Introduction
You might think that choosing a new garden fence is an absolute piece of cake, a walk in the park if you will- something that doesn’t require much thought, and can just be purchased straight away?
However, what can sometimes occur, is that if all the different fencing options are not considered, is that you end up trying to replace or repair one broken fence, and then you are faced again with repairing the new fence once again in a relatively short period of time, simply because the wrong fence has been purchased a second time.
Sometimes you may have to repair, or in some instances completely replace the whole wooden fence again if the fence is simply not suited to that garden. For example, in an area where there are high winds example coming straight off the sea, because you live into a coastal area, the fence may constantly be bombarded with strong gusts of winds, day and night lashing up against the fence, making it move with the force of the wind.
This would simply mean that the panel fence would be unsuitable for such a garden near the sea, because of its thin slatted wood that’s often used to build a panel fence, is likely to become broken or damaged in a short period of time, resulting in the homeowner having to build another fence, shortly after building the last.
Equally a feather edge fence with concrete posts, that’s built in an area with really boggy ground might be a good example of a fence that unsuitable for that location, because the weight of the concrete post might be too heavy, and the post may not be properly anchored into the ground and therefore drag the whole fence over on the floor.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to have a quick chat with a fencing contractor to see which type of wooden fencing might suit your garden.
How to Choose the best fence for your garden
We think there are many things to consider when choosing a garden fence, therefore it’s a good idea to stick the kettle on, have a brew, and have a chat with your fencing contractor about which type of fence that they would recommend. For example if you want a low maintenance type of fence that never needs painting? Well you might want a composite fence. Do you want fence that is low-cost yet quick to build? Well, you may want a panel fence. Do you want a more decorative type of fence? Then you may want a fence with trellis at the top? So growing plants can grow along the top of the fence?
There are simply so many different types of fence, we often need to meet our customers, see what they want and the fence and then we can recommend different options.
What types of fencing do you often recommend for use in a back garden?
There are many different types of wooden fencing that you could for a back garden, for example this could range from as wide as choosing hardwood fencing, which is very expensive option normally, it’s the most expensive option that we offer, right through to say a panel fence which is our cheapest option that we offer.
Here are the most popular fencing options that we offer:
Feather edge
By an absolute country mile, we would say, here at hyden bros, that the most popular type of fencing that our customers choose, is feather edge. You might not know what feather edge is, but you’ve most definitely seen it before, that’s because we would say here in the UK it’s probably the most commonly used type of fencing for both businesses, as well as many homeowners.
The benefits of feather edge are clear, it’s very affordable, it can be built quickly, and if the timber is high quality, then this fence can be very durable.
Feather edge is also referred to as close board fencing, essentially, it’s the same thing, it’s made from vertical feather edge slats, , which are placed to overlap, and then the whole fence gets strengthened by what are called wooden rails, which run along normally the top and bottom of the fence.
Feather edge comes into different options, for example it can be pressure treated green timber, which we would say the majority of the” fencing that we build is made using pressure treated green timber.
We can use, but we use much less often is wood which is been tipped in a creosote.
Lap panel fencing
We would say another really popular option with our customers is something called a lap panel fencing, we can build this as well.
Trellis fencing
If you are looking for a garden fence, which is perfectly suited for most residential properties, then we might recommend to you a Trellis fence.
This is simply a type of garden fencing where you could have wooden trellis that runs all the way along the top of the garden fence.
This is an excellent fencing option if you want to grow climbing plants right along your fence.
Obviously the growing plants will take some time to grow, and to wind themselves around the wooden trellis work, but once they have, they can really enhance the fence because you will have a plants which can grow along the top of fence which improves your privacy and also really enhances your whole garden.
Trellis fencing around your bins
In most areas now a lot of us have sometimes multiple wheelie bins, and for a lot of us, we dont like to look at wheelie bins say from our patio doors or from say the kitchen window.
We would rather the wheelie bins to be out of sight, so what we could do is we can build feather edge fence, and we can build an enclosure around your wheelie bins, and you might even want trellis work around the top of the fencing, so that the climbing plants can grow up the trellis work and this can help to hide the wheelie bins out of site.
