Electric fencing, Vanderbijlpark and the Vaal.
I install, repair and maintain electric fencing to the electric-fence standard — wall-top and free-standing — across the Vaal Triangle and Sasolburg. Tell me the wall length and I'll price it on WhatsApp. Fence dead, alarming at night or tripping the alarm? The callout is R300, waived when you accept the quote.. Send me a photo of your wall and you get a written price.
Priced for your wall. Not by the panic.
Measure the wall you want covered, or send me a photo from the street and one from inside. That is enough for a real number, and fencing is one of the jobs I can price properly on WhatsApp.
What moves the price up: corners and steps in the wall, a gate to bridge, a second zone, a long cable run back to the energiser, and brackets that have to be drilled into face brick instead of plaster. I tell you which of those apply before I start, in writing.
The energiser is quoted separately, because the size depends on how many metres and how many zones you end up with. So is the battery.
The quote for your wall covers the fencing itself. The energiser, the battery, brackets on difficult walls and any repair found along the way are listed separately so you can see what each one is. You get the exact figure in writing before I open anything.
I build the fence. A registered installer signs it off.
This is the part most people get told wrong, so here it is straight. Under a separate law for electric fences, only a registered Electric Fence System Installer may issue an electric fence system certificate. He has to personally inspect and test the fence before he signs.
I am not that person, and I will never pretend to be. I install, repair and maintain the fence to the electric-fence standard. If you need the certificate, that gets sorted out too. It is quoted separately, and the registered installer is involved before and during the work, not just at the end, so there are no surprises on the day the fence is tested.
One more thing that catches people out. The plug or wiring that feeds your energiser is electrical work under different regulations, so it needs its own electrical Certificate of Compliance. That one is R3 000 for the first DB board, and I'll sort it out. Two documents, two sets of rules, two separate prices — the fence certificate is never part of the electrical CoC. Who signs each of them is set out in the footer, and you're welcome to phone the Department of Employment and Labour on 051 505 6371 and check the numbers.
"The fence certificate doesn't expire, but your house can't transfer on one older than two years. It is the second part that stops sales."Danie du Toit · Vanderbijlpark
Alarming at 2am?
It's usually one of five things.
A fence that cries wolf every night gets switched off, and a switched-off fence is a wall with wire on top. I find the cause first and tell you what it is, then price the repair in writing before I touch it. The callout is R300, waived when you accept the quote.
Sagging wire
Wire stretches over the years. A loose line touches a bracket or the line above it, and the energiser reads that as a break-in. Re-tensioning the whole run usually fixes a fence everyone had written off.
Energiser trouble
No output, weak output, or an alarm that won't clear. Sometimes it's the unit, often it's the battery inside it, and sometimes it's a setting somebody changed years ago.
Lightning damage
Southern Gauteng gets 10 to 15 lightning flashes per square kilometre a year. A fence is a long wire in the open, so it takes hits. Proper earthing and surge protection is the difference between a dead energiser and a working one.
Vegetation
A creeper, a branch or long wet grass touching the line bleeds voltage straight to earth. This one you can fix yourself with a pair of shears. I'll say so instead of charging you.
Earth spikes
The fence works through the ground. Corroded spikes, too few of them, or spikes driven into dry, stony soil mean weak shock and false alarms — and it always gets worse in winter.
Flat backup battery
The battery in the energiser is what keeps the fence live when the power goes off. Tired batteries fail quietly. You only find out on the night it matters.
The annual check
A fence is not a fit-and-forget thing. Once a year I test the energiser output, walk the whole line and re-tension it, check every joint and bracket, test the earth, load-test the battery, and clear vegetation off the line. September, before the storm season starts, is the time to do it.
If the check finds work, you get a price for it in writing and you decide. Nothing gets done on the day without your go-ahead.
What I fit
Wall-top brackets and free-standing posts, high-tensile wire, tensioners, insulators, warning signs, earth spikes, energiser and battery, and the alarm output wired back to your house if you want it. Backup power for the energiser is the same job I do for gates and alarms — see backup power.
Brands I fit: Nemtek, and Stafix / JVA. Both have parts and repair support in South Africa, which matters more than the badge on the box when something fails in year four.
A plot is a different job.
On a stand in town the fence is sixty metres of wall. On a plot it can be six hundred metres of open boundary, with no wall to sit on, no street light, and the nearest help twenty to forty minutes away. Same standard, completely different build.
What actually changes the design out there: the length of the run, which decides the size of the energiser and how many zones make sense; a supply that goes off more often and stays off longer, which decides the battery; and gates and outbuildings far from the house, which decide where the alarm output goes.
Free-standing 18-line fencing is the usual answer out there. On long boundaries I'd rather quote you two zones than one, so a fault in the back paddock doesn't leave the yard unprotected. Solar-powered energisers make sense where there's no easy mains — I'll tell you honestly whether yours is one of those cases.
For context, not for scare stories: in the last SAPS year the De Deur precinct — De Deur, Walkerville, Savanna City — recorded 226 house burglaries, up 32 on the year before, while the Barrage precinct recorded 99. Meyerton came down by 88, to 181. That is the whole reason I quote plots on two zones and a decent battery.
"Out on the plots a fence won't stop somebody who really wants in. What it buys you is the time to phone for help."Why the battery, the earth and the zones matter more than line count
Before you phone.
Who issues my electric fence certificate?
Does the certificate expire after two years?
My fence was here before I bought. Do I need a certificate?
What does electric fencing cost?
Why does my fence alarm at night but not in the day?
Will the fence still work when the power goes off?
Can you put a fence on a complex or estate wall?
Is it safe for kids and dogs?
Praat jy Afrikaans?
Tell me what's
happening.
One photo from the street, one from inside the yard, and the rough metres. New fencing I can price on WhatsApp from that. A fence that is faulting gets found and priced on site.