Any gardenres or fencing experts on here?

chez

chez

chez

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Any gardeners or fencing experts on here?

I've had a couple of quotes for fencing in my garden.

One guy has quoted using notched posts all round, the other has quoted for notched on 2 sides and square post on the longest side (which is completely exposed to the wind), claiming that square are going to be stronger.

I haven't got a clue, so would really appreciate if someone could explain the difference between 'notched' and 'square' posts??

Thanks in advance
Chez

PS - if it makes any difference, they are both talking about 'Feather Edge' fencing, built up by hand, rather than using panels..
 
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Aah, I see what you mean.

Although, I don't see why a design around the top would make it weaker ??

That said, it makes a bit of sense, as the other 2 (notched) back onto peoples gardens, so a design might be nice..??
 
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are u in good health? cos if so do it ya self its a lot easier then u imagine

U can hire a mechanical hole digger, buy some post crete its a lot stronger than the stick in post stuff. Get the timbers from merchants u need some 3x2s to go horizontal between post 2 post. Need 3 for each panel. Then buy the feather board get ya self a decent weighted hammer and some lil nails. Find ya self a bit of cut off 3x2 to space all the boards equally. I use to do it all the time me and a m8 would get loads done in a day, few 100 feather board peices :D

Ya local builders mechant will show u everything u need :D
 
Charlie Bravo - That'd be great if you could :)

R5Rich - I could do it myself, but I'd lose more by not going to work than any gardener/fencing person would charge (I'm a contractor, so only get paid when I'm at work).

I wouldn't want to spend my weekends doing it as I end up out of the house for 12 hours a day during the week and those 2 days are the only chance I get to relax properly ;)
 
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Featheredge is the dogs danglies, so much nicer than £10 panels.
Notched posts aren't grooved, they have holes in the side for the Arris rails.

Featheredge - imagine overlapping vertical planks only the planks are wedge shaped in cross section.

Arris rails - triangular section, usually 3 between each pair of posts, upper, middle lower. The featheredge nails to the arris rail.

The end post - sounds as though he wants to use a normal square post with no "holes" in it for the arris to sit in as the holes can trap rain etc and lead to rotting. Seems a bit far fetched to me. If you don't have holes in the post you can use arris rail brackets instead.

Personally I would go with notched concrete posts and concrete gravel boards for serious durability.

Do note that featheredge works out about 4x the material cost of those cheap panels and you COULD go with concrete slotted posts and drop in panels for a lot less cost, easy to replace panels and durable posts.

If it is not too rude - how much did they quote you for the job? I had quotes locally and it was WAY too expensive to get people in to do it.
 
VIRII said:
Featheredge is the dogs danglies, so much nicer than £10 panels.
Notched posts aren't grooved, they have holes in the side for the Arris rails.

Featheredge - imagine overlapping vertical planks only the planks are wedge shaped in cross section.

Arris rails - triangular section, usually 3 between each pair of posts, upper, middle lower. The featheredge nails to the arris rail.

The end post - sounds as though he wants to use a normal square post with no "holes" in it for the arris to sit in as the holes can trap rain etc and lead to rotting. Seems a bit far fetched to me. If you don't have holes in the post you can use arris rail brackets instead.

Personally I would go with notched concrete posts and concrete gravel boards for serious durability.

Do note that featheredge works out about 4x the material cost of those cheap panels and you COULD go with concrete slotted posts and drop in panels for a lot less cost, easy to replace panels and durable posts.

If it is not too rude - how much did they quote you for the job? I had quotes locally and it was WAY too expensive to get people in to do it.
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That's exactly the info I needed :D Thank you.

We have 205ft of fencing in total. One guy quoted around £3200, the other £2200.

Bizzarely, for the rest of the work we are having done on the garden, the more expensive fencer was cheaper, thus bringing his total quote much lower than the guy who quoted less for the fences :confused:
 
chez said:
That's exactly the info I needed :D Thank you.

We have 205ft of fencing in total. One guy quoted around £3200, the other £2200.

Bizzarely, for the rest of the work we are having done on the garden, the more expensive fencer was cheaper, thus bringing his total quote much lower than the guy who quoted less for the fences :confused:
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From memory materials comes to about £1000 per 100ft - at least via places like Wickes etc.

Concrete posts are circa £8 each, Gravelboard about £8 a piece and the wood is stupidly expensive ready cut.
I have not investigated timber yards (used to work in one as a teen when my hand was mashed up) but I recall them being much better prices for the featheredge.

I think the guy who quoted £2200 forgot to add labour lol.

I'm going with concrete posts and gravelboard (the board under the featheredge running horizontally between posts) with arris and featheredge but not for a year or two. For now I'm just going to spend £150 and patch up the existing fence.
 
I don't like the look of concrete posts myself (although as you say, they would be far stronger), so the £3200 bloke suggested 5"x5" posts. On the edge that's exposed to the wind, he was talking about 10/11 foot posts (6ft fence, 2ft trellis and 2/3ft beneath the ground).
 
chez said:
I don't like the look of concrete posts myself (although as you say, they would be far stronger), so the £3200 bloke suggested 5"x5" posts. On the edge that's exposed to the wind, he was talking about 10/11 foot posts (6ft fence, 2ft trellis and 2/3ft beneath the ground).
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What about gravelboard? Or does the 6ft include 6-12" of gravelboard?
I would definately recommend it if you're using featheredge as it will do the rotting and is easy to replace compared to bottom of the featheredge panels.
 
The quote includes Gravelboards (as you can tell my knowledge of fencing is somewhat limited!)
 
Vertical feather edge? only reason I can think of for notched posts (to accept the rails for fixing). In which case if you really do get a lot of wind on one side then not notched would be stronger for that run (although a well skilled craftsman could make this work)
 
malfunkshun said:
Vertical feather edge? only reason I can think of for notched posts (to accept the rails for fixing). In which case if you really do get a lot of wind on one side then not notched would be stronger for that run (although a well skilled craftsman could make this work)
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Yes, vertical feather-edge.

The fence does get rather battered by the wind.

On the other side of the fence, there is about 100ft of field, then a canal, then some more field, then a river, then fields...

There are a few treest, but nowhere near enough to provide any shelter from the winds...
 
i kinda got my post wrong now i think about it, the posts are notched and the horizontal timbers are triangular so they fit into the notches. Makes a very strong fence tho! Then use a bit of timber to space the boards equally and hammer away.
 
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