Closeboard garden fencing

Moneygoes2money

Tradesman AT -

To supply and fix 4.8m at 5 feet high with 1 foot trellis the rest (approx. 32.2m) at 5 feet high plus gate - £742.30 (inc. VAT)

To supply and fix 4.8m at 5 feet high with 1 foot trellis the rest (approx.) 32.2m) at 5 feet high - £623.94 (inc. VAT)

Some brickwork is needed but separate quote not received for this yet.

Total quote (exc. brickwork quote) - £1,366.24

Tradesman AG -

Supply and erect a new closeboard fence 4.5m at 6 feet high and the rest (approx. 32.5m) at 5 feet high down the left and right side - £1,621.50 (inc. VAT)

Supply and erect a gate at the end of the fence in the left hand side - £146.88 (inc. VAT)

Make good the area that will have been reduced by you with four new 600x600 slabs - £135.13 (note: this includes the brickwork referred to above)

Total quote - £1,903.51

Both tradesman were obtained from checkatrade.com. I'm looking for value for money rather than the absolute lowest quote because a low price may come at the expense of unreliable tradespeople and shoddy workmanship.

Any advice or comments would be most welcome.

roses

Bloody hell, that is a lot. I would go through the yellow pages & get at least 5 more people round for a quote.

Mine was a simple fence construction in London. 7m of plain fence 6ft high with concrete posts for £550 inc all materials.

Moneygoes2money

roses wrote: »

Bloody hell, that is a lot. I would go through the yellow pages & get at least 5 more people round for a quote.

Mine was a simple fence construction in London. 7m of plain fence 6ft high with concrete posts for £550 inc all materials.

Thanks very much for your quick reply.

Did you have panels or closeboard fencing?

And was your fence on one or two sides?

We are having closeboard fencing, which is more expensive than panels, on both sides of our garden (we have party fences and one neighbour is willing to meet half the cost but the other neighbour doesn't want to know).

roses

I think it was panel as it was 7 boards of fence & it was only one side.

Technically though you should only be paying for one side of the fence as you only own one side. Unless you are requesting a change of fencing due to asthetics.

Moneygoes2money

roses wrote: »

I think it was panel as it was 7 boards of fence & it was only one side.

Technically though you should only be paying for one side of the fence as you only own one side. Unless you are requesting a change of fencing due to asthetics.

Many thanks for your reply roses. Our fences are party fences, which means both neighbours should be sharing the cost. One neighbour has agreed to share cost but the other neighbour will not be assisting so we will meet full cost and choose tradesman, type of fence and, as it's closeboard, they can have the ugly side!

Spork

Hi Mg2m

Our fence was 6m at 5ft plus 3m at 3ft, closeboard, wooden posts, for £400 inc VAT - this was the lowest quote we had and they did an excellent job

we had other quotes which included concrete posts, ranging from £800 to (iirc) about £1200 - no brickwork or gates involved so I'm not sure what to suggest, although this does sound rather high to me, even if the cost is split

just a quick one - is your 'unassisting' neighbour happy to have the 'ugly' side? My MIL's neighbours kicked up a stink when she had her fence replaced (after they had complained to her about the state of the original one) even though they allowed the workmen onto their property and watched them while they built the fence - they waited till after it was done before they complained!

Moneygoes2money

Spork wrote: »

Hi Mg2m

Our fence was 6m at 5ft plus 3m at 3ft, closeboard, wooden posts, for £400 inc VAT - this was the lowest quote we had and they did an excellent job

we had other quotes which included concrete posts, ranging from £800 to (iirc) about £1200 - no brickwork or gates involved so I'm not sure what to suggest, although this does sound rather high to me, even if the cost is split

just a quick one - is your 'unassisting' neighbour happy to have the 'ugly' side? My MIL's neighbours kicked up a stink when she had her fence replaced (after they had complained to her about the state of the original one) even though they allowed the workmen onto their property and watched them while they built the fence - they waited till after it was done before they complained!

Thanks very much for your reply Spork.

I'm thinking the quote from tradesman AT may not be too bad because our fences total 37m in length compared to your 9m and ours are 4.8m at 6 feet plus 32.2m at 5 feet compared to your 6m at 5 feet and 3m at 3 feet, in other words, ours will be a bit longer and higher. Also, we are having two fences for that price. Both neighbours are not bothered whether they get the 'ugly' side.

cjintheuk

hello i did a fence recently in ash for a customer approx 45 metres 6ft high including gravel board wooden posts capping on top of the boards and caps on all the posts the materials cost approx £1000 including the cement and ballast for the holes labour was approx £620you need to shop around for the best fence prices from various fencing firms and sawmills in your area there can be a huge difference the labour cost above was higher then usual as the fence line needed substantial clearing out and trees/roots removed

slogger

That price does seem fair as length of fence over 32m, but please check that contractors are competent fence erectors,, and not jack of all trades, e.i.landscapers, with hand built closboard fencing, what you do not want is rails fitted with diy steel arris rail brackets, they look hideous, insist on Posts morticed for 3 tennoned arris rails, and make sure a gravel board is fitted with a center stump. if using ready made panels and slotted posts, centre stump not required.
RJF A fencing Contractor with 40 years experience.

roses

One thing I wish I had done before I got my fence done was specifiy the looks!! Mine is a bit ugly compared to the neighbours. Mine is a 6ft fence panel whereas my neighbour has a nice 5ft panel with some trellis on top.

Locoblade

We close boarded our entire garden, about 30m of 5'6" with 6" gravel board (ie 6ft total), and another 20m or so 3'6" with 6" gravel board. I can't give you an idea on price as I did it with the help of my brother who's in the trade, but I wouldn't worry too much about seeing the "ugly" side personally, in fact I'd say its worth considering specifically having it that way round. We put the flat side outwards as it faces a public footpath and apart from anything else, we didn't want the rails providing a nice easy way for somebody to climb the fence into the garden. Im glad we did now anyway, I actually think the rails look better than the plain flat boards on the other side, the rails break up the slab sided look and gives it more character IMHO. We do have proper morticed posts all round though (would look horrible with the pressed steel brackets), and we even morticed our own blank posts for the corners rather than end up with a corner post with mortices on the outside face that weren't used.

If you really want to save money and the fitter agreed to it, you could even ask them just to erect the posts/rails and gravel boards, then put the closed board on yourself or ask if you can help do the closed boarding to save time. Getting the posts level and straight is the tricky bit. Putting on closed board is a bit time consuming but not rocket science, you just need something to ensure you get a consistent overlap with each board, a spirit level to occasionally check you're not straying, and remember to start planning the spacing a few boards ahead when you near a post, so you don't end up with a gap thats too wide for one final board, but too narrow for two.

I think with the missus and I working in tandem, one nailing, one passing boards/nails, we were rattling off 10ft bays in about 30 mins IIRC