We approach dog-proof fencing in Hitchin from the failure end backwards. Leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — that's the single most common thing we're called back to fix, and it's the first thing our spec addresses. Roads such as Highbury Road and Cambridge Road are typical of the local layout. Priory Park is a useful local reference point. Walsworth and Westmill estates on the outskirts are mostly 1960s semis with predictable plot sizes.
We approach dog-proof fencing in Hitchin from the failure end backwards. Leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — that's the single most common thing we're called back to fix, and it's the first thing our spec addresses. Roads such as Highbury Road and Cambridge Road are typical of the local layout. Priory Park is a useful local reference point. Walsworth and Westmill estates on the outskirts are mostly 1960s semis with predictable plot sizes.
1.8m closeboard, no gaps under 40mm, 150mm concrete kicker or 300mm buried mesh apron, closing gate with drop-bolt into a socket. On Hitchin jobs we adjust for hitchin's conservation areas mean the planning team checks anything visible from the street.
Property mix locally: market-town centre with Tudor and Georgian buildings, Victorian terraces on the Walsworth side, and 1930s semis to the west. Typical gardens: varied — small courtyards in the centre, deep rear gardens in Walsworth, sloping plots toward Walsworth Common. Postcodes we regularly service: SG4, SG5.
On dog-proof fencing jobs in Hitchin (SG4), our default answer is: 1.8m closeboard, no gaps under 40mm, 150mm concrete kicker or 300mm buried mesh apron, closing gate with drop-bolt into a socket. We'll walk you through no gaps at ground level — the single most common escape point on standard fencing on the site visit before you commit.
Across Hitchin we spec around hitchin's conservation areas mean the planning team checks anything visible from the street, so on dog-proof fencing that usually means closeboard with kicker plate. The honest trade-off is leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — which is exactly what our default spec designs out.
North Hertfordshire District coverage means we can survey most SG4 addresses inside a week — dog owners needing a boundary a dog can't dig under, climb or push through. The honest trade-off is leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — which is exactly what our default spec designs out.
Practically: closeboard set into a shallow concrete kicker so a small breed can't dig underneath. That's the Hitchin version of this job, not a generic one. The honest trade-off is leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — which is exactly what our default spec designs out.
On dog-proof fencing jobs in Hitchin (SG4), our default answer is: 1.8m closeboard, no gaps under 40mm, 150mm concrete kicker or 300mm buried mesh apron, closing gate with drop-bolt into a socket. The honest trade-off is leaving standard 100mm gap between gate and paving — a determined terrier is through it in a week — which is exactly what our default spec designs out.
Concrete, posts and panels are heavy, and a site with only a narrow side return or no vehicle access changes how a job is priced and sequenced — materials sometimes have to be carried through rather than dropped at the boundary.
On a commercial yard the opposite problem applies: keeping a working site operational around a delivery of steel palisade or mesh panels needs a delivery and storage plan agreed before the first post goes in.
Where a site has several gates, a key-alike or master-key system lets one key open every lock while still allowing individual keys to be issued separately, cutting down on the number of keys staff have to carry.
This is arranged through the locksmith supplying the cylinders rather than the fencing installer, but gate hardware needs to be compatible with the chosen cylinder type before it's fitted.
A boundary next to a car park, loading bay or farm track needs posts and panels sized for accidental impact loading, not just wind and climbing loads, because a reversing vehicle applies a very different force to the same run.
Where impact is a realistic risk, a kerb, bollard or heavier-gauge post is used to take the hit rather than relying on the fence panel itself to absorb it.
A traditional arris-rail panel fence uses a triangular-section rail slotted into a mortice cut through the post, and repeated wind loading can gradually enlarge that mortice, letting the rail rock and eventually loosen the whole panel.
A mortice cut slightly oversized from the start, or one that's been enlarged by rot before a replacement rail is fitted, is a common weak point that arris-rail brackets were largely developed to bypass.
Galvanised metal arris-rail brackets, fixed to the face of the post rather than through it, avoid weakening the post with a mortice at all and are now the more common detail on new panel fencing.
Foxes commonly dig at the base of a fence line where the ground is soft, undermining a gravel board or creating a gap large enough to pass through underneath an otherwise intact fence.
A buried mesh skirt fitted along the base at repair time, angled outward below ground, is a more durable fix than repeatedly backfilling the same dug-out gap.
Widening a single gate opening into a double-leaf gate usually needs a new or repositioned hanging post partway across the opening as well as a slamming post on each outer side, rather than simply hanging two narrower leaves off the existing posts.
This is more involved than a straightforward repair and is worth planning against the full opening width before committing to a leaf size.
A farm gateway is a common target for rural theft of machinery, fuel and livestock, and a five-bar field gate on its own offers little more than a visual boundary marker, so a security upgrade typically adds a padlockable hasp, a stronger hinge set and sometimes a second inner gate as a layered deterrent.
Positioning a gate slightly back from the road with a locked field gate behind an open highway gate can slow a vehicle-based theft attempt without obstructing the farmer's own daily access.
Broken panels, snapped posts and old concrete are cleared and taken off site as standard on any repair, rather than left in the garden for the client to deal with separately.
Where a repair follows a storm, we also check for and clear any debris that's blown into the garden from elsewhere, not just the fence materials themselves.
Disagreements over a shared fence usually come down to height, style or who's responsible for a section, and most are resolved fastest with a plain conversation and a written note of what's agreed before work starts.
Where a genuine dispute over the boundary line itself exists, the Land Registry title plan (not the fence's current position) is the reference point, and a RICS-qualified boundary surveyor can produce a determined line if the deeds are ambiguous.
