Repair or replace your fence?
One panel down after a gale is a quick swap. But once half the run is leaning, the posts are rotten at the base and you're replacing a panel every winter, a whole new fence is usually the better spend — and it comes with new posts that won't let you down next storm. Tell us the fence, its length and how much has gone, and we'll show both costs side by side. Free, no sign-up.
A guide, not a quote. The ranges are typical 2025/26 UK supplied-and-fitted prices, inclusive of VAT, from published averages: a repair replaces the damaged panels (and posts if they've gone); a replacement is a whole new fence — new posts, gravel boards and panels, with the old one removed. They exclude clearing heavy vegetation, raising ground levels, retaining walls and disputed boundaries. Check whose fence it is before you spend — the boundary may be your neighbour's responsibility. The only real number is a measured, written quote. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
A panel or two: repair. Rotten posts and a leaning run: replace.
Swap the odd panel and move on. If a gale took one or two panels and the posts are solid, a like-for-like panel swap is a quick, cheap job — often a morning's work. There's no sense replacing 20 metres of sound fence because one bay blew out. Match the panel style and you'd never know.
It's the posts that decide it. Panels are easy; posts are the work. Once timber posts have rotted or snapped at ground level, "repairing" a panel means digging out and re-concreting a post — most of the effort of a full replacement, for one bay. If several posts have gone, you're doing nearly the whole job piecemeal, which costs more than doing it once properly with new posts throughout.
Concrete posts change the maths. If you're replacing, concrete posts and gravel boards cost more up front but outlast three timber fences — the panels just slide in and out, so the next storm-damaged panel is a five-minute swap with no digging. On a fence you'll keep, that's usually money well spent.
The "death by a thousand panels" trap. If you replace a panel most winters, add up five years of those call-outs — it's often more than a new fence would have cost, and you still have an old fence. When the failures become routine, bite the bullet and replace the run.
Check whose fence it is first. There's no automatic rule that the left or right boundary is "yours" — it's set by the title deeds. Before you spend on a boundary fence, check the deeds (the "T" marks show who's responsible) and have a friendly word with the neighbour; a shared boundary is often a shared cost, and replacing a fence that isn't yours can cause a dispute.
Keep your garden projects in one place.
Stead's home improvements log tracks the budget against what you actually spend, holds the workmanship guarantee, and keeps the photos and invoices you'll want at sale time — so if you're patching the same fence every year, you can see it plainly and make the call.