Fence repairs and storm damage in Bristol

It is nearly always the post, not the panel

A fence that came down in the night looks like a panel problem, because the panel is the thing lying on the grass. It usually is not. Timber rots where it stays wet, and on a fence that is the few inches of post either side of ground level. The post goes hollow there, then breaks off at the ground the first time a gust puts real load through the panel.

So we start with the posts, not the panels. Two checks tell us most of it, and you can do both before we arrive.

• Lean on the post. A sound one barely moves. One that rocks, or gives a soft creak at the base, has already gone or is going.
• Put a screwdriver in at soil level. If the blade sinks into the timber where post meets ground, that post is spent whatever the top of it looks like.

Concrete posts fail less often and differently: they chip at the slot, crack rather than bend, and lift if they were set shallow in wet ground. What each type is good for is on posts, concrete and gravel boards.

Repair or replace, and how we call it

The split is about how much of the run is still doing its job, not how bad it looks from the kitchen window.

• We repair when one or two posts have gone and the rest push back solid, the panels are sound, the gravel boards are still holding the timber clear of the soil, and the line is straight.
• We say replace when most of the posts are soft at ground level. Doing them one at a time costs more than the run is worth, and you pay us twice.
• We also say replace when the run is out of line along its full length, so every panel is fighting a twist, or when panels come apart in your hands as they are lifted out.

Where a repair lands near the cost of a new run, we put both numbers in front of you rather than waiting to be asked. The case we push back on is the opposite one: a whole boundary quoted as a replacement when four posts had another decade in them.

Where one or two panels are all that is wrong and the posts are fine, fence panels replaced is the cheaper page to read first.

Storm work, and what our hours actually mean

We are not going to claim a night line we do not run. We work weekdays 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm. Inside those hours storm damage jumps the queue ahead of quotes and planned work, because a fence across a shared path or a garden with a dog in it is a different problem to one that is merely ugly. Anything sent through the form gets a callback the next working morning.

If a fence has come down onto something that could hurt somebody, ring 999 first, and if it is tangled in a cable, stay well back and ring 105 for the electricity network.

What the weather here actually does

Bristol sits in the path of prevailing south-westerlies off the Severn Estuary, with a long Atlantic fetch behind them. That is why the west facing side of a garden takes the beating, and why one end of a boundary leans while the other end stands.

Storm Darragh, in December 2024, is the recent marker. The Met Office issued a red wind warning covering both coasts of the Bristol Channel, with gusts of 69 to 81mph. We will be straight about the limits of that: the reporting we can point you at describes walls and boundaries coming down, not fences specifically, so we are not going to dress it up as a fence story. A gust in that band finds every post already soft at the base.

Will your insurance pay for it?

Usually not, and it is better to know before you spend an afternoon on hold. Most UK buildings policies exclude storm damage to fences and gates outright, and it is written in rather than overlooked.

The cases usually covered are the ones where something hit the fence rather than the wind pushing it over.

• A vehicle going into it.
• Deliberate damage, which your insurer will want a crime reference number for.
• Fire.
• A tree coming down onto it.

Even then, check your excess against the likely cost of the repair. Where the two are close a claim is rarely worth making. Read your own policy wording rather than taking our word for it, and photograph everything before anything is moved.

If you rent from Bristol City Council

So if you are a council tenant with a fence down between you and next door, the answer is very likely no and the job is yours. We would rather tell you that in the first two minutes than have you wait three weeks for it.

What a repair costs

Access and the number of posts drive it, not the length of the run. A boundary you can reach with a barrow is a different job to one where every post and bag of ballast goes through a front room.

Our own number comes off a measure and a look at the access, and it goes to you in writing before anything comes down. Digging a post out of an old concrete footing is in that quote rather than added afterwards.

Nobody from us will knock on your door

The week after a gale, this trade fills up with people going door to door offering to sort the fence out while the van is in the street. Some are fine. The pattern worth watching is always the same: cash, today, no paperwork.

We never cold call and we never knock doors, storm or no storm. Every job starts with you ringing us or sending the form. If somebody turns up saying they are from us, they are not. That is written down on what we promise.