Help with new fence

[Lemansky]

Our house has the original 1930s picket fence along both sides of the back garden. We would like to replace these with a 6ft fence with concrete posts on either side, mostly for privacy and so the neighbours dog doesn't see us and immediately start barking at us whenever we're out in the garden!

We have talked to neighbours on both sides who are happy to let us do the fence and once we've had the quotes come through we will go back to them and let them know when the work will be taking place etc - so hopefully they won't hate us...

I know nothing about fences, but the 1st quote we had through was for closeboard fencing and the company who came round yesterday was talking about featherboard - are these decent types of fence and will they be ok as the back of our terrace can be a bit of a wind tunnel.

Is there anything I should be asking for specifically, or anything to watch out for? Many thanks for any help.

it will be stronger and last longer than those lightweight panels made of overlapped thin laths.

You can buy six-foot close-boarded panels ready-made that slot into concrete posts, or you can buy posts that arris rail is fitted to and the boards are nailed on. In a typical garden I think the readymade panels ar more common, but a contractor built quite a long boundary fence for a neighbour and nailed it together (using a nail gun).

If you like the traditional dark colour, order a tub of bitter chocolate (dark brown) masonry paint, and paint the concrete posts before the wood goes in. It will blend in with dark fence stain. Light brown doesn't look convincing. The paint will also prolong the life of the concrete. See pictures.

If you are having concrete posts, I recommend concrete gravel boards as well. They will last much longer than wood. Consider if you want to include access for hedgehogs or cats under or through it, or gates, and leave appropriate gaps. I have seen it done by leaving out a gravel board and nailing bits of wooden board to short stakes, with a gap.

Thanks that's very helpful.
Interesting about the gravel boards, one company who came to give a quote said to have wood as it would keep the cost down, but the one that came yesterday didn't seem to think wood would be a good idea with the concrete posts.

He also is going to quote for featherboard panels as well as the non panelled version - not sure of it's name. Would the non pannelled type be better?

I'm still waiting for 1 quote but so far that quotes seem to be coming out at around £1400ish - does that seem reasonable for 40ft along one boundary and 26ft along the other?

We live near Canterbury. We had some fencing done by a local firm which charges £78 per bay.

A bay is 1 x concrete post, 1 x foot high concrete gravel board and 1 5ft high closeboard fence panel on top.

So, a six foot high fence total and at the end of the run there would be an extra concrete post to buy.

I think each panel is 6 foot long.

We've had two 90 foot fences done over the past few years - so roughly 15 bays - £1200-£1300 in total each.

It's taken them a day or day and a half total on each fence.

They've been running the same advert at £78 per bay for the last 5 years - so I guess if you're paying more than that - you might need to be wary.

All depends on awkwardness of access, any clearance of earth, shrubbery etc

the Canterbury price seems surprisingly low. They must be fast workers.

Here are some typical retail prices. No doubt a specialist contractor can get better deals

www.wickes.co.uk/search?q=fence%3Aprice-desc%3AType%3AOverlap%3AType%3ACloseboard%3AType%3AFeatheredge A 5-ft panel with a 1-ft gravelboard would be my choice.

www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Recessed-Concrete-Gravel-Board-50mm-x-150mm-x-1-83m/p/540064 this is a six-inch (150mm) board, not quite as good but easier to carry

www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Concrete-Fence-Post-100mmx60mmx2-4m-Slotted/p/540063 The Wickes ones are sometimes quite a rough porous concrete, smoother is better.

It's very good value but I think there's a lot of competition locally keeping prices down.

I was surprised at how quick they were - but it is a team of 4 or 5 experienced adult men, no kids - and they really know what they're doing.

To paraphrase Jack Carter - 'they do this for a living' -

We had the first fence about 4 years ago and the other fence about 2 years ago. No problems with either.

They started at 8am and went like the clappers. They're not just installers though.
They make the fences, dispose of the waste etc.

Happy to pass on the name if of interest to anyone by pm.

Agree with PigletJohn. I've just had four fence panels replaced with concrete posts, 6" concrete gravel boards and closeboard panels (topped off with arched lattice trellis). It looks great and the advantage of the mortised concrete posts is that you can just slip the panels out for painting or maintenance.

I'm in Bucks and it cost me about £600 in all, but that included digging out the old concrete footings for all of the old wooden posts - horrible job.

Great, thanks for all of the information. I've got some more questions I need to ask them, info about trellis being one of them.
Does having trellis on top of the fence weaken the structre against the wind? It always looks nice but not sure how practical it actually is.

the trellis is mostly ornamental, but you can grow climbing plants on it. It is said to discourage burglars because it will break noisily if they climb it.

Ornamental - I just think it looks nice. Don't think it would have any influence on strength. If anything it might make it a bit stronger as there's less surface area of solid fence, but it will be marginal at best.

Had it on previous fence for 10+ years with no problems.

Ok that makes sense. I've asked for one of the contractors to let me know about trellis, as he was the most helpful so will see what somes of it.
Thanks again for all the help.