[[email protected]]

Hi all

I need to replace approx 60 feet of garden fence, which currently is
made from wooden posts, 5ft high larch-lap panels and timber gravel
boards. I would like to have something that lasts a long time. I am
therefore thinking of putting up a close-board fence with concrete
posts and gravel boards. I have seen adverts for close-board panels,
which presumably are quicker to put up than the traditional approach
of nailing individual planks to horizontal rails. However, are close-
board panels as robust as a traditional close-board fence?

thanks

Julian

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article ,
" writes:
Hi all

I need to replace approx 60 feet of garden fence, which currently is
made from wooden posts, 5ft high larch-lap panels and timber gravel
boards. I would like to have something that lasts a long time. I am
therefore thinking of putting up a close-board fence with concrete
posts and gravel boards. I have seen adverts for close-board panels,
which presumably are quicker to put up than the traditional approach
of nailing individual planks to horizontal rails. However, are close-
board panels as robust as a traditional close-board fence?

The panels are nowhere near as robust -- consider them to be
consumables. Various neighbours have them and they have to
replace a few each year. Replacement in the concrete posts is
easy unless you chose to do it on a windy day, as I saw one
neighbour attempting with 6' high ones. They can blow out of
concrete posts, where they probably wouldn't have blown out
of timber posts. I would also say less suitable as a boundary
where kids might play or run into them, as again they can pop
under pressure.

I've built a few fences over the years, and have done arris
rail fences with feather-edged bording. The oldest was built
in 1986 or 1987 and is still rock solid and I've never treated
it with anything. The timber posts are set in metaposts so the
timber doesn't quite touch the ground (actually, that original
fence used Fensock post sockets which were better than anything
I've seen recently.) Neighbours have generally completely
replaced their panel fences a couple of times over that period.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[[email protected]]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
" writes:

Hi all

I need to replace approx 60 feet of garden fence, which currently is
made from wooden posts, 5ft high larch-lap panels and timber gravel
boards. I would like to have something that lasts a long time. I am
therefore thinking of putting up a close-board fence with concrete
posts and gravel boards. I have seen adverts for close-board panels,
which presumably are quicker to put up than the traditional approach
of nailing individual planks to horizontal rails. However, are close-
board panels as robust as a traditional close-board fence?

The panels are nowhere near as robust -- consider them to be
consumables. Various neighbours have them and they have to
replace a few each year. Replacement in the concrete posts is
easy unless you chose to do it on a windy day, as I saw one
neighbour attempting with 6' high ones. They can blow out of
concrete posts, where they probably wouldn't have blown out
of timber posts. I would also say less suitable as a boundary
where kids might play or run into them, as again they can pop
under pressure.

I've built a few fences over the years, and have done arris
rail fences with feather-edged bording. The oldest was built
in 1986 or 1987 and is still rock solid and I've never treated
it with anything. The timber posts are set in metaposts so the
timber doesn't quite touch the ground (actually, that original
fence used Fensock post sockets which were better than anything
I've seen recently.) Neighbours have generally completely
replaced their panel fences a couple of times over that period.

IIRC Screwfix or Toolstation do some connectors where the post
doesnt meet the ground, thus avoinding ground level rot.

Gravel boards keep the fence bottom dry, another option is just to
mount the timber panels a couple of inches off the ground.

I've not used concrete posts, but have heard there are some rubbish
quality ones about that dont last.


NT

[[email protected]]

wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
" writes:

Hi all

I need to replace approx 60 feet of garden fence, which currently is
made from wooden posts, 5ft high larch-lap panels and timber gravel
boards. I would like to have something that lasts a long time. I am
therefore thinking of putting up a close-board fence with concrete
posts and gravel boards. I have seen adverts for close-board panels,
which presumably are quicker to put up than the traditional approach
of nailing individual planks to horizontal rails. However, are close-
board panels as robust as a traditional close-board fence?

The panels are nowhere near as robust -- consider them to be
consumables. Various neighbours have them and they have to
replace a few each year. Replacement in the concrete posts is
easy unless you chose to do it on a windy day, as I saw one
neighbour attempting with 6' high ones. They can blow out of
concrete posts, where they probably wouldn't have blown out
of timber posts. I would also say less suitable as a boundary
where kids might play or run into them, as again they can pop
under pressure.

I've built a few fences over the years, and have done arris
rail fences with feather-edged bording. The oldest was built
in 1986 or 1987 and is still rock solid and I've never treated
it with anything. The timber posts are set in metaposts so the
timber doesn't quite touch the ground (actually, that original
fence used Fensock post sockets which were better than anything
I've seen recently.) Neighbours have generally completely
replaced their panel fences a couple of times over that period.

IIRC Screwfix or Toolstation do some connectors where the post
doesnt meet the ground, thus avoinding ground level rot.

Gravel boards keep the fence bottom dry, another option is just to
mount the timber panels a couple of inches off the ground.

I've not used concrete posts, but have heard there are some rubbish
quality ones about that dont last.


NT

new one:
http://www.wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Fence


NT