Before You Touch Anything: A Safe First Assessment

Storm damage rarely looks as dramatic the morning after as it felt at two in the morning, but that calm is deceptive. A fence panel that has worked loose can behave like a sail in the next gust, and a leaning post carrying several metres of timber can go over without warning. Before you pick up a hammer, walk the boundary with your hands in your pockets and simply look.

Work through these checks first:

• Overhead cables. If any timber is touching or near a power or telephone line, stop. Keep everyone well clear and contact the network operator. Never try to move a panel that could be in contact with a live line.
• Leaning posts. A post that has shifted more than a few degrees is carrying weight it was never designed to carry. Treat the whole run as unstable, not just that one section.
• Public access. If the fence borders a pavement, footpath or shared driveway, keep children and pets indoors until it is braced. Loose boards with exposed nails are a genuine hazard to passers-by.
• Sharp debris. Shattered gravel boards, splintered rails and half-driven nails all hide in long grass. Clear the ground before you start work, not after.

Kit for the job: stout boots, cut-resistant gloves, safety glasses, a claw hammer, a cordless drill, 65mm galvanised screws, a spirit level and a couple of lengths of 75mm x 50mm timber for bracing.

Making the Area Safe and Bracing the Neighbours

Fence runs fail in sequence. Once one post gives, the panels either side pull on their fixings and the whole line weakens. Bracing the neighbouring sections before you start repairs is the single most useful habit in storm