Close board fencing is the workhorse of Hampshire gardens: vertical feather edge boards nailed to arris rails, built on site rather than dropped in as a panel. It is also the fencing style where quotes vary most wildly, because two contractors can use the same words and build very different fences. Here is what actually drives the price per metre, and what a fair Winchester quote looks like in 2026.
For supply and fit in and around Winchester, most close board fencing lands somewhere between £75 and £140 per linear metre including VAT and waste removal. A 1.8m high fence on concrete posts with a concrete gravel board typically sits in the £95 to £130 bracket. Timber posts pull it down towards the lower end, and 1.2m fencing to a front boundary is cheaper again.
That range is wide for a reason. Roughly 40 to 50 percent of the cost is labour, and labour is driven by ground conditions and access more than by the fence itself. Materials are the predictable part. The site is not.
Close board is built up in layers, and each layer is a place where a cheap quote quietly saves money. Feather edge boards should overlap by around 25mm, which means roughly 9 or 10 boards per metre at 100mm width. Skimp the overlap to 12mm and you get about seven boards per metre, a fence that looks fine on handover and gappy after one dry summer as the timber shrinks.
Ask what the arris rails are: three rails on a 1.8m fence, not two. Ask whether the timber is pressure treated to UC4 for anything in ground contact. Ask whether posts are set in postcrete or in a proper concrete mix, and how deep. A 1.8m fence needs roughly 600mm of post in the ground, which on a windy Hampshire ridge is the difference between a fence and a sail.
Much of Winchester and the surrounding villages sits on chalk with a thin layer of flint rich topsoil. Chalk digs reasonably well when it is damp and turns into a compacted horror in August. Flint is the real cost: hitting a seam means hand digging or breaking out, and a post hole that should take fifteen minutes can take an hour. Any honest quote will say what happens if the ground turns out to be worse than expected rather than pretending it cannot.
Access matters just as much. A terraced property off Stockbridge Road where every post, bag of ballast and bundle of feather edge goes through the house adds real hours. Rear gardens reached only by a shared alley, sloping sites in Olivers Battery or St Cross, and boundaries tight against a neighbour's shed all push the metre rate up.
One local wrinkle worth checking before you commit: parts of Winchester sit within conservation areas, and fences over 1m adjoining a highway or over 2m elsewhere can need planning permission. Listed buildings and some newer estates carry their own restrictions through covenants.
Concrete gravel boards are the single best value upgrade. They keep the feather edge out of wet soil, which is where close board fencing almost always fails first, and they let you replace boards later without disturbing the posts. Expect around £12 to £20 per metre extra.
Concrete posts divide opinion on looks but they outlast timber comfortably and cope well with chalk backfill. If you prefer the appearance of timber, a slotted concrete post system or a good UC4 treated post with a capped top is a reasonable middle ground. Capping rail and post caps add perhaps £10 to £15 per metre and meaningfully slow water ingress at the end grain.
Get three quotes and insist all three specify height, post material and spacing, number of arris rails, board overlap, treatment grade, post depth, and whether disposal and VAT are included. Without those, you are comparing numbers that describe different fences.
Be wary of anything dramatically below the range above, and be equally wary of a day rate with no fixed scope. Most straightforward runs of 15 to 25 metres are a two day job for two people. If someone quotes a single day for 30 metres including old fence removal, something is being rushed, and with close board that something is usually the concrete curing before the boards go on.
Yes, typically 30 to 50 percent more per metre, because it is built board by board on site rather than fixed as a prefabricated unit. It lasts considerably longer and handles sloping and uneven boundaries far better, so the cost per year of service is usually lower.
Whoever owns the boundary, which your title plan or deeds should indicate, often with a T mark on the responsible side. If ownership is shared or unclear, neighbours commonly split the cost, and it is worth agreeing that in writing before work starts.
With UC4 treated timber, concrete gravel boards and properly set posts, 15 to 20 years is realistic, and concrete posts will outlast that. The usual failure point is the bottom of the boards sitting in wet soil, which a gravel board largely prevents.
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