A new close board timber fence beside a gravel driveway at the front of a red brick house.

Fencing in Orpington

Close board and panel fencing, gates and posts. What holds a fence up is under the ground, like everything else we do.

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What holds a fence up

A fence is a row of posts with something hung between them. The posts are the job. The rest is joinery.

Posts
Timber or concrete, set into a hole with concrete round them. A post that is not deep enough leans in the first gale, and a fence that leans never comes back on its own.
Concrete
The post is held plumb and braced while the concrete goes off. The top of the concrete is finished so water runs away from the post, not into it.
Gravel boards
A board along the bottom, timber or concrete, that keeps the fence itself off the ground. The first thing to rot on a cheap fence is the bottom of the panel, because it was sitting in wet soil.
Gates
A gate hangs off its post, and a gate post has to be heavier than a fence post or the gate drops and scrapes. The hinge side is set first and the gate is hung to it.

Close board and panel

Close board

Built on site from posts, arris rails and feather edge boards, each board overlapping the last. It can be any height, it follows a slope without stepping, and a damaged board is replaced one board at a time. It is the stronger fence and it takes longer.

Panel

Ready made panels slotted between posts. Quicker, cheaper, and replaceable panel by panel. On a sloping garden the panels step rather than follow. Where a panel fence is the right answer we use concrete posts and gravel boards so the panels are the only part that will ever need replacing.

Along the drive

A lot of our fencing goes in at the same time as a drive or a patio, because the ground is already open and the posts can go in before the surface does. The fence above went in beside a new gravel drive.