boundaries
Fencing and fence panels
£110 to £120 per metre is the 2026 rate for a new fence supplied and fitted, putting 11 metres of closeboard at about £1,050. Panels alone span £20 for picket to £135 for composite, and labour is £300 to £400 a day.
What this covers
What it costs. £1,500 is the average UK fencing project in 2026, and £110 to £120 per metre is the working rate supplied and fitted. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Close board, panel and picket fencing
- Concrete and timber posts set in the ground
- Gravel boards and capping rails
- Gates hung to match a run
- Taking away the fence that came down
Worth knowing
Permitted development allows a fence, wall or gate up to two metres, dropping to one metre where it is next to a road used by vehicles. Listed buildings, conservation areas and article 4 directions remove that right.
Planning Portal, fences, gates and garden walls
What is involved
Posts carry the whole fence. Burial depth follows a simple ratio, roughly a third of the height standing above ground, so a 1.8 metre fence wants 600mm in a hole around 300mm across. Concrete posts outlast timber at £15 to £35 each against £10 to £25, and panels drop in and out without the post being touched. Postcrete goes off in minutes and suits a run panelled the same day, while wet mix concrete fills irregular holes better.
Timber rots where it meets soil. Gravel boards take that contact instead of the panel, sitting between posts at ground level and sacrificing themselves each decade at £10 to £30 in timber or £30 to £50 in concrete. Wind is the other force at work, and a solid 1.8 metre panel presents roughly two square metres of sail per bay. Hit and miss and slatted designs at £50 to £120 a panel let air through, which is why exposed and coastal gardens keep losing closeboard and keeping slats.
Boundary ownership has no default rule. Nothing in law makes the left hand or right hand fence yours; title deeds decide it, and where the deeds address it at all the convention is a T-mark on the plan, its stem pointing into the owning property. England allows two metres under permitted development, dropping to one metre next to a highway used by vehicles, with listed buildings, conservation areas and article 4 directions removing the right entirely. Scotland sets a different trigger: one metre where the enclosure fronts a road or comes forward of the principal elevation.
Choosing someone for the job
Posts: ask whether concrete or timber, and how deep each one goes. Gravel boards: ask whether they are included, because a panel resting on soil rots first. Exposure: ask which design suits a windy boundary. Deeds: check who owns the boundary before ordering anything. Disposal: old panels are construction waste, so ask for the CBDU number in England and Wales.
Common questions
How high can a garden fence be?
England allows up to two metres under permitted development, reduced to one metre where the fence sits next to a highway used by vehicles or its footpath. Listed buildings, conservation areas and article 4 directions remove that right. Scotland uses a different trigger: one metre where the enclosure fronts a road or comes forward of the principal elevation.
Which side of the fence is mine?
Nothing in law assigns it. Title deeds decide ownership, and the conventional marking is a T-mark on the title plan, crossbar on the boundary and stem inside the owning plot. Where the deeds say nothing, the boundary is generally treated as shared.