Taking the Old Fence Out: The Cost People Forget

Removal is real labour and it is the line most often missing from a cheap quote. Here is what it involves.

It is not just pulling boards off

Boards and rails come away quickly. The posts are the work, particularly where each one is set in a concrete footing that has been there for decades.

Every footing has to be dug out or broken up, and that is slow regardless of how it is done.

Disposal costs money

Timber, concrete and metal go to different places and there are fees. Old treated timber in particular cannot simply go in a skip with everything else.

A quote that does not mention disposal has either absorbed it or has not thought about it.

Where it gets expensive

Chain link with concrete-set posts, block wall footings, and anything on a slope or with poor access for a barrow.

On tight El Monte lots the barrow route is sometimes the single biggest factor in how long removal takes.

Can the old footings be reused?

Occasionally, if they are sound, correctly spaced and the right size for the new fence. Usually not, because the new fence is heavier or the spacing differs.

Reusing an inadequate footing to save a morning is how a new fence starts leaning in year two.

What to ask for

Removal and disposal itemised separately in the written quote, so you can see it rather than discovering it as an extra later.

That is how we price it, and it is a fair question to ask anybody else.