Closeboard, featheredge, lap panel, post and rail and trellis topped fencing, put up on concrete or treated timber posts set in concrete with gravel boards along the bottom. Almost every fence that blows over failed at the post, either because it was set too shallow or because the foot of it was sitting in wet soil.
A post goes in at least two feet, deeper on a tall or exposed run, on a bed of hardcore so water can drain away from the bottom of it, then concreted and left to go off before anything is hung on it. Posts knocked in and backfilled with soil are the reason so many fences lean after one bad winter.
Concrete posts and gravel boards last longest and mean a damaged panel slides out and gets replaced in ten minutes. Treated timber posts look better and suit a closeboard run or an older garden. We price both and tell you which we would put in ourselves for that particular boundary.
A concrete or treated gravel board along the bottom holds the panel or the boards clear of wet soil, which is where rot always starts. It also takes the mower and strimmer knocks, and it lets a run be stepped down a sloping garden without cutting panels about.
Matching gates hung on hardware that will still shut in three years, trellis tops where you want height without a solid wall, and posts set to a line you and your neighbour have agreed before anything goes in. The old fence, posts and concrete leave with us rather than getting stacked behind the shed.
A closeboard fence on concrete posts with gravel boards is generally good for twenty years or more, with the odd board swapped along the way. Lap panels on timber posts are the cheapest option and realistically give you eight to twelve years. The price gap between the two is a lot smaller than the lifespan gap, which is worth knowing before you choose.
That is settled by the deeds rather than by the fence, and the old rule about the posts facing your side is not law. Your title plan usually marks boundary responsibility with a T on one side of the line. We are happy to put a fence up either way, but we will always suggest you and the neighbour agree the position first, because moving one afterwards is not a cheap conversation.
Generally two metres for a fence inside a garden, and one metre where it fronts a road or a footpath. Listed buildings and parts of the conservation area around Salisbury are tighter than that again. We will tell you what the run you want is likely to need, though the permission itself is between you and the council.
If the posts are sound, yes, and it is a cheap job well worth doing. What we will not do is hang new panels on posts that are already rocking, because you end up paying twice. We will go along the run and tell you which posts are going and which have years left, rather than replacing the lot as a matter of course.
Yes, and it usually should be. Getting a digger and a dumper down the side of a house is far easier before a new fence goes up, so the order matters. Same team, same skip, one estimate, and nobody has to be at home twice.
Based at New Street in Salisbury and working up to 100 miles out across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Berkshire, so a look at your job is rarely more than a couple of days away.
Send a photo or two through WhatsApp, or ring us, and we will come out and give you a free written estimate.