How much does it cost to replace a fence panel?

The panel itself explains most of the range. At Wickes a dip treated 6ft by 6ft overlap panel is £32 and the pressure treated equivalent is £41.50, while a closeboard panel of the same size is £68. Checkatrade's materials only bands run £20 to £140 for a 6ft panel, spanning cheap lap through to metal and Venetian. Those are consumer retail prices, VAT inclusive and excluding delivery, and they buy you a panel and nothing else. Labour, fixings and disposal sit on top of every one of them.

Before paying for a panel, test the posts. Grip each one at shoulder height and push. A post that moves at the ground line has rotted where the timber sits in the wet and dry zone at soil level, and a new panel fixed to it will fail in the next gale. If the post has gone, you are buying a bay rather than a panel. MyBuilder's published bay rate is £150 for panel and post together, but their own completed jobs data shows real quotes of £300 to £500 for a new panel with a concreted in post.

One panel is an awkward job to price. Most fencers apply a minimum call out of one to two hours of labour whatever the actual time on site, so a single panel swap carries close to the same labour as two or three. If more than one panel is tired, having them done on the same visit is the cheapest route per panel. Our repair guide range is £60 to £150 per repair and panel replacement is £85 to £150 per panel, both excluding VAT, and both come down per unit on a batch.

Matching an existing run is the part people underestimate. Panel widths are standardised at 1.83 metres, but heights are sold in 4ft, 5ft and 6ft, and a run built to an older size may not take a modern panel without cutting. Colour will not match either: a new panel next to fifteen year old timber stands out for a season or two until it weathers. If the fence is closeboard rather than panels, you may not need a panel at all, since individual feather edge boards cost £0.80 to £2 each.

There is a version of this job you can do yourself. A £32 panel from a merchant, a handful of panel clips and a spare hour will swap a panel between sound concrete posts, and that is the right answer for one straightforward bay at ground level. Get someone in when the post needs replacing, when the panel sits over a retaining wall or a slope, when access means carrying a 1.83 metre panel through the house, or when the fence is a shared boundary and you want the work recorded properly.

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