Is it worth repairing an old fence?

The published decision rules are clear enough to use. Repair when the damage is confined to one or two bays, the posts are structurally sound, the fence is under about eight to ten years old for timber, and the repair costs less than around half of what replacing that section would cost. Replace when posts are rotting at the base across multiple bays, the fence is more than fifteen years old with widespread deterioration, or the style and panel size no longer match anything you can buy. That last one catches a lot of older non-standard bays.

Age means different things for different fences. Untreated lap panels start to deteriorate within five to eight years. A well installed timber fence with a preservative or exterior stain applied every two to three years should reach ten to twenty years. Closeboard outlasts lap because the vertical boards are fixed to horizontal rails, which holds the shape and handles wind loading better. So a twelve year old closeboard fence on sound posts is worth repairing, while a twelve year old untreated lap fence is at the end of its life whatever you spend on it.

Put the two numbers side by side before deciding. Six bays of panel replacement at £85 to £150 per panel is £510 to £900 excluding VAT. The same six bays is roughly 11 metres, and closeboard installed at £90 to £130 per metre is £990 to £1,430 excluding VAT for a new fence on new posts. So the repair saves somewhere between a third and a half, and buys you a fence whose posts are already part way through their life. That gap narrows fast once posts start going into the job.

Three costs get left out of comparisons and they change the answer. Breaking out old concrete post footings is £50 to £100 per post and is the most commonly omitted line in a fencing quote. Taking down and clearing away the old fence is charged separately, at £20 to £30 a unit or around £35 a panel depending on the guide, before any skip or tip charge. And a timber fence carries an ongoing cost: professional painting or treating is £170 to £270 each time, recommended every two to three years, which is real money over ten years.

There is a Cheltenham-specific reason repair sometimes wins. In a conservation area, taking a fence down can need planning permission for relevant demolition, generally where it is 1 metre or more next to a highway, waterway or open space, or 2 metres or more elsewhere. The replacement may be permitted development while the removal is not. Separately, the planning rules let an existing over-height fence be maintained, improved or altered at its former height, but a full tear-out and rebuild is not settled ground. A lawful development certificate from the council is the safe route.

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