Garden Fencing Cost & Material Calculator

Garden Fencing Guide

What's the key thing to understand about Panel and Post Spacing?

Standard fence panel: 1.83m (6ft) wide. Posts every 1.83m centre-to-centre — or every 1.9m if including 65mm concrete gravel board. Number of posts: (length / 1.83) + 1 for a standard run. End posts: count both ends. Corner posts: count corners once. Standard fence: post + panel + post + panel + post pattern. Wooden posts: 100×100mm × 2.4m for 6ft fence (with 60cm below ground in concrete). Concrete posts: 100×100mm equivalent, slotted to receive panels and gravel boards. Last much longer, 40-60 years, than timber posts, making them worth the extra upfront cost for a fence intended to be a long-term, low-maintenance installation.

What do I need to know about Materials Cost 2026?

Typical UK fence material costs (per 30m run, 6ft height): lap panel + wooden posts: £400-600 (cheapest, 8-12 year lifespan). Lap panel + concrete posts + concrete gravel boards: £900-1,300 (premium, 25-40 year lifespan). Closeboard + concrete: £1,200-1,800 (most durable wood option). Composite/metal: £2,500-5,000+ (most expensive, 30+ year lifespan, low maintenance). Installation costs (labour): £20-30 per metre for standard fencing. £30-50 per metre for premium specifications. Total installed cost for a typical garden fence therefore ranges widely depending on material choice, height, length, and ground conditions — getting several quotes is worthwhile given this range.

What do I need to know about Planning and Boundaries?

Permitted Development (England): fences up to 2m in back garden, 1m bordering highway, without planning permission. Listed buildings or conservation areas: planning permission usually required for any fence. Always check title deeds for boundary ownership — the 'T' mark on plans indicates the side responsible for maintenance. The fence belongs to the side with the T. The 'good side' (smooth side facing out): convention but NOT a legal requirement. Boundary fences in conflict: an extremely common cause of neighbour disputes, which is why confirming ownership and getting agreement before replacing a shared fence is worth the extra effort.

What do I need to know about Installation Tips?

Concreting posts: dig hole minimum 60cm deep × 30cm diameter for 6ft fence. Set post plumb. Pour Postcrete (rapid-set concrete) around post — sets in 15 minutes. Use a level on two sides to ensure plumb. Important: don't move post for 1 hour, fully cured 24 hours. Setting panels: use gravel boards — concrete or treated timber — between posts and panels. Lifts panel base above ground/grass, prevents rot. Treating wooden panels: apply preservative annually for first 2 years, then every 2-3 years (more often for fence bases in constant ground contact).

What should I know about Fence Height and Planning Permission?

In England and Wales, fences up to 2m high generally don't need planning permission under Permitted Development rights, but this drops to 1m if the fence is adjacent to a highway used by vehicles (so a front garden fence facing a road is limited to 1m without permission, while the same fence in a back garden can go up to 2m). Boundary fences in a conservation area, or where a property is listed, may have tighter restrictions regardless of height. It's also worth checking title deeds before replacing a boundary fence — deeds sometimes specify which neighbour is responsible for which boundary and may include covenants about fence type or height, separate from the planning permission question entirely, and disputes over this are a common source of neighbour conflict when a fence is replaced without checking first.

What do I need to know about Groundworks Costs Often Missed in Fencing Quotes?

Beyond posts, panels, and fixings, fencing projects often have groundwork costs that get underestimated: concreting in posts (roughly one 20kg postmix bag per post for a standard domestic fence post hole, at £5-8 per bag), removing an old fence and disposing of it (skip hire or tip fees, plus labour time which can be substantial if old concrete footings need breaking out), and dealing with sloping ground (which may need stepped panels or a sloped rail design, both costing more in labour and sometimes materials than a flat run). Post spacing also affects total cost more than people expect: closer-set posts (every 1.8-2m, the standard panel width) cost more in posts and concrete than a close-board fence built entirely from individual boards and fewer structural posts spanning further apart, though the latter needs stronger, more expensive horizontal rails to span the greater distance.

What should I know about Boundary Ownership and Who Pays for Fencing?

Before replacing or repairing a boundary fence, it's worth establishing who actually owns it, since this affects who's responsible for the cost and who has the legal right to make changes. In England and Wales there's no automatic rule that the fence on a particular side (e.g. the left) belongs to a particular neighbour — ownership is usually shown by a 'T' mark on the property's title plan, with the T pointing into the land of the owner responsible for that boundary; no T mark generally means shared responsibility. Check the property deeds or title plan (available from the Land Registry) before assuming, and discuss with the neighbour before replacing a boundary structure that might be jointly owned, since altering or removing a shared fence without agreement can create a dispute. If a fence is genuinely shared, costs are typically split, though there's no strict legal obligation for a neighbour to contribute to improvements beyond basic repair unless a boundary agreement says otherwise. For a solely owned fence, you're generally free to replace it as you wish provided height and planning rules are followed, but it's good practice to inform neighbours before work starts, particularly if access to their side is needed.

Comparing Fence Types: Lifespan and Typical Characteristics

Worked total-cost example: a 20m boundary run using standard 1.83m-wide panel fencing at 1.8m height. Number of bays ≈ 20 / 1.83 ≈ 11, needing 11 panels and 12 posts (one at each end of every bay). At typical per-unit prices, panels (around £25-£60 each depending on quality) cost roughly £275-£660 in total; posts (timber or concrete-reinforced, around £10-£25 each) add roughly £120-£300; postcrete/concrete for setting the posts (around 2 bags per post at £6-£8 a bag) adds a further £140-£190. Materials alone therefore typically total somewhere in the region of £535-£1,150 for this run, before labour — which, for straightforward panel fencing on level ground, is often quoted per metre of run rather than as a day rate, commonly adding a further £15-£35 per metre if a contractor is doing the work rather than the homeowner. On sloping ground, panels often need to be stepped (each bay fitted level, with a small gap under the panel that steps down the slope) rather than raked to follow the ground, which adds labour time and sometimes extra gravel boards compared with a flat-site installation of the same length.

Boundary Ownership: A Few Facts Worth Knowing (Not Legal Advice)

Before replacing a boundary fence, it's worth checking who actually owns it, since this affects who's entitled to replace or alter it. There's a common belief that the "T mark" convention — a T symbol on a property's title plan pointing toward the boundary — universally indicates ownership and maintenance responsibility, but this is a customary convention rather than an automatic legal rule: in England and Wales there is no general legal requirement that either neighbour must have, or maintain, a boundary fence at all, and the title deeds or Land Registry title plan for the specific property are the only reliable source for who, if anyone, is recorded as responsible for a given boundary. If a fence sits exactly on the boundary line rather than clearly within one garden, it's sensible to discuss replacement with the neighbour before starting work, both as a courtesy and to avoid a dispute over a shared structure — and if the existing fence is being replaced with something taller, more solid, or in a different style, flagging the change in advance tends to avoid friction even where no permission is formally required. This is general background information, not legal advice — anyone with a genuine boundary dispute or uncertainty over ownership should check their specific title documents or get advice from a solicitor or chartered surveyor. It's also worth knowing that which side a fence's support rails and posts face doesn't determine ownership either — facing posts toward one's own side is simply a common installation convention, not evidence of legal responsibility for the fence.