FAQS

Broad Fencing has been trading in the local area for the last 35 years.  Traditionally we cover Sudbury, Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds, Halstead, Hadleigh and all the villages in between.

All of the timber that we use is pressure-treated and the posts are kiln dried prior to being pressure-treated.  This is so that the preservative penetrates deeply into the wood and is the best industry standard, called HC4 treatment.

To be honest, in my experience you can expect the posts to last between 3 and 10 years.  The preservatives that the industry is allowed to use these days are weaker and less ‘harmful’ than they used to be, but they aren’t as effective.  I have been back to houses where I put the wooden posts-in 20 to 25 years ago and they are still okay.

When you have a new timber fence erected the wood may still be quite damp from the pressure treatment process.  You do not have to paint the fence ever if you do not want to.  It will weather down to a grey colour and in time absorb water and start to rot.

However, if you want to protect your investment in that lovely new fence, then I would recommend extra protection.  Allow the new fence to weather down a little but still retain some colour.  Apply a good preservative, not a watery budget variety and this will really prolong the life of the timber.

If you need strength and long life, then concrete posts win every time.  The ‘dry-cast’ concrete posts that we use have a more textured surface and are grey in colour.  As opposed to the ‘wet-cast’ concrete posts that are smooth and can be near white in colour.  These tend to stand out too much in a garden and are not as strong or durable.

A gravel board is needed in a closeboard or panel fence when you want the fence to be tight to the ground.  If a wooden panel is sitting directly on or even dug into the ground, then this will start to rot at the bottom fairly quickly.   Wooden gravel boards are therefore fixed to the bottom of the fence as a ‘sacrificial’ piece of timber that can be replaced when necessary.  Concrete gravel boards will not rot so it doesn’t matter if they are dug into the ground, such as on a slope or used to hold back soil if one side of the fence is lower than the other.

Wood is a natural (living) material and when the tree is cut down it starts to lose moisture.  This means that the wood actually shrinks.  Most newly felled trees aren’t turned into planks, boards or posts straight away so a lot of the shrinkage happens before the processing starts.  The wood needs to be quite dry before it can be pressure-treated, or the treatment will not penetrate very deeply.

After treatment the fence is erected and it stands out in the open.  It is subjected to drying winds and direct sunlight.  This rapid drying effect is what can make the wood warp or split.  The outside surface is drying quicker than the inside.  Of all the wood used in your fence it is quite amazing how little this happens.

Pressure-treated timber only comes in two colours, either green or brown.  The different shades of these colours that you see are due to a number of factors.  How recently the wood has been treated.  What type of tree the wood is made from.  Which part of the tree has been used.  How much direct sunlight has the timber received.  Sunlight is the biggest factor here.