We'd always rather delay a start date by a week to get sign-off from both sides than build a fence that has to be moved once a dispute surfaces.
Angle grinding a metal fixing or breaking out an old concrete footing throws dust and fine debris further than expected, which matters on a repair close to a neighbour's washing line, patio furniture or parked car.
Sheeting off the immediate work area and clearing debris before leaving site each day is worth doing even on a short repair, since a small job that leaves a mess behind causes disproportionate friction with a neighbour compared with the size of the work itself.
Seasonal clay movement can tilt a post a few degrees without breaking the footing outright, and re-plumbing involves breaking out enough of the old concrete to reset the post vertical rather than packing the gap and leaving the tilt.
Where movement is ongoing rather than a one-off event, re-plumbing without addressing drainage or ground preparation risks the same tilt recurring within a season or two.
A gravel board sits at the base of a panel fence to keep the panel itself clear of ground moisture and splashback, and is commonly available in treated timber, concrete or composite, each with different durability trade-offs at that most exposed position.
Timber gravel boards are the cheapest to replace individually but also the first component to rot, since they sit closest to damp ground and soil splash, while concrete gravel boards resist rot entirely but can crack under impact or ground movement.
Composite gravel boards split the difference, resisting moisture better than timber without concrete's brittleness, though they typically cost more than either alternative for the same length.
Some fixings and bracket systems include small drainage gaps or weep holes designed to let water escape from behind a post-to-wall connection, and these can be inadvertently sealed over with excess sealant or packed with debris during fitting.
Checking that these gaps remain open once a fixing is complete is a quick final step that's easy to skip once the main structural work feels finished.
A blocked weep hole doesn't cause an obvious immediate problem, but it lets moisture accumulate behind the fixing point where it isn't visible, quietly encouraging rot or corrosion out of sight.
A repair quote starts with identifying which of the usual failure points is actually responsible — post, panel, gravel board or a full run — because pricing a full replacement for what's actually a single post repair costs the client far more than necessary.
We probe timber at ground level and check the whole run for related stress, not just the section that's obviously failed.
A boundary added to or repaired piecemeal over many years sometimes ends up with two or three different panel styles along its length, which makes a small further repair harder to match convincingly to any one of them.
In that situation it's worth discussing with the client whether continuing to patch in whichever style is easiest to source is acceptable, or whether it's the point to standardise the whole run to a single style during a larger repair.
Where a timber fence butts up against a party wall shared between two properties, repair work touching the wall itself — drilling new fixings, removing old brackets — can fall under party wall considerations separate from the fence repair.
In practice this mostly matters for anything beyond reusing existing fixing points; a straightforward like-for-like refit into the same holes rarely raises an issue, but a new fixing pattern into the wall is worth flagging to the client first.
A schedule of condition is a dated record, often with photographs, of a boundary structure's state before nearby building work begins, used to settle any later dispute about damage caused during that work.
Where a neighbour is undertaking significant building work close to a shared boundary, requesting this kind of record beforehand is reasonable and protects both parties.
This is distinct from a full party wall agreement but is often produced as part of the wider party wall process where one applies.
A drop bolt that no longer locates in its ground socket is often bent slightly from repeated contact rather than broken, and a bent bolt can sometimes be straightened rather than replaced if the bend is caught early.
Leaving a bent bolt in use accelerates wear on the socket edges as it forces its way in at an angle each time, which turns a simple bolt problem into a socket replacement too.
Softwood gate frames move more with seasonal humidity changes than a hardwood equivalent, which is why a softwood gate that fitted well in summer can bind noticeably by winter, while a well-seasoned hardwood frame shows less variation.
Understanding which timber a gate is built from helps set realistic expectations for how much seasonal adjustment it will need rather than treating every gate the same way.
Measuring both diagonals of a gate opening before ordering or building a gate confirms whether the opening is actually square, since two openings with identical width and height measurements can still be out of square if the diagonals differ.
Building a gate to fit a supposedly square opening that isn't leaves a visible wedge-shaped gap that no amount of hinge adjustment can fully correct.
Boundary fencing around a school or nursery has a safeguarding function as well as a security one — height, anti-climb detailing and gate self-closing mechanisms are usually specified to stop children leaving unsupervised as much as to keep intruders out.
Work on an occupied site needs to be sequenced around the school day, with noisy or access-blocking tasks scheduled for after hours, weekends or holiday periods rather than during term-time drop-off and pick-up.
Any gaps at ground level under a boundary fence matter more here than on a typical domestic job, since a small child can get through a gap an adult wouldn't notice.
A timber gravel board sitting flush against damp soil draws moisture upward by capillary action in the same way a wall can suffer rising damp, and it is usually the first component to fail on an otherwise sound fence.
Concrete gravel boards avoid this entirely and are now the standard base for that reason, but where timber boards are kept for appearance, setting them a few millimetres proud of finished ground level makes a real difference.
Backfilling right up against a timber board with topsoil or mulch defeats the point, since it holds moisture directly against the face that most needs to stay dry.
Dog owners needing a boundary a dog can't dig under, climb or push through — that's who this page is for. In Hitchin and out to North Hertfordshire District, we run the dog-proof fencing spec that survives hitchin's conservation areas mean the planning team checks anything visible from the street. Roads such as Bancroft and Tilehouse Street are typical of the local layout. Hitchin station is a useful local reference point. The Victorian terraces off Nightingale Road have narrow rear access, which usually means carrying panels and posts through the house or along a shared alley.
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