Weld mesh fencing: rolls, panels and anti-climb mesh, installed

Weld mesh is made by laying steel wires in a grid and welding them together at every crossing. Because each joint is welded rather than woven or twisted, the openings stay square, and cutting one wire doesn't let the rest unravel, which is how a woven diamond-mesh fence comes apart. The mesh is fixed to steel posts set in concrete, and it comes in two forms:

• Rolls, flexible enough to follow uneven ground, pulled tight between posts and tied to straining wires. The galvanised roll in the price table below is 1.8 m high and 30 m long.
• Panels, rigid sections clamped or bolted to the posts. Many are pressed with folds running along their length, which stiffen them and make them harder to push in.

The steel is galvanised against rust, and is often given a PVC or powder coat as well. Green weld mesh fencing blends into grass and trees, which is why it's seen around sports fields, parks and gardens; black and charcoal suit a house or a complex.

Three measurements describe a mesh, and the shop label of a typical roll shows them together: 50 × 50 × 2 mm means openings 50 mm square, made of wire 2 mm thick.

• The opening. The smaller it is, the harder the fence is to climb. A 50 mm square still takes fingers and the toe of a shoe; the anti-climb mesh further down is made with openings too narrow for either. Rectangular openings are common too.
• The wire. Thicker wire is stiffer and slower to cut. Light garden mesh cuts easily; security mesh takes heavy cutters and time.
• The height. A waist-high mesh marks a boundary and keeps a dog in. A fence above head height is meant to keep people out, and a high weld mesh fence needs heavier posts, set deeper, to stay straight along its length.

What the fence has to keep in or out decides all three. Tell us when you book, and we'll recommend a combination on the site visit.

They do different jobs, and plenty of properties have both.

Where a boundary is long, putting palisade only where it faces the road and mesh along the rest spends the money where the risk is. Palisade itself, its heights and its gates, is covered on steel palisade fencing.

Anti-climb fencing is mesh made so there's nothing to hold on to: openings too narrow for fingers or the toe of a shoe, and wire too thick for ordinary cutters. From a few metres away it looks almost transparent, so it's chosen where a fence must be both secure and see-through, such as complex perimeters, schools and business premises. ClearVu is one maker's name for it, so you'll often see it called ClearVu-type mesh.

It's sold as rigid panels clamped to their posts, and it's the most expensive of the mesh fences: R1 300–R1 600 a metre (ProCompare); R1 200–R1 700 a metre (Completo) supplied and installed, against R600–R800 a metre (ProCompare) for ordinary weld mesh. On a long perimeter it can be kept for the most exposed stretches, with ordinary mesh on the rest.

A mesh fence can carry live strands on brackets fixed to the tops of its posts, so anyone climbing the mesh meets the electric fence at the top. The electric part is a fence in its own right, built to the same rules as any other:

• The mesh is earthed, and the live strands sit on insulators, clear of it, so the steel never becomes part of the circuit.
• No razor or barbed wire goes close to the live lines, where it could trap someone.
• Warning signs go up at every gate and access point, and at least every 10 m.
• It gets its certificate when it's finished, as every new electric fence must.

Planning the strands with the mesh means the posts are long and strong enough to carry the brackets from the start. 2-year warranty and a compliance certificate on every new electric fence we install. How an electric fence is planned and built is on electric fence installation, and what the inspection checks on electric fence certificates.

The steps depend on whether it's rolls or panels:

1. Mark the line and confirm the boundary, noting slopes, corners, gates and anything buried along it.
2. Set the posts in concrete. For rolls, the strongest posts go at the ends, the corners and beside the gates, braced with stays, because they hold the pull of the whole run; lighter posts go in between. For panels, the posts are set one panel-width apart.
3. Rolls: run straining wires along the posts at the top, middle and bottom, unroll the mesh against them, pull it tight and tie it to the wires and the posts.
4. Panels: clamp or bolt each panel to its posts, keeping the tops level, or stepping them down a slope in even steps.
5. Close the bottom. A gap under the mesh lets dogs out and people under, so the bottom edge stays close to the ground, or sits on a low concrete strip where the ground falls away.
6. Hang the gates and check they close and latch.
7. Touch up the cuts. Cut ends are painted with zinc paint, so the bare steel doesn't rust.

Rolls go up faster and follow rough ground better; panels make a straighter, stiffer fence that's harder to push in.

Mesh fences get damaged in a handful of ways, and most can be put right without replacing the fence:

• A bent or cut panel is unclamped and replaced with one of the same size and coating.
• Sagging roll mesh is tightened again on its straining wires, and broken ties or wires are replaced.
• A hole cut in a roll is closed by tying in a piece of matching mesh, or by replacing that length of roll between two posts.
• A leaning post is dug out and reset in concrete, after a vehicle has hit it or the ground under it has washed away.
• Rust at the base, where grass and sprinklers keep the steel wet, is treated and the coating made good before it eats through the wire.
• Missing clamps and bolts are replaced, with tamper-resistant ones where they keep disappearing.

When you book, tell us roughly how long the damaged stretch is and add a photo, so we can bring matching mesh.

Typical market prices in Gauteng, not ours:

The height, the opening and wire, the coating, the number of gates and corners, the lie of the ground and any electric strands on top all move the total. Prices checked October 2026. Your exact price is set in a free quote before any work starts. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.