Fencing in Torbay & South Devon

Fences do not usually fail gradually. They lean a bit, then one gale finishes the job and you are looking at panels in next door's garden. We replace boundary fences properly across Torbay and the South Hams, from a single blown-over panel to a full run.

The posts are the job

Almost every failed fence we are called to has sound-ish panels and rotten posts. Timber holds water where it meets the ground, and that is where it goes first. Once a post has gone at the base the panel it carries is only being held up by its neighbours, so the failure spreads along the run.

That is why patching rarely saves money. Slotting a new panel between two rotten posts buys a season, and you have already spent the cost of the panel. On the boundary we replaced this summer the owners had bought a couple of panels and tried exactly that before calling us, which is what most people do and entirely fair enough. It just does not hold.

How we do it

Old posts and concrete come out. Not cut off at ground level and left in. If the old footings stay put, every new post has to shuffle along to dodge them and you lose the straight line before you have started.

New treated posts, set firm and plumb. We check the line and the tops as we work along rather than sorting it out at the end, because a fence that is 20mm out at one end is 100mm out at the other.

Gravel along the base. It keeps wet soil and planting off the bottom of the panels, which is exactly what shortens their life, and it finishes the edge so the run reads as proper work rather than a repair.

What we fit

Standard overlap and featheredge panels are what most gardens want and what we fit most often. We also do closeboard where you need something heavier, trellis toppers for a bit of height without the wind load, gates, and post repairs where the panels are genuinely still good.

On exposed coastal boundaries around Brixham and Salcombe we will usually talk you out of solid panels. A fence that the wind cannot pass through is a sail, and it will either come down or take the posts with it. Slatted or hit-and-miss lets the gusts through and lasts far longer in that position.

Clearing the old fence away

Old fencing is our problem, not yours. We are an upper tier registered waste carrier (Environment Agency CBDU637846) with our own trailer, so the whole lot goes in one load rather than sitting in your garden waiting for a skip.

Where the old timber is still sound we will always ask whether it is worth reusing first. On the pool deck job we finished this summer, every usable board from the old deck was cleaned up and rebuilt as the screening around the new one, which saved the client buying in fencing timber and looks better than new material would have.

Where we work

Paignton, Torquay, Brixham, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Teignmouth, Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Salcombe and across the South Hams. We are based in Paignton, so most of Torbay is a short run for us.

What it costs

It depends on the run length, the panel type, how bad the old footings are and whether we can get a trailer near the boundary. We will come and look, and you get a written price before anything is booked in. No charge for the visit.

Whose fence is it?

This causes more neighbour friction than anything else in a garden, and there is no general rule that the left-hand fence is yours. Your deeds may mark boundaries with a T-mark showing which side carries the responsibility, and if they do not, then strictly nobody is obliged to fence at all. In practice most boundaries get sorted amicably once someone starts the conversation.

Two things worth knowing before we start. Panels and posts should sit on your own land if the boundary is yours, and we work to that line rather than guessing. And if the fence is shared or the ownership is genuinely unclear, it is worth a word with the neighbour first, because a fence replaced without warning is how disputes begin. We are happy to talk it through with both parties on site.

How long it takes

A straightforward run of six to eight panels with reasonable access is usually a day, sometimes a day and a half if the old concrete footings fight us. Larger boundaries, sloping ground, stepped runs and anything where materials have to come through the house take longer, and we will tell you honestly at the quote rather than discovering it on the day.

We do not leave a boundary open overnight where we can avoid it. If a job has to run over, we make sure the garden is secure before we go, which matters if you have a dog or small children.