Cost guide
How much does fencing cost?
Fencing is priced by the bay. A bay is one 6ft panel, 1.83m wide, plus the post beside it, so about 1.88m of run. Closeboard on concrete posts comes to £130 to £290 a bay supplied and fitted, which is £70 to £150 per metre. Composite is £210 to £450 a bay, or £110 to £240 per metre, because one composite panel costs more than a whole timber bay does.
Typical prices
Ranges, not quotes. A quote depends on your garden.
| Work | Typical UK price |
|---|---|
| Closeboard panel, 6ft, supplied only | £45 to £85 |
| Composite panel, 6ft, supplied only | £90 to £240 |
| Concrete post, gravel board and postcrete, per bay | £40 to £105 |
| Labour, per bay fitted | £40 to £100 |
| Closeboard on concrete posts, supplied and fitted, per metre | £70 to £150 |
| Composite on composite posts, supplied and fitted, per metre | £110 to £240 |
Published figures contradict each other, and the widest gap is on composite. One well copied guide gives composite at £120 to £200 per metre supplied only and £85 to £150 supplied and fitted on the same page, which do not add up, and the low fitted figure is the one that has been widely copied. The composite range here starts above its cheapest panel on purpose: £90 buys a hollow core board, and a fitter quoting a run will be pricing a solid one. Gravel boards, postcrete and post type are where quotes differ most, and all three matter more than the panel does. With a price quoted per panel alone, ask which posts are used and how deep they are set.
What moves the price
- Panel type. Lap is £25 to £55 a panel supplied, closeboard £45 to £85, composite £90 to £240.
- Post type and depth. An 8ft concrete post is £20 to £45 against £20 to £25 for timber, and timber is what rots at ground level. Composite fences take their own posts at £35 to £70.
- Gravel boards and postcrete. A concrete gravel board adds £13 to £40 a bay, and postcrete £9 to £22 a post at one and a half to three bags.
- Taking the old fence away, £10 to £25 per metre including the tip fee.
- Ground and run length. Rock, tree roots and buried concrete slow every posthole, and 25 metres spreads a day rate much further than 5 metres does.
Who quotes for it
1670 of the 4,012 gardeners listed on this site take on fencing.
Where most of them are: Bristol (32), Leeds (31), Glasgow (29), Exeter (29), Birmingham (28).
Questions about fencing
How long does a new fence take to install?
One day for about 10 metres, six panels, with two fitters on site. Twenty five metres typically runs two to three days. Concrete needs to go off before panels are loaded, so some installers set posts one day and panel the next.
Concrete posts or timber posts?
Concrete posts cost £15 to £35 each, rarely rot, and let panels slide out for replacement with no digging. Timber posts at £10 to £25 look softer and take arris rails for closeboard, but they fail at ground level in ten to fifteen years. Concrete posts paired with concrete gravel boards keep timber out of the soil entirely.