Replacing garden fence

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
18,582
Location
Finchley, London
Hey guys, before I hire a rotivator to turn the soil and get a new lawn down, I need to repair most of the fence. The posts are leaning, cracked, and two fences went down in the storms a while back.

It's too difficult for me to attempt. My builder just came round and quoted me £500 labour, plus it'll be £290 for 4 new 5'x 6' fence panels, 7 slotted concrete posts and cement. So that's about £800 all told. I know £500 isn't unreasonable considering he has to dig out the old posts, put the new ones in, and take away the rubbish, but do you think I'd be able to get it done cheaper, perhaps using a general handyman? I don't expect to pay less for the materials, it's just the labour cost of £500 which is more than I'd expected.

 
bazzabear said:
I don't know, but it does seem like you don't need the skills of a builder, and therefore could go for a cheaper labourer.
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I just rang a handyman and he was honest enough to say that he thinks £500 is a very good price as he says it's very hard to get the old posts out and needs a 'kanger' whatever tool that is. He would have charged more. I guess I need to bite the bullet and go ahead with my builder then.

Also, with a cheaper labourer, I suppose it might be false economy if he doesn't know what he's doing. I mean he might not secure the posts properly and the fences could collapse.
 
We have just renewed our fence panels between us and next door - We have joint ownership of fence and before we came next door had concrete posts and gravel boards fitted - The fence fitter didn't concrete the posts in and they were leaning like yours - Guy next door and myself just dug down on gravel boards and posts and pushed them upright - Hammered wood posts into ground by side of concrete posts and they are now straight - new fence panels and looks fine- Only 6x4 though - So just check your posts are concreted in.

Dave
 
Ok then - the difficult bit is properly planting the new posts and geting it all straight.

Maybe you could save yourself money by doing the destruction bit yourself ahead of time? (Might be fun too)
 
Personally I would look for someone who does fencing and only fencing. The previous owner of our house employed a general builder to do 4 bays of feather board fencing, we opted for a local fencing company to fence off another area.....the difference is chalk and cheese. 30m concrete posts/boards, and feather edge cost £2700. Three men working 9-5 for 5 days.

As mentioned above, you can do the destructive bit yourself, you can hire a breaker for about £50 for a weekend.
 
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considering your in central london i dont see £500 being excesive, also i noticed your garden looks narrow.. do you have side or rear access to the garden or would all the materials need taking through the house?
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, food for thought.


cainer said:
considering your in central london i dont see £500 being excesive, also i noticed your garden looks narrow.. do you have side or rear access to the garden or would all the materials need taking through the house?
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Hi cainer. Yeah, would all have to come through the house, lol. There's no other access. Well, there kind of is if I went across a couple of gardens, but it shouldn't really be a problem bringing through the house.
 
Never can understand why people always want to skimp on their house. Most expensive/important possession you'll own. You wouldn't skimp on a car or personal belongings etc, why the house. (Not speaking directly to the OP) but 500 certainly isn't unreasonable, average £120 a day, 2 people, couple of days work and there's your labour. I'd go with it. If you pay someone less, you'll get a **** job. Cheaper isn't better, you'd end up paying twice.
 
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cainer said:
that does tend to slow the whole job down somewhat, and time is money :)
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Well, my builder will stick to the price he quoted, he won't increase it if it takes a bit longer.

On mjd's point, yes it would be better to get a dedicated fencing professional, but I imagine it would be a lot more expensive. I'll have a word tomorrow with the guy who runs the local tool hire shop in my road, he might be able to recommend someone. I just want it done to a good enough standard so I can sell the place. If it falls down when I'm gone, well.. :p
 
Cosmic182 said:
Never can understand why people always want to skimp on their house. Most expensive/important possession you'll own. You wouldn't skimp on a car or personal belongings etc, why the house. (Not speaking directly to the OP) but 500 certainly isn't unreasonable, average £120 a day, 2 people, couple of days work and there's your labour. I'd go with it. If you pay someone less, you'll get a **** job. Cheaper isn't better, you'd end up paying twice.
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Yep, can't argue with that, you make very fair points. I will no doubt end up going with him. It makes me feel better getting confirmation here that the price is reasonable.
 
tbh thats 1 days work for 2 people, slotted posts and pannels go up in no time
it'd look a lot better if you replaced all the pannels not just four, why dont you try to haggle a little, tell him you'd like him to do the work and ask if he'd consider changing all seven pannels for the £800 quoted
 
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cainer said:
tbh thats 1 days work for 2 people, slotted posts and pannels go up in no time
it'd look a lot better if you replaced all the pannels not just four, why dont you try to haggle a little, tell him you'd like him to do the work and ask if he'd consider changing all seven pannels for the £800 quoted
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It would look better, yeah. It's two days work because there's the removal of the old posts, not just erecting the new ones.

Well it's £500 quoted for labour for fitting 4 panels and removing and replacing 7 posts. The 4 panels and 7 posts, delivery, and cement cost £290, so that's what makes up the £800 (£790). There's actually 10 panels in total running the whole length of the garden, only 6 and half are in view in my photo. £20 a panel x 6 more panels is another £120 making it £910. I suppose I could remove the old panels and fit the new ones myself though, they should all just slide up and out. The posts out of view in my photo are in decent condition and are not tall like the ones in the photo, so they don't need replacing.
 
Depends on how he's going to take the old posts out.

Personally I find bolting some chains to it then using a hoist or even a ratchet jack makes light work of it, then you just remove the bolts and smash in a cold chisel to break the lumps of concrete down - that's not health and safety approved though strictly speaking so I don't think a builder could do it that way.

If he's going to dig out the old posts, make good any hole expansion and then redo the entire fence £800 seems like a good price - pay peanuts get monkeys.
 
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I'd go with a fencer rather than a builder, a fencer did once side of our garden and a builder the other. The fencer side is absolutely perfect, the builder side less so. Don't remember prices, but it was reasonable and only took two of them a day, including getting rid of old posts and concreting in new ones.

Similar length of fence to yours.
 
You're quote seems more than acceptable. That's hard labour getting those old posts in with new.. We just had 10 panels replaced for £460 into existing posts although one had to be replaced. Not sure if you were expecting the builders to to do it at cost. They have to make their living and as you said, it's too much for you.
 
Fence costs seem high, I replaced mine early in the year, cost £350 for 8x9ft wooden posts 7 treated featheredge panels and gravel board, a post hole digger/postcrete/post level tool. Was quoted £750 inc. materials by a local landscape gardener but decided to go it alone.

As most of my old posts had snapped at ground level I just put the first post in next to the old one and then put the half panel at the other end to where it was previously so that the new posts didn't meet the old posts, dig holes with the digger tool, drop post in, fill hole half full with water and add postcrete. Was actually pretty easy just required a bit of energy and a friend to assist.
 
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We had to remove some old posts like that when we worked on a farm during my time at the National Park.

Ended up using a Defender 90 and Defender 110 to pull them out of the ground. Was pretty easy work actually.
 
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