“Shall we tender for this GETS job for a school fence, Shaun?” asked our project manager, Jimmy.
Shaun, owner/operator of Davies Fencing and Construction, and my husband, doesn’t usually work on schools. He started out doing rural jobs in Whakatane fourteen years ago, and loved yarning to farmers and building relationships. Then he moved our family to Tauranga, grew the business to eleven guys, two office managers; Jimmy and Rochelle, bought a lifestyle property and an acre or so of land became storage for materials, machinery and a huge eye-sore of a burn pile (which I had earmarked for sunflowers, but ho-hum).
Shaun still loves rural fencing, but he quickly worked out that it’s a good idea not to put all his eggs in one basket, so he branched out into residential (high-end) fencing and civil works (engineered retaining walls, lakes, boardwalks, stairs on bush tracks, bollards, decks, concrete works, skateparks, dog parks).
Shaun, being a Yes Man, replied, “Yep,” to Jimmy, then asked for all the details.
“It’s for Bellevue Primary School in Tauranga. They have a handful of kids who keep escaping, and they need a ‘better’ fence to keep them in.” “A handful of kids?” questioned Shaun, “A $120k job for a handful of kids? I hope we get to meet the lucky ducks. Tell me the specs?” “Ok,” said Jimmy, “It’s 260 metres and will also need about eight gates.” “Great!” said Shaun, “I’ll give Ellie at Edgesmith a call, she’s awesome to deal with. When does it have to be done?” “The two-week school holiday in October.” “Sweet, we can fit that in.”
Jimmy and Rochelle worked on the tender together and submitted it. They chose a 1.5m high balustrade style panel fencing because of its strength and durability. They knew it was going to get a punishing from balls and the like at a primary school. They must’ve done a superb job of the tender because we got it.
On the first Saturday of the school holidays, we had another contractor come in and install about 100 metres of security fencing on a portion of the school perimeter so that on the Monday, the guys could start.
They began by stripping out the old fence. One guy on the digger, two guys doing the hard yards. It was a mishmash of wire, bits of tin, some palings, all bordering house properties. There was overgrown grass and shrubbery mixed in amongst it.
The following day, another three guys joined them. They followed behind the first crew and installed the new fence. When they had done about 100 metres, they moved the security fence along. The whole job itself was pretty simple to install, even when the new fence had to be built on a section of retaining wall due to the height/fall restrictions.
The challenges arose when it came to the gates. The school had a rough idea of where the gates were to be installed, but they hadn’t confirmed. The issue was to do with emergency services access. The main access at the front of the school couldn’t reach the back classrooms, and they wanted another access down the back of the school but it hadn’t been built yet. The gates had to be custom-made to fit, so they couldn’t be ordered until decisions were made on the access, and the new fence was up.
A few weeks later, once we had the gates in our hot little hands, two guys returned to the school to install them. They were tricky to hang due to the undulating ground, but our guys did an epic job. This time, school was open, and they had numerous inquisitive kids come and ask a million questions. The guys wondered if any of them were the kids that the fence was built for, but they never did find out.
“ Shaun still loves rural fencing, but he quickly worked out that it’s a good idea not to put all his eggs in one basket, so he branched out into residential (high-end) fencing and civil works
Article written by Angelena Davies
Published in the Pools & Schools Feature in WIRED Issue 72 / MARCH 2024 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
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