This means that your garden won’t be cluttered by looking at wheelie bins.
Concrete posts and gravel boards help your fence to last longer
If you’re purchasing a quality fence, then you bound to want the fence to last as long as possible, so that you can get good value for money from it.
This is really important to consider when you are picking your fencing contractor, because it’s okay picking the cheapest fencing quote, but if the timber fence is poorly built, such as the fence posts are not embedded in the soil enough, then you might need to get the whole fence replaced again after a short period of time.
Plus you might have gone through the hassle of painting the fence, lets say using a fence paint, and this may have taken you the whole weekend to do? So if you hire the wrong fencing contractor and the fence only lasts a short period of time, then it can be a waste of money, and all of that time spend painting the fence.
Why do so many homeowners choose Hyden bros to build their fence?
This is why you need to consider not just the price that the fencing company is offering, but also picking a fencing contractor that there is a brilliant job, that’s why so many pick Hyden Bros, because our fences are built to a very high standard. So sometimes we are not the cheapest, but that’s because, we will spend the time that’s needs to make sure the fencing posts, wooden rail and fencing slats are all build correctly.
We can offer gravel board and concrete fence posts
You also need a fencing contractor which talks you about ways where you can extend the life of your fence, by using a concrete gravel board and concrete posts.
Therefore a good fencing company should be able to recommend ways that they can build a robust wooden fence, like a close board fence, that’s really well built, and to get better value for money from the timber fence, in terms of it lasting longer, we would sometimes recommend opting for concrete posts, concrete gravel boards, and painting the fence with a very good quality fence paint.
It does involve more work for our fencing company to add concrete gravel boards, yet we think its well worth it, simply because here in Britain we have a really wet climate, because it rains so much, so we have to think that by having concrete gravel boards, this will help protect the wooden fence, so that would wood rot doesn’t set in so easily to the timber.
Low maintenance
Sometimes a homeowner will be busy working professional couple or individual, and they may have a very demanding occupation, s they simply haven’t got the time to be doing DIY tasks on the weekends.
Neither do they want to be hiring somebody, such as a painter and decorator can paint their fence say every year as well.
These people are therefore looking for a very low maintenance type of garden fence, a fence that can be built so that offers excellent value for money, and that is solid and very robust, but also doesn’t need painting or varnishing or for a wood stain to be brushed onto the fence every summer.
These homeowners simply might not have the time to keep going out to their garden fence every year and giving it a coat of paint, they might simply be too busy.
In this case you might want something called a composite fence.
A composite fence and also composite decking, are both obviously made from composite, yet the quality of these products can sometimes vary quite massively, and it does depend on who manufacturers the composite fencing.
So for example a real low quality composite might fade excessively in the sun, and sometimes very quickly. So instead why not hire hyden bros, as we only supply and build quality composite fencing.
Once we understand which colour you would like your composite fence to be, for example you might want a composite fence, which looks a feather edge fence, but is made of composite, in an olive green colour, we can then recommend different brands, which make the composite fencing in a range of colours.
Our salesperson will be able to show you all of our glossy brochures, which will show you our composite fencing and decking options, and which colours are available.
You might see instantly a colour option that you like, and then we can go back to the office and do some calculations, and we will then wwrite back to you with a totally free quote, we can send the quote to you, via e-mail.
Perhaps you like hardwood fence built?
Sometimes a homeowner will have had hardwood flooring within their home, lets say for example oak flooring. This means the block flooring may well be of a hardwood, such as English oak and the homeowner may have really liked the appearance of that hardwood, plus from owning oak flooring in their home, they may know that oak is very hard wearing.
This means the homeowner might want hardwood fence made, and we can build that for you, some companies don’t offer to build hardwood fences, because they don’t have carpenters working within the company, however we have many carpenters that work for us.
This means we can build hardwood fencing for you, we can also make a set of hardwood gates for you as well, perhaps you have a clear idea of how you would like the gates to look on your driveway? And you would like the made from hardwood? Well we can most certainly make these wooden gates for you.
