Practical points for boundary work in Mill Hill East
Use classes for ground-contact timber
Treated timber is graded into use classes according to how much moisture and ground contact it's expected to face, and specifying the wrong class for the job is a common cause of premature rot that isn't obvious until years later.
Use Class 3 covers above-ground timber exposed to the weather, such as boards and rails; Use Class 4 covers timber in direct or near-permanent ground contact, which is what posts and gravel boards should be specified to, not Use Class 3 stock used because it's cheaper or more available.
A supplier's treatment certificate should state the use class achieved, and it's worth asking for it on any job where posts are the expensive, hard-to-replace component of the run.
Cat-proofing with angled overhangs
Cats are agile climbers rather than diggers, so containment relies on preventing a solid grip at the top of the fence rather than closing ground-level gaps, typically with an angled overhang or rotating roller bar fitted along the top.
These systems work by tipping the cat back into the garden as it reaches the top rather than physically blocking the climb, and need a consistent, unbroken run along the full boundary to be effective, since a single untreated gate or low section undoes the rest.
Overhang brackets add a small amount of extra load and a slight increase in overall height, both of which are worth checking against permitted development limits before fitting.
Iroko and tropical hardwood density
Iroko is a dense West African hardwood sometimes used as a substitute for teak in gates and structural fencing components, valued for a natural durability that doesn't rely on chemical treatment.
Its density makes it heavier to handle and slower to work than softwood equivalents, and it typically needs pre-drilling for screws to avoid splitting.
Because it's naturally oily, some finishes and glues bond to it poorly unless the surface is wiped down with a solvent first, which is a detail that's easy to miss when substituting it into a softwood-designed detail.
Corner plots with two effective road frontages
A corner plot bounded by two separate roads can be treated as having two frontages for permitted development purposes, meaning the lower 1m height limit potentially applies on both sides rather than just one.
This is a common point of confusion, since the 'front' of the house and the road-facing boundary aren't always the same thing on an L-shaped or wraparound plot.
Checking with the local planning authority which boundaries count as fronting a highway is worthwhile before fencing any corner plot to the maximum height.
Who owns which boundary
Boundary ownership in England isn't settled by which side the posts face — it's set by the title deeds, and where the deeds are silent the presumption (a T-mark on old Ordnance Survey-derived plans, or the 'ad medium filum' rule for some hedges) only gets you so far.
Before any post goes in we ask to see the deed plan, or at minimum agree the line and height with the neighbour in writing, because replacing a fence in the wrong place is a genuinely common and avoidable dispute.
Where ownership is contested we'll fit on the client's own side of the line rather than guess, even if that means a slightly narrower run.
Post cap material and function
A post cap's primary function is shedding rainwater away from the post's end grain, which is the most absorbent and vulnerable part of a timber post, rather than being purely decorative.
A pyramid or bevelled profile sheds water faster than a flat cap, reducing the time water sits pooled on the timber surface after rain, which matters more on a flat-topped post than people often assume.
Metal, plastic and timber caps all achieve the same water-shedding function to varying degrees, but a cracked or ill-fitting cap that lets water track down between the cap and the post can trap moisture worse than no cap at all.
