Asset Management
Knowing what fencing you own, what condition it is in, and what it is going to cost you over the next ten years.
Why people bring this to somebody outside
Most organisations that own a lot of fencing have no idea how much of it they own. It was built at different times by different people to different standards, it is carried in the accounts as one line if it is carried at all, and it gets renewed when something fails rather than when the money is best spent.
A condition assessment fixes that. I walk the asset, rate each run on a scale that means something, record why the failing sections are failing - which is often not what it looks like - and turn that into a renewal programme in priority order with an indicative cost against each stage. The result is something you can budget from and defend, rather than a gut feel.
This is the piece of work that most often saves real money, for a reason that surprises people: the fence everyone is worried about is frequently not the one that needs doing first, and the one that does need doing is usually cheaper to catch early than to replace.
Netting and yards on one property. Different ages, different standards, and a renewal budget that has to cover both.
What this covers
Fence condition assessments
Every run rated, located and photographed, with the failure mode recorded.
Maintenance planning
What routine attention keeps the asset alive, and what it costs per year.
Asset lifecycle reporting
Remaining life by section, so renewals can be forecast instead of reacted to.
Renewal prioritisation
Which sections first, and the reasoning, when there is less money than fence.
Capital works planning
A staged programme with costs, ready to drop into a long-term plan or a budget round.
Who this is for
- Corporate farming groups and investors with fencing across multiple properties
- Councils, utilities and parks managers with fencing as a recorded asset class
- Trusts, iwi organisations and estates responsible for land over the long term
- Buyers doing due diligence on the fencing liability of a property before settlement
What you get
- A condition register with locations, ratings and photographs
- A prioritised renewal programme with indicative costs by stage
- A maintenance plan and an annual cost to hold the asset
Costed and agreed before I start, never after. A phone call about a straightforward question is usually free.
Often taken together with
Consulting for Councils & Large Organisations
Standards, documentation and peer review for organisations that buy fencing repeatedly rather than once.
Read more →Quantity Surveying & Cost Planning
What the fencing should cost, worked out from the job rather than from last year plus ten per cent.
Read more →Farm & Lifestyle Consulting
Fencing, laneways and handling facilities laid out around how the property is actually worked.
Read more →Paid for the advice, not for the work that follows
I am a certified fencer and I also own a fencing contracting business. That is stated up front rather than buried, because it is the first thing anybody sensible wants to know about an independent adviser.
The rule is simple and it does not bend. If I am advising you, my contracting company is not tendering for your job. You can have my advice or you can have my crew, and you cannot have both on the same project, because the moment you could the advice stops being worth anything. If you would rather have the fence built than the question answered, I will say so and point you elsewhere.
It works the same way in a dispute. I give the same finding whichever party is paying for the assessment, and if your position is the weaker one you will hear that from me first.
The contracting business is Custom Fencing Ltd, which is where the experience behind all of this comes from - and it is disclosed here so that you can check it rather than discover it.
FCANZ Certified Fencer. The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand assesses fencers against a practical standard that has to be maintained rather than earned once. The reason it matters here: the advice comes from somebody who still has to go out and build to the standard he is describing.
Tell me what you are trying to work out
Most people get in touch because they have a decision to make and nobody independent to check it with - a tender that does not add up, a fence line that keeps failing, a dispute that has stopped moving, or a property they are about to buy. Describe the situation and I will tell you honestly whether it needs me, and what it would take.
021 614 100- nick@customfenceconsulting.co.nz
- 130 Edinburgh Street, Waikouaiti 9510, Otago
- Monday to Friday, 7am - 5.30pm
Based at Waikouaiti in East Otago and working throughout New Zealand. Site work anywhere in the country; desk work - a tender review, a specification, an opinion on a set of photographs - can start the day you send it.