ALL YOU NEED TO FENCE YOUR PROPERTY ROUND (Part 1)

I get calls often asking "oga, please how much should i budget to fence my property round". Also, here in Nigeria where you need to protect your land from encroachment and trespassers, perimeter fencing saves you that stress. Below I've put together details of all you need to complete the fencing round, though building materials prices are always slightly different from one location to another, but this would guide you in your projections and screening off outrageous quotation from other vendors.

We would be using the 120 ft by 60 ft (648sqm) plot size
The length is 120 ft while the breadth is 60 ft and since we have two lengths and two breadth, we'll multiply both by 2 which is;
120 x 2 = 240 ft and
60 x 2 = 120 ft
Therefore the total perimeter line would be 240 + 120 = 360 ft
Converting this 360 feet to inches would be 360 × 12 = 4320 inches (a foot is 12 inches).

Total Blocks Needed
First is to get the line numbers of blocks that will go around the fence perimeter of 4320 inches or 360 feet, we would need to divide 4320 by 18 inches (The length of any nomal block, be it 6 inches or 9 inches is 18inches)
So 4320 ÷ 18 = 240
That is, 240 blocks per row line,
We then multiply that by the numbers of coaches you want for the height.
Let's use 7 ft which is 9 coaches that means 240 multiply by 9 which is 2160 blocks.
We'll then need to remove the space occupied by the gate and the columns (pillars) from the above calculation.
For the columns (pillars) between the fence, let use 6 blocks far from the next column, which is 108 inches apart. that would be 4320 divide by 108 which is 40, and each column for 9 inches concrete is 9 inches square, So, 9 x 40 = 360 inches
The gate is 12 ft, which is 144 inches.
We then add the gate length together with the columns length, divide the sum by the length of a block (18 inches) then multiply it by the number of coaches.
That is, 144 + 360 = 504 inches, then 504 ÷ 18 = 28 blocks, then, 28 × 9 = 252 blocks
The number of blocks needed would then be 2160 - 252 = 1908
But for the sake of broken blocks and other unforeseen factors, I usually add 10% extra to it.
10% of 1908 is about 190 blocks. So 2908 + 190 = 2098 blocks
Therefore, the total blocks required for the perimeter fencing of a 648sqm (120 ft by 60 ft) plot size property is approximately 2100 blocks

Cements needed
For the block work we'll use 1 bag of cement to set 70 blocks, which is 2100 ÷ 70 = 30 bags
For the columns, 1 bag of cement would be use to cast 2 columns. that is 20 bags
We'll also need about 15 bags for the floor blinding of the fence.
Therefore, the total needed bags of cement would be 30 + 20 + 15 = 65 bags
Other materials needed to complete the fence works are;
38 lengths of 12mm iron rod (1 column would require 1 length).
3 lengths of 16mm iron rod for the 2 big columns holding the gate.
90 planks of soft wood for the framing.
1 truck of granite (granite would be use for the wall foundation and columns)
5 trucks of sharp sand

Please note that this is exclusive of the plastering materials.
To be Contd...


Prepared by,
Oluwatobi Victor Oladele
Managing Partner at FIPS Multilinks Limited
44 King George V road, Onikan, Lagos Island, Lagos State.
fipsmultilinks@gmail.com
+2348071479557