Questions people actually ask

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.

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.

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.

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.

Almost certainly not, and we would rather you heard that from us than from a claims handler. Most UK buildings policies exclude storm damage to fences and gates specifically, even where the rest of the policy covers storm damage to the building. The cases that usually are covered are different: a vehicle hitting the fence, deliberate damage where you have a crime reference number, fire, and a tree coming down onto it. Check your own wording before you assume either way, and photograph the damage before anything is moved. If you are a Bristol City Council tenant, the council's own repairs policy says it will not normally carry out repairs to fences or gates, with narrow exceptions for boundaries onto public land, communal areas of flats, and some disabled tenants. Its published fencing programme excludes fencing between houses and rear fences. That is on the council's repairs we do not charge for page.

One panel, very often. If the posts are sound and plumb, and the gravel boards are still holding the panel up out of the wet, swapping a single panel is a short job and the cheapest thing we do. The honest caveat is that a new panel next to weathered ones will look new for a couple of years, and that if the run is fifteen years old the panel that just went is usually the first of several. What decides it is the posts. A panel that failed because a post snapped is not a panel job, and we will tell you that on the phone rather than turning up, replacing the panel and letting you find out in the next gale.

Concrete lasts longer and timber looks better, and that really is most of the decision. A concrete post does not rot at ground level, which is where nearly every timber post fails, and it takes a slotted gravel board and a panel without any fixings into end grain. The trade off is appearance, weight, and the fact that a concrete post that does break tends to break dramatically. Pressure treated timber posts look right against an older garden and cost less to put in, but they are working against ground moisture from day one, and in the damp valley ground around Bedminster and the Frome that shortens their life noticeably. Where the ground is wet, or the run is long and exposed, we recommend concrete and say why. Where a short run matters visually, timber with a proper post foot is a reasonable choice made with the facts in front of you.

A properly built closeboard run on concrete posts with gravel boards should give you a long service life, and the boards are individually replaceable, which is the real advantage over a panel: you renew what has failed rather than the whole bay. Panel fencing on timber posts is a shorter proposition, and in every case the post at ground level is what decides the answer. On treatment, pressure treated timber does not need painting to survive, but an annual or biennial coat of a proper fence treatment on the exposed faces slows down the greying and keeps water out of the cut ends. If you do treat it, do the end grain and the bottom of the boards, because that is where water actually gets in. Nobody needs to treat a composite fence, which is most of what you are paying the extra for.

Yes, unless you want to keep it. Removal and disposal of the old fence, posts and concrete is priced into the written quote as a line you can see, not buried in the total, and we hold a waste carrier registration for it. If you would rather keep sound timber for the log burner or the allotment we will stack it neatly instead and take the price off. What we will not do is leave a pile of broken posts and old concrete in the corner of the garden and call the job finished.

Length, height, ground and access, in that order of influence. For published market figures rather than our own numbers, the Checkatrade directory quotes Bristol fencing installation at roughly £832 to £1,887 with an average around £1,248, and fencing repair from about £294, averaging £450 and running up to about £700. Those are third party figures, quoted so you have something independent to sanity check any quote against, including ours. They are not our price list. What moves the number most on a Bristol job is whether we can get a barrow down the side of the house, whether the ground takes a post or fights it, and whether the boundary steps down a slope, because a stepped run costs more than a level one of the same length.

Four things, and ask us the same as you would ask anyone. First, public liability insurance, seen as an actual certificate with dates on it rather than a logo on a van. Second, a written quote that states the length in metres, the height, the post type, the panel or board type, who is taking the waste, and the total, before any money changes hands. Third, who is doing the work, because a quote from one firm and a crew from another is a common pattern in this trade. Fourth, how the boundary position was checked, meaning the deeds and the council's planning constraints, not somebody's opinion at the gate. A firm that hesitates on the certificate has answered the question. We send ours with the quote on request, and we never ask for a deposit before you have the written price in your hand.