What fence and gate cleaning costs in Sydney
Fence and gate cleaning in Sydney is priced per boundary: the metres you own, the material — timber, Colorbond or rendered masonry — how much growth the shade side is carrying, and whether timber gets a re-oil afterwards. Schmick quotes fence work per job; the instant quote returns a firm, bookable price in about 60 seconds, and bundling it with other services saves 5-15%.
The price walks the boundary
There is no flat rate for a fence because no two boundaries are the same length. A tight Paddington terrace might own eight metres of side fence; a corner block in St Ives can run past sixty. So fence and gate cleaning is priced per boundary: how many metres, how tall, and whether both faces are reachable or only yours. Gates count too — they carry the most hand traffic and usually look the worst of the lot.
Access moves the price more than most owners expect. A fence you can walk along with a hose in hand is quick work. One buried behind garden beds, pool equipment or a neighbour's hedge is slower, and slower costs more. Height matters for the same reason — a 1.2-metre paling fence and a 2.4-metre lapped-and-capped boundary are different jobs wearing the same name, and the quote treats them that way.
Material decides the method
Timber wants restraint. Blast a paling fence at full pressure and you carve furrows into the grain that never close up. Timber gets washed low and slow — enough to lift the grey film of algae and oxidised surface, not enough to fur the wood. Rendered and painted masonry fences get the same soft-wash logic as house walls: let the detergent do the work, rinse gently, keep the coating intact.
Colorbond is the interesting one. BlueScope's maintenance bulletin TB-4 requires regular fresh-water washing of its coated steel — and more often near marine environments, which covers a fair share of the North Shore and nearly all of the Eastern Suburbs. The same bulletin warns against harsh treatment. So a Colorbond fence gets exactly what the manufacturer prescribes: fresh water, gentle pressure, no abrasives, with attention to the sheltered zones under capping where salt sits out of the rain.
The shade side is carrying the growth
Every fence has a sun side and a shade side, and in Sydney the south-facing shade side is where the green lives. Algae, lichen and moss hold on wherever the fence stays damp after rain and the sun never quite dries it. That face can need twice the treatment time of the street face — longer detergent dwell, more rinsing, sometimes a second pass. Which is why the growth question comes before the price, not after.
Shade-side growth is also why two identical fences on the same street can price differently. One backs onto a reserve under trees; the other faces open lawn. The first is carrying three years of biology, the second a film of dust. The price reflects the fence you actually have, not a category average — that is the whole argument for pricing per boundary instead of per house.
Re-oiling, and what a wash cannot fix
Clean timber drinks. If your fence was oiled once and has gone silver, a wash gets it clean but not fed. Re-oiling after the clean — once the timber has properly dried — puts the colour back and slows the next round of weathering. It is an optional line on the fence price, costed by the metres being coated, and it only makes sense on timber that is still sound. Oil over rot is lipstick.
Some honesty. Heavy lichen on old timber can leave ghosting even after a proper clean — the organism is gone but its etching stays. Cleaning cannot resurrect failed paint, close up rot, or undo rust that has perforated steel. If a panel is structurally finished, a wash makes it a clean, structurally finished panel. You will hear which is which before anything is booked, rather than pay for a wash that cannot deliver.
Get the number before anyone stands in your yard
So the straight answer to what fence cleaning costs in Sydney: it depends on metres, material, growth and access, and anyone offering a flat figure sight unseen is guessing. Schmick quotes fence and gate work per job through the instant quote — you enter the boundary details, it returns a firm, bookable price in about 60 seconds, and that price holds unless the place is materially different from what you described.
Fences rarely travel alone. If the fence is grimy, the driveway beside it usually is too, and bundling services on one visit saves 5-15% — one crew, one setup, one clean line from the street to the back gate. Add the fence to a house soft wash or a driveway clean and it often ends up the cheapest line on the whole job.