Palisade Fencing in Potters Bar
Steel palisade for yards, depots and compounds, where the boundary is there to be difficult to get through.
Palisade is bought by people with a risk register, not people with a garden. Profiled steel pales bolted to horizontal rails, triple pointed heads, no footholds, and nothing about it apologising for what it is.
It is specified where the boundary is the security measure: builders compounds, plant yards, depots, storage sites, substations and the rear of commercial units where the vulnerable point is a fence line nobody can see from the road.
The parts of a palisade line that fail are almost never the pales. They are the fixings, the rail ends and the gate. That is where we spend the specification effort and where a cheap line is cheap.
What is different about Potters Bar
Many gardens border the green belt — the brief usually needs sturdy stock-proof boundary work, which changes foundation depth on a tall line before it changes anything else. On a 2400mm palisade run the post hole is the specification.
Palisade demand around Potters Bar sits with Cranborne Industrial Estate rather than the residential streets. Those are the boundaries where a fence line is the only thing between a yard full of plant and a quiet Sunday morning.
Access is the constraint here more often than the fence is. Long pales and posts arrive off A1000 Great North Road with M25 J24 (Potters Bar) behind it, and on a working site we phase the line so the compound is closed every night, not just at the end of the job.
How it is specified
- Typical height
- 1800mm to 3000mm depending on the risk
- Pale profile
- W or D section pales, triple pointed or round head
- Fixings
- Security fixings so pales cannot simply be unbolted from the outside
- Rails
- Two or three rails by height, with rail ends fixed into the post rather than surface bolted
- Finish
- Hot dip galvanised, powder coated where the client wants a colour
Galvanised is standard on palisade and colour is the exception. Where a site sits next to housing, a dark powder coat over the galvanising takes a good deal of the hostility out of the line without weakening it.
How we build it
1. Risk walk
We walk the boundary looking for the weak point rather than measuring the easy bit: the low wall, the bin store, the gate that has been forced before.
2. Foundations and posts
Posts concreted deep enough for the height, because a three metre line is a lever and a shallow foundation is where it gives.
3. Gates and closures
Gate frames made heavier than the fence, hung on commercial hinges, with the locking arrangement agreed in writing before fabrication.
Where this is the right answer
- Yards, depots, compounds and storage sites
- The unseen rear boundaries of commercial units
- Plant and machinery storage where theft risk is real and insurers ask questions
- Sites where an existing timber or mesh line has already been breached
Palisade is close to always the wrong product for a home. It looks industrial because it is industrial, most residential planning contexts will not welcome it, and the neighbours will remember it longer than you will. For a domestic boundary that needs to be secure, we specify vertical bar or a closeboard line with a proper post system instead.
Common questions
- Is palisade suitable for a house?
- Almost never. It is an industrial product, it reads as one, and there is usually a better answer for a home. We would rather talk you into vertical bar or a properly built timber line than fit something you will dislike.
- What is the difference between W and D section pales?
- W section is the deeper, stiffer profile and the usual choice for security work. D section is lighter and used where the line is more about demarcation than resistance.
- Can palisade pales be unbolted from outside?
- On a cheap line, yes, and that is exactly how sites get entered without a single cut. We use security fixings so the pales cannot be removed from the public face with a spanner.
- Does palisade need painting?
- Not if it is hot dip galvanised. Colour is optional powder coat on top. What does need attention is the ironmongery on the gates, which we check as part of any maintenance visit.
- Can you fit a palisade gate wide enough for lorries?
- Yes. Wide vehicle openings are made as double leaves or, where there is room to run, as a sliding gate. The constraint is usually the ground and the swing space, so we measure the swept path before we quote a leaf size.
- What do most Potters Bar customers ask you for on this?
- 1930s semis, post-war detached homes around Cranborne Road, and infill developments near Little Heath shape most of it, so the common brief here is a run measured to an existing boundary rather than an off the shelf size. Many gardens border the green belt — the brief usually needs sturdy stock-proof boundary work, and that shows up in the post work more than in the steel above it.
Palisade for yards and compounds in Potters Bar
Send the site plan or the boundary length and tell us what has already happened. We price pales, rails, fixings, posts and gates as separate lines so nothing hides in a rate per metre. £5m public liability insurance in place.
Related metal work: Side and pedestrian gates, Vertical bar fencing, Bow top fencing. Main hub: metal fencing and gates.
Nearby: Palisade fencing in Barnet, Palisade fencing in Hatfield, Palisade fencing in Borehamwood.
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