Upgrade timber posts to concrete without replacing the fence.

How the upgrade works

• We remove the failed timber post (usually snapped just above ground level after a windy night)
• Auger the existing post-hole down to 600mm and widen it to accept the concrete post
• Set the concrete slotted post with a fresh C20 concrete collar
• Slide the existing fence panel (or the featheredge boards on a closeboard run) back into the concrete post slot
• Fit a concrete gravel board at the base if there isn't one already
• The panel and boards you already own are reused - only the posts and gravel boards are new

When it's the right call

If you've got a panel-fence run where one or two posts have snapped, the honest question is whether to just replace those two posts with new timber (£70 to £90 each) or to upgrade the whole run to concrete (£45 to £70 per post fitted). We'll tell you which is right for the specific run. If the fence is under five years old and only one post has gone, replace-with-timber is often the sensible answer. If the fence is 10+ years old and posts are going one after another, the timber posts are all near end-of-life and the concrete upgrade pays back inside three years.

On clifftop plots (West Cliff, East Cliff, any coastal-facing rear boundary) the concrete upgrade is basically always the right answer. The wind loading takes the timber posts out faster than an inland Kent garden.

Pricing

Concrete post upgrade, existing panel run: £45 to £70 per post fitted, including removal of old timber post, augering, C20 concrete collar, and reset of the existing panels. Concrete gravel boards added at the base: £12 to £18 per metre.

On a typical 20m panel run with six posts, upgrading the lot to concrete plus adding gravel boards is £450 to £750 all-in. That's the last time we'll be back to that fence for a decade-plus.