How much does it cost to replace a fence post?

Most of a post replacement is demolition rather than construction. The old post has to come out with its concrete footing, which on the common UK setting out is a lump of concrete about three times the post width across and around 600mm deep. It has to be dug around, broken up and carried away. MyBuilder's £100 to £150 all in figure covers exactly that: breaking out the old footing, supplying and setting the new post in postcrete, and reattaching the panels either side. They put the job at around half a day.

Timber or concrete is the one real decision. At Wickes a slotted concrete intermediate post is £35 against £22 for an incised timber post of similar length, so £9 to £13 apart on the shelf. Fitted, Checkatrade's sundry table shows £50 to £70 for a timber 8ft post and £50 to £80 for a concrete one, a gap of at most £10. MyBuilder puts the material uplift at £5 to £15. The extra is small, and concrete does not rot at the ground line the way timber does.

On lifespan, be careful what you are told. Allen Concrete, a UK concrete fencing manufacturer, says timber posts typically need replacing every 7 to 10 years and that concrete posts can last for decades with minimal maintenance. That is a manufacturer describing its own product, and no manufacturer page we checked publishes a figure such as 50 years. The supportable version is MyBuilder's: a fence on concrete posts is likely to need far less attention for the next 15 to 20 years. Treat anything stronger than that as marketing.

Doing several posts at once is cheaper per post, and MyBuilder confirms most fencers reduce the per post rate when several in the same run need doing. The consumable is small: roughly one 20kg bag of postcrete per post, about £7.50 at Wickes, setting in five to ten minutes so panels can go back on the same visit. Checkatrade's second figure for a replacement post is around £150, at the top of MyBuilder's band, so £100 to £150 is the sensible budget rather than either extreme.

Know when post repairs stop being worth it. MyBuilder's published threshold is to replace rather than repair once posts are rotting at the base across multiple bays, once the fence is over 15 years old with widespread deterioration, or once the repair cost passes roughly half what replacing that section would cost. Three failed posts at £100 to £150 each is £300 to £450, which buys somewhere between two and five metres of new closeboard at our £90 to £130 per metre guide range excluding VAT. Do that sum before booking anything.

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