Closeboard is the fence I install more than any other in Deal. Featheredge boards vertical-fixed onto treated arris rails, concrete morticed posts driven or augered into the boundary, concrete gravel boards along the base to keep the timber off the ground. On the Kent coast this is not a stylistic choice - it is a wind-and-salt choice. A closeboard elevation presents a plain overlapping face to the weather, catches no more wind than a panel run, and does not have the ply-and-batten weak-point that overlap panels fail at when a January easterly comes through.
What I fit and why
Standard height is 1.8m for back gardens across Deal, Walmer, Sholden and Mill Hill. Beach-front seafront jobs step down to 1.5m if the plot is directly exposed, on the argument that a lower elevation catches less lift and lasts longer. Middle Street Conservation Area frontages sit at 900mm or under, and if they are heritage-picket rather than closeboard I say so up-front.
Posts are always concrete morticed, never timber, on any Deal boundary I install new. Timber posts on the coast rot at the ground line inside seven to ten years - I have replaced dozens. Concrete posts hold indefinitely, take the arris-rail fix cleanly, and pay for themselves the first time the fence line survives a storm the neighbours' does not. Gravel boards are concrete, 150mm, along every base. The featheredge boards themselves are green-treated softwood, 100mm face, 100mm overlap.
Kingsdown clifftop spec
Kingsdown is a different job. Post depths go to 750mm minimum on any exposed clifftop plot, up from the standard 600mm inland. On chalk substrate - which is what you hit under Kingsdown and Ringwould - the post-holes are augered with a petrol auger, not hand-dug. Hardware is upgraded on the arris-rail fix: stainless-steel screws instead of galvanised nails, so the salt-laden air does not eat the fixings from the inside out.
How pricing works
Quoted from photos, supplied and fitted at 1.8m height. Straight Mill Hill or Sholden runs cost less. Beach-front and Kingsdown clifftop cost more once post-depth upgrades and hardware upgrades are in. A typical 15m boundary run is a day and a half - first day pull the old fence, dig or auger post holes, set posts in concrete; second morning cure-check, arris rails, boards, gravel boards, tidy.
Related guides
When to replace fence panels versus repair · Spotting post rot at the ground line · Concrete post upgrade versus timber posts
Quote from photos. Send a couple of photos and a postcode to WhatsApp on 07763 100 477 or use the quote form. Fixed price on straightforward runs.