Blog / Repairs

Five signs your fence needs attention

Fences rarely fall over without warning. They lean, rattle and rot in slow motion first — and each of those stages is cheaper to fix than the next. Here are the five things to look for on a walk around your boundary.

1. The lean

Stand at one end of the run and sight along it. A lean means posts are moving at ground level — rot, shallow holes, or soil washed out from around the base. A slight lean on one post is a single-post job; a lean across the whole run means the line is telling you its age.

2. Soft or dark timber at ground level

Push a screwdriver gently into posts where they meet the soil. Sound timber resists; rotting timber gives. Dark staining and a spongy feel mean the post is failing from the bottom up — the most common way a fence dies in Canterbury's wet winters.

3. Rattling palings

Loose palings flap in the nor'wester until they split. Re-fixing is quick work when the rails behind are sound. If palings are popping across the whole fence, check the rails — swollen, split or soft rails won't hold fixings no matter how many you add.

4. Rust streaks and staining

Rust bleeding down from fixings means the nails or screws are corroding away inside the timber. Stainless or properly coated fixings belong anywhere near the coast or in damp ground; plain wire nails have a limited life once moisture gets in.

5. Gates that drag

A dragging gate is usually the messenger, not the problem — the gate post has moved or the frame has gone out of square. Re-hanging and re-packing cures most of them, provided the post itself is still solid.

Spotted one or more of these? Phone 03 349 0227 — describe what you're seeing, and we'll tell you straight whether it's a repair job or a replacement job. Our fence repairs page covers what the work involves.