Garden fencing in Bristol, repaired or replaced
Storm repairs, new closeboard runs, posts, panels and gates. We check the boundary and the rules before we price.
- Repairs and storm damage
- New closeboard and panels
- Posts and gravel boards
- Gates made to measure
- Boundary checked before we quote Whose fence it is, and what the council allows on that street, settled first.
- Fixed written quotes Measured length, height, materials, waste and price on one sheet.
- No cold calling, ever We never knock doors after a storm and we never leaflet a price.
- Insured installers Public liability cover on every job. Ask and we send the certificate.
Two headlines, seven jobs
Repairs and full replacements carry equal billing here, and that is deliberate. A repair is what most people ring about; a new boundary is what most people end up needing. We will tell you which one you are actually looking at before anyone gets a bill.
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Fence Repairs and Storm Damage
Leaning runs, snapped posts, panels out on the lawn after a south-westerly. We tell you straight away whether it is a repair or a replacement, and we do not talk anybody into the bigger job.
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New Fencing Installed
Full boundary runs in closeboard, feather edge or hit and miss, built on site rather than dropped in as a kit. Line pegged, levels taken off the high end, posts set before a board goes on.
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Fence Panels Replaced
One panel, three panels or the whole side, swapped like for like where the posts are still sound. The quickest job we do, and usually the cheapest way to close a gap in a boundary.
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Posts, Concrete and Gravel Boards
Concrete or timber posts set properly in the ground, with gravel boards keeping the panel up out of the wet. When a fence goes over here it is nearly always the post that went, not the panel.
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Garden Gates and Driveway Gates
Side gates, pedestrian gates and made to measure driveway gates, hung on posts that can carry the weight. Frames squared to the opening you actually have, not to a catalogue size.
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Composite Fencing
Recycled wood and plastic boards in aluminium or composite posts. Costs more up front than timber and never needs treating, so it pays its difference back slowly rather than quickly.
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Planning, Article 4 and Boundary Checks
Height limits, conservation areas, the streets where taking an old fence or wall down needs permission, and whose boundary it is in the first place. Checked before we price the work.
Fence down after a south westerly?
Bristol sits in the path of prevailing south westerly winds off the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, with a long Atlantic fetch behind them. Storm Darragh in December 2024 brought a Met Office red wind warning for both coasts of the Channel with gusts of 69 to 81mph. Boundaries on the high ground take that; boundaries in the valleys take the water instead.
Storm damage jumps our queue, and the fastest route is a phone call inside our opening hours: weekdays 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm. We do not trade out of hours and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Anything you send through the form outside those hours gets a callback the next working morning.
Nine times out of ten it is the post that went, not the panel, and that changes what the repair actually is. We will say so on the phone rather than turning up, replacing a panel, and letting you find out in the next gale.
What Bristol actually allows on a boundary
Fences, walls and gates are permitted development up to 2 metres, or 1 metre where they border a highway used by vehicles or its footpath. That is the national rule, and it is where most fencing sites stop.
Here it is not the whole story. Bristol has 33 conservation areas covering roughly 30 percent of the city, and Bristol City Council has made Article 4 Directions that go further still. In Henleaze, and in the Cotham and Redland conservation area, you need permission to demolish a gate, fence or wall. The Grove Wood direction at Blackberry Hill in Fishponds covers alterations and constructions to walls, gates and fences. Not one page one competitor mentions any of it.
And the reverse matters just as much. Kingswood is South Gloucestershire, not Bristol City Council, so none of Bristol's directions apply there at all. We check which council you are under and what sits on your street before we price, and we put what we find in writing.
Measure, check, quote, build
No deposit is taken before you accept a written price.
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Visit and measure
Length in metres, height, the fall of the ground and the route in. Fifteen minutes, free.
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Boundary and rules checked
Whose fence it is, which council you are under, and whether your street carries a restriction.
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Written quote
Length, height, post type, board type, waste and price. One sheet, fixed, yours to compare.
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The work
Posts set and gone off before boards go on, old fence taken away, ground left rakeable.
Where we work
North Bristol outwards, across the suburbs either side of the city and one town over the South Gloucestershire line.
The ones we get asked most
How high can a fence be in Bristol before I need planning permission?
The national rule is 2 metres, measured from the ground on the higher side, and it drops to 1 metre where the fence, wall or gate borders a highway used by vehicles or the footpath beside it. That second one catches far more front gardens than people expect, because the limit is about the road rather than about the size of the garden. On top of that, conservation areas, listed buildings and Article 4 Directions override the national rule, and Bristol has plenty of all three. Bristol City Council sets the position out on its check if you need planning permission page. We check your address against it before we quote.
Do I need permission to take down an old fence, gate or front wall?
In some Bristol streets, yes, and this is the single thing no other fencing site here mentions. Bristol City Council has made Article 4 Directions that remove the normal permitted development right, and several of them name boundary treatments directly. Henleaze, from 22 April 2021, requires permission to demolish a gate, fence, wall or any other means of enclosure. The Cotham and Redland conservation area, from 4 November 2012, requires permission to demolish a front garden wall, fence or gate and to form hard standings. Grove Wood, Blackberry Hill in Fishponds, from 9 November 2009, covers alterations, constructions and extensions to walls, gates and fences. Henbury from 1971 and land at Sherrin Way from 26 July 1982 cover the erection of boundary treatments. The full list is on the council's Article 4 Directions page. If your address is inside one, we tell you before anything is quoted, not after it has been taken down.
I live in a Bristol conservation area. Does that change what I can put up?
It can, and the odds are higher than most people assume. Bristol has 33 conservation areas covering roughly 30 percent of the city, so this is a normal situation here rather than an unusual one. Inside a conservation area the national height limits still apply, but the council takes an interest in what a boundary looks like from the street, and where an Article 4 Direction is also in force the permitted development right can be removed altogether. Westbury-on-Trym is the sharpest example: the council's conservation plan for the village carries principle P35, which specifically protects the many limestone rubble walls there and flags their removal for parking. We check the conservation boundary and the Article 4 mapping for your address as part of quoting.
Whose fence is it, mine or my neighbour's?
The only reliable answer is in the title deeds, and neither the shape of the posts nor which side the rails face proves anything. Look for a T mark on the plan: the stem of the T sits on the boundary and the crossbar points into the garden of whoever is responsible. An H mark, two Ts back to back, means it is shared. If the deeds say nothing, nobody is legally obliged to fence at all. And to settle the other half of this question: there is no legal requirement to give your neighbour the good side. It is a common courtesy and a sensible one, because the smooth side facing out is the side that does not invite anyone to climb it, but it is not a rule. We ask to see the deed plan before we quote a boundary run, because replacing a fence that turns out not to be yours is an expensive way to find out.
Get a price for your boundary
Tell us the postcode and roughly what needs doing. We come out, measure it, check what your street allows, and put a fixed price in writing.