Erskine, Renfrewshire
Fencing and decking in Erskine
Erskine gardens sit close to the Clyde with very little between them and the wind coming up the river. That single fact should determine how a fence here is built, and it is why panel fences that would last fifteen years inland come down in Erskine after five.
Panels act like sails
A standard lap panel presents a solid face to the wind and transfers all of that load into the posts. In an exposed garden the panel usually survives and the post snaps at ground level, or the whole run leans. Close-boarded fencing, built board by board onto rails, is heavier, stronger and far more repairable, because a damaged board is a board rather than a whole panel.
It is almost always the posts
When we are asked to look at a failing fence, the posts have gone at ground level nine times out of ten. Replacing panels on failed posts buys you one season. If the fence moves when you push it, you are replacing the fence rather than repairing it, and it is better to hear that at the quote.
How we build it
Posts set in concrete, deep enough to be below where the ground freezes and with a collar generous enough that the concrete does the work rather than the soil. Gravel boards along the bottom so no vertical board stands in wet ground. Pressure-treated timber throughout and galvanised or stainless fixings, because cheap fixings bleed rust down a new fence inside a season.
Decking in a wet climate
Decking here needs airflow underneath it and a slight fall so water runs off rather than sitting in the grooves. Built tight to the ground with no ventilation it will be slippery within a year and rotten within five. Where a deck gets very little sun we will sometimes suggest composite instead and explain the cost difference rather than just quoting timber.
Before & after
Replacing a Collapsing Boundary Fence
A rotted painted panel fence, held up mostly by the ivy growing through it, replaced with close-board timber on properly set posts.