Panel fencing

What it is

Panel fencing uses factory-made timber panels, usually six feet by six feet, slotted between posts and sat on a gravel board at the base. The panel itself can be overlap, waney-edge, closeboard-style, decorative top or plain. The structural job, though, is done by the posts and the gravel boards; the panel is the infill.

Put up on the right spec, a panel fence goes the distance. Put up on the wrong spec, cheap softwood panels on cheap posts with no gravel boards, it’s sagging in four and the panels are warped by year six. The panels aren’t the weak point; the posts and the base detail almost always are.

When a panel fence is the right call

• Your budget per metre is tighter than a close-board build and you’d rather have a shorter-life fence now than wait for the bigger job.
• The run is in a sheltered garden, away from the worst of the prevailing south-westerly.
• You’re replacing an identical panel fence and the posts and gravel boards are fine; you just need the panels swapped.
• You want to match an existing panel run on a neighbouring boundary.
• The line is straight, the ground is reasonably level, and a panel run will actually fit without awkward cuts.

How we build it

• Properly treated posts, concreted in with postcrete. Non-negotiable. Cheap posts rot at the ground line in five years. Properly treated timber is pressure-treated to the right grade and lasts the life of the fence.
• Concrete gravel boards at the base. Keeps the timber panel off wet soil, which is where the rot starts. On long runs, concrete boards also give the run a steadier base on uneven ground.
• Panels in panel clips or slotted posts. Slotted concrete posts are one option; timber posts with galvanised clips are the other. Either works, we pick to suit the run and the look.
• Capping on the posts. A post cap sheds water off the end grain and adds a couple of years to the posts’ life.

What it costs

Priced per metre after a site visit, with the panel spec and the post spec written on the quote. Length, height, ground conditions, removal of the existing fence, slope and gate integration all move the number. We put a written quote in front of you within two working days.

What we won’t do

We won’t fit cheap posts to win a quote, even on a panel run. The panels might last, but if the posts go at five you’re paying again to have the whole line lifted and re-set. If your budget won’t stretch to properly treated posts, we’ll be straight with you that we’re not the right outfit for that job.

If you want the fence that lasts longest for the money and the run is exposed, we’ll usually steer you to close-board instead. Honest opinion, not a hard sell.