Planning a fence project through overgrown ground

Who this is for

• Anyone planning new fence through ground that has grown in
• People replacing fence that has disappeared into the growth
• Landowners coordinating a clearing contractor and a fencing contractor

The short answer

Three parties are involved: a surveyor who establishes where the line is, a clearing contractor who opens a working corridor, and a fencing contractor who builds. Each depends on the previous one having finished properly, and a gap between any two costs a mobilisation.

Sequence them deliberately. The surveyor goes first, because everything downstream is built to whatever line is marked. The fencing contractor specifies the corridor, because they are the one who has to work in it.

What changes the answer

• Whether the line has been surveyed, and whether the marks are still findable
• What the fencing contractor needs to work in, which sets the clearing spec
• Whether the fence is being replaced in place or moved
• Whether the neighbour is party to the project
• How much of the line is buildable and how much needs below-grade work first
• Whether both contractors can be scheduled close together

Get the fencing contractor to write the clearing spec

This inverts the order most people use, and it is why fence corridors so often come out wrong.

The clearing contractor does not know what the fencing crew needs to operate in — how much room a driver takes, whether they travel the line or work from one side, how much clearance the wire run needs. The fencing contractor does. Ask them for a cleared width and an overhead height, in numbers, and hand those to the clearing contractor as the specification.

It takes one phone call and it removes the most common cause of a corridor that has to be widened after the fact.

The surveyor comes before either of them

Everything built on this line is built to whatever mark is in the ground, so the mark has to be right before anyone starts.

An old fence is evidence of where somebody once thought the boundary was. Fences get built in the wrong place and rebuilt along the line of the previous error, and a fence that has stood for forty years is not a survey. If the line is not currently marked by someone qualified to mark it, that is the first invoice on this project.

Neither this site nor either contractor can tell you where the line between two properties falls. Building on the wrong one is a legal problem, and it is not something anyone can fix afterwards.

The conversation with the neighbour

Have it before machinery arrives, not after somebody sees a machine on the line.

Say what is being done, how wide, on which side, and roughly when. That short conversation prevents most disputes this kind of work generates, and it frequently produces something useful — a survey they already hold, knowledge of where the pins are, or an interest in sharing the mobilisation because they want the same work.

Where a fence is shared, who pays for what may be governed by state law, a local ordinance, or an existing agreement. That is a question for your county office or an attorney, and it is worth resolving before you commission anything rather than after.

Budgeting the whole project, not the clearing

Landowners routinely price the fence and treat the clearing as an afterthought. On a line that has grown in, the preparatory work can be a substantial share of the total.

The handover between the two contractors

A cleared line and a buildable line are not the same thing, and the difference is where the two trades blame each other.

Agree explicitly what the clearing contractor hands over: corridor cleared to the stated width, overhead cut to the stated height, old material removed, and any obstruction in the post line dealt with or flagged. Put it in the quote as a condition rather than an assumption.

Then get the fencing contractor to walk it before their crew arrives. Ten minutes at that point is cheaper than a crew standing on a line they cannot build.

What to do about big trees on the line

Mature trees standing on a boundary are a separate problem from the corridor, and one worth resolving before either contractor quotes.

They may be tree work rather than clearing, which is a different trade at a different price. They may be shared with the neighbour, which is a legal question. And where a fence has to route around one, the fencing contractor needs to know before they price the line, not when they reach it.

Walk the line and flag every stem above the size your clearing contractor said they will take. That list is what the tree service quotes from.

What drives the cost

Common mistakes

• Commissioning the clearing before anyone has established where the line is
• Letting the clearing contractor guess the corridor width instead of asking the fencing contractor
• Discovering a shared-fence cost question after the work is done
• Scheduling the two trades far enough apart that the corridor grows back in
• Pricing the fence and treating the preparation as a rounding error

Questions to ask a contractor

• What cleared width and overhead height does your crew need to work in?
• What condition do you need the line handed over in before you start?
• Is there old wire in this line, and is removal and disposal in the price?
• Which stems on this line are above what you will take?
• How soon after clearing can you start, and what happens if that slips?

What to do next

1. Commission the survey and have the line physically marked
2. Ask the fencing contractor for the corridor width and clearance, in numbers
3. Speak to the neighbour before scheduling anything
4. Quote the clearing against the fencing contractor’s specification
5. Call 811 and build the notice period into the schedule before posts go in

Questions people actually ask