Close-board fencing in East Sussex. Properly explained.

What close-board actually is

A close-board fence is not a fence panel. It’s built on site, post by post, board by board. Properly treated posts go in the ground first, arris rails get notched in between them, and feather-edge boards are nailed on, overlapping each other by about an inch, until the run is closed up. A capping rail goes along the top, a gravel board sits along the bottom, and that’s the fence.

When most people say “fence panels” they actually want close-board. The two look similar from across the garden. Up close, they aren’t the same job. A panel fence is a factory-made unit dropped between posts. A close-board fence is a built thing, like a piece of joinery sat outside.

It’s the traditional English garden fence. The good ones you walk past in Heathfield and Battle, the ones still standing after fifteen winters, are almost all close-board. Once you know what to look for at the base and along the top, you stop noticing them and start noticing the cheap ones.

Why it’s specified

For a few reasons that all point the same way.

It lasts the longest. A properly built close-board run will see fifteen years in East Sussex, more in a sheltered garden, less on a coastal south-facing boundary. A panel fence on the same line is usually looking tired and being replaced within a few years.

It handles wind. Feather-edge boards overlap, so the line is solid and the wind goes around it rather than through it. Panels do the same job but they’re held in by clips at four points, which is where they go in a gale. Close-board is fixed all the way along each rail, which is why you see panels in the next-door garden and close-board still standing.

It can be repaired in parts. One board cracks, you replace the board. One post goes at the ground line, you replace the post and re-fix the rails. With panels you replace the whole panel. With close-board you replace what’s broken. Over fifteen years that’s a meaningful saving.

It looks like a single piece of work. A run of panels reads as a row of squares. A close-board run reads as one continuous fence, especially on a slope it can follow the ground, rather than just dropping down in sections. On a long boundary that matters more than people expect.

The spec we use

This is the bit retailer pages and the DIY videos skim over, and it’s the bit that decides whether the fence makes it.

Pressure-treated timber rated for ground contact and permanently wet conditions. Anything less, is rated for above-ground use only and will rot at the ground line within five to seven years. However if the ground lays wet all winter or you are closer to the coast we recommend concrete posts to give you the longevity the job deserves, slightly more at the time but cheaper than doing it twice.

Arris rails top, bottom, and middle on tall runs. A standard 1.8m close-board takes three arris rails, with an option for a top rail and capping.

Gravel board at the base. Either a concrete gravel board, or a treated timber gravel board. The gravel board sits between the ground and the bottom of the feather-edge. Without it, the end grain of the boards is sat on wet soil, which is where rot starts. With one in, the feather-edge stays dry and you double the life of the timber.

Capping rail along the top. A capping rail sheds water off the top end grain of the feather-edge. End grain is the most water-vulnerable part of any timber, and to be honest in my opinion it just looks better. A run without capping ages from the top down, the weather taking its toll on the timber that much faster, then the boards crumble before the rest of the fence has gone. Capping costs little to fit and adds years to the fence.

Nails, not staples. Galvanised nails through the feather-edge into the arris rails. Long enough to clear the rail and bite into the back. Staples are a panel-fence shortcut and they pull out. We don’t fit fences with staples.

Post depth and concrete

What makes up a 6ft closebaord fence? the posts are 2700mm the feathers are 1650mm with a 150mm gravel board meaning the posts are concreted in the ground down to almost a metre.

Postcrete is what holds the post. The right way to use it is to set the post, pour the postcrete dry into the hole, add water on top, compact it in and let it go off. The wrong way is to half-fill the hole, drop the post in dry, and hope. The post needs concrete all the way around it, top to bottom of the hole, with a small haunch above ground level so water runs away from the post rather than into the hole.

The haunch is the bit a lot of jobs skip. If the concrete finishes flat with the ground, water pools around the post collar and the timber soaks up moisture exactly where you don’t want it. A small haunch, sloping away from the post in every direction, is the difference between a post that lasts fifteen years and one that lasts seven.

The ground question

Sussex ground varies more than people realise.

Clay round Battle and inland holds water. A post in clay sits wet for months at a time, which is hard on the timber and harder on the postcrete bond. We dig wider holes in clay, sometimes 300mm across, and use a touch more concrete so the post is properly encased.

Chalk round Rye is rare in East Sussex but turns up in pockets. Chalk drains well and digs reasonably; standard depth and a standard postcrete mix do the job. The risk on chalk is dryness in summer cracking the bond at the post collar, so we make sure the haunch is properly formed.

Whatever the ground, we walk it before we quote and we tell you what we’re going to do differently. That’s why the close-board number per metre moves between similar-looking jobs.

The East Sussex coastal angle

Anything within about five miles of the coast, Hastings, Bexhill, Fairlight, Rye, picks up salt off the wind. Salt accelerates corrosion on nails and fittings, and it draws moisture into untreated end grain.

What we do differently near the coast and wet areas

Concrete posts and gravel boards, treated Timber is an excellent material but its still wood after all and will only ever work for so long

Galvanised or stainless fixings throughout, not just at the rails. The capping rail nails matter as much as the structural ones because they sit at the top of the fence taking weather all year.

Common mistakes that cut life in half

These are the things we find when we lift an old run that’s failed at year seven.

No gravel board. The feather-edge is sat on wet soil. The boards wicked water for years and the bottom 100mm is soft.

cheap posts dressed up as “treated”. They look the same on day one. At the ground line, five years in, they snap in your hand.

Arris rails fixed the wrong way up. The arris rail has a shape, a triangular cross-section, and the flat face goes against the post with the apex pointing into the garden. Fitted upside down, the rail collects water along the top edge and rots from the inside.

Postcrete dropped in dry with no water and no haunch. The concrete never sets properly and the post moves the first time the wind hits it.

Cheap thin feather-edge with no overlap or only a few millimetres of overlap. The boards shrink in winter and the line gaps out. Once light shows through your fence, every dog and child in the postcode knows.

Staples instead of nails. They pull. The boards walk loose. By year three, half of them are flapping.

Lifespan and repair

A properly built close-board run in East Sussex will see fifteen years on a sheltered inland boundary, ten to twelve on a coastal one, and around eight if the boards are facing the prevailing south-westerly without any wind break behind them.

When something fails, we don’t replace the whole run. We pull the failed post, drop a new treated post in, re-fix the arris rails into the new post, and put the boards back. If a few boards have gone, we cut them out and slot new feather-edge in to match. If a section of capping has lifted, we re-fix or replace the run of capping rather than ripping the lot off.

The repair logic is the same one we use on every fence: patch what’s failed, keep what’s good, rebuild only when the spec is the problem rather than one piece of timber. There’s more on the repair-versus-rebuild decision at our fence repairs page.

What close-board costs in East Sussex

Installed, the price band across East Sussex in 2026 sits between £80 and £100 per linear metre, depending on:

• Height. 1.8m is the standard then it varies from there
• Ground. Clay and sandstone take longer to dig and sometimes need spurs. That’s where the higher end of the range comes in.
• Access. A boundary you can reach from the road with a vehicle is one price. A back garden where every post and rail comes through a side passage is another. A run only reachable through the house is the most expensive of all.
• Gates. A fence with two gates is more work per linear metre than a fence with none. Gates want their own posts, a different bracing approach, and ironmongery that changes from gate to gate
• Removal of the old fence. If we’re taking out a failed run before we put the new one in, that adds a day or so depending on length.

We price per metre after a site visit. The Checkatrade snippet you’ll see saying “£45 per panel” is referring to a supply-only panel from a builders’ merchant, not an installed close-board run with quality treated posts and the rest. Different number, different job.

If you want a written quote for your boundary, send us the details and we’ll come and look.

The short version

• Close-board is a fence built on site, not a panel slotted between posts. Feather-edge boards lapped onto arris rails between properly treated posts, gravel board at the base, capping rail at the top.
• Specified properly, it lasts fifteen years in East Sussex. Specified cheaply, it’s gone in five.
• The spec items that decide the difference are: treated class posts, arris rails the right way up, a gravel board, a capping rail, postcrete with a haunch, and galvanised nails instead of staples.
• Within five miles of the coast, the spec hardens further: larger or concrete posts more likely, galvanised fixings throughout, capping always advised.
• Installed in 2026, a close-board run sits between £70 and £120 per linear metre depending on height, ground, access and gates.

If you’re between Hastings, Bexhill, Battle, Rye, Crowborough or the villages between and you’re weighing close-board against panels, or you’ve had a quote and want a second look, send us a note with the rough length and any photos you have. We’ll tell you straight what we’d do and what it would cost. If the right answer is a panel fence or a repair on the existing run, we’ll say that too.

More on the service itself at close-board fencing, with examples of recent runs and our standard spec.