Cardiff fencing
You may live in the city of Cardiff and you need new metal, wooden or composite fencing built, quite simply because your old garden fence may have blown over, during lets say a very strong storm, so it has become damaged and you want it completely replaced, or repaired by an established fencing company, such as Hyden bros.
Make sure that you ask your fencing contractor does your new garden fence come with a guarantee or not?
It’s all well and good going out to various fencing contractors, and getting say three quotes from local fencing companies, and one quote in particular might really stand out as being particularly cheap, it might be let’s say 25% cheaper than the next nearest quote.
So, you may think well that is brilliant, I will go with that fencing company, simply because they are offering the cheapest quote out of all my quotes that have been offered, so that is the quote you opt for as that’s the cheapest.
However, what sometimes happens is by some fencing companies offering really cheap fencing quotes, they need to sometimes cut corners, so sometimes some fencing companies might cut corners by building the fence posts very quickly, and sometimes not mixing enough concrete up to properly secure the wooden fence post in place. Because let’s say they have only allocated one day to build the garden fence.
So, sometimes the holes in the ground where the wooden fence posts go, where the wooden posts should be concreted in place using a lot of concrete, the holes might not be dug that deep.
So when that fencing contractor says “we have finished”, the wooden fence might look simply superb just after it has been built, it might look brilliant and you might be very happy with the workmanship at that stage.
However, at a later date if the fencing contractor has not secured the wooden fence posts with ample amounts of concrete for example, then during heavy winds the fence posts might start to rock in the wind, the fence panels might move as well, and then this movement caused by the wind doesn’t take long for the nails to work loose from the wooden rail, and the whole fence can end up on the floor.
So, what might have started out as the fencing company offering, what might have initially looked like a very competitive quote to build the fence, might result in the garden fence not being built to a high standard.
That’s because let’s say for example the holes that were dug in the ground, for the wooden fence posts to go into, the holes might be too shallow and the whole fence might move around in strong winds.
So, the point that we are trying to make is, which ever fencing business that you hire ask them how long do they guarantee they workmanship for and the whole fence for.
Often this varies on the type of fence that you choose, and by that we mean is not practical for a fencing contractor to offer the same length of guarantee on a hardwood fence, that they would a say a low cost wooden panel fence, that’s because the price to install each type of fence is totally different.
Panel fencing is often very cheap, because it can be bought from the builders’ merchants cheaply, but hardwood fencing that is totally different, that’s because hardwood is very expensive to purchase from a timber merchant,, so often a lot of fencing contractor will do is put different guarantee period on the different types of fencing that the offer.
So, what we can do when you contact us for a fencing quote, is we can offer you a free quote, and we can also stipulate at the same time of offering you a quote for fencing, how long the guarantee is for each different type of fencing that we can build.
So the guarantee does vary on which type of fence that you ask us to build, for example because composite fencing is made by huge range of different manufacturers, sometimes the guarantee period for the different brands of composite fencing will last different periods of time.
One manufacturer of composite fencing and decking might guarantee the whole fence for say 10 years, where another company might offer a shorter guarantee period, of for example just seven years.
When we offering you a free quote for fencing, decking or a new summerhouse, our sales person can also tell you at the same time how long the guarantee period will last.
Do you also repair wooden, metal and composite fencing?
Yes most certainly canm sometimes it’s doesn’t make any sense at all to replace the whole garden fence with a brand new one, that’s if parts of your existing fence are perfectly fine and in good condition.
That’s to say, part of your garden fence may be in really good condition, that could be because, that part of the fence, may not have strong winds blowing on it.
Yet at the other end if your garden, there might be very strong crosswinds constantly hitting that part of the fencing day and night, and the strong winds can deteriorate any type of wooden fence.
For example, you might have a panel fence, that’s made from wood, and some of the wooden slats may have become broken, or droped-down, sometimes the whole fencing panel may have just fallen over, and be completely broken.
We can arrive and repair the sections of broken fencing for you, this is often much cheaper than replacing the whole fence because sometimes all our fencing staff need to do is take out the broken fence panels, and sometimes you can use the posts again, which will save you money, rather than having to replace the whole fence.
