stop latching, and panels start to buckle along the run. We get called out to fix exactly that, constantly.
We set posts in poured concrete at the depth your block's soil actually calls for:
Here's the difference that shows up five and ten years down the track: we never nail rails or plinths in. Every rail and every plinth board is fixed to the posts with large-gauge galvanised (Class 3) bugle batten screws, driven up tight.
Nails work loose. Timber moves with the seasons, the ground shifts on Geelong's reactive clay, and a nailed rail slowly pulls away from the post until the run starts to sag and gap. A screwed rail doesn't budge. The only place we use nails at all is fixing the palings to the rails — everything structural is screwed tight.
It costs us more time per fence. It's also the single biggest reason our fences are still standing straight long after a quick-nailed job has started to lean.
Get a Free On-Site Quote
Our written quotes break out every component so you know exactly what you're paying for.
Removal of existing fencing sits as its own line item. We confirm whether you actually need it at the site visit, and it never appears on the bill without you knowing it's there.
We build them all to the same standard. What you pick really comes down to how much privacy you want, the look you're after, and your budget.
BlueScope steel panels, termite-proof and low maintenance. From $75–$120/m installed. The most popular choice for full privacy boundaries in Geelong.
Hardwood posts with pine or hardwood palings. Paling, lapped and capped, picket — classic residential styles. From approximately $60–$110/m installed.
Powder-coated aluminium for pool surrounds, front boundaries, and garden enclosures. Fully corrosion-resistant for coastal Bellarine properties.
Powder-coated steel tubular panels for security fencing, rear boundaries, and pool barriers. Stronger than aluminium with a lower material cost.
Frameless glass, semi-frameless, and tubular pool barriers installed to Victorian Building Regulations compliance requirements.
Pedestrian and driveway gates in matching materials — manual or automated. Motor, remote, and intercom systems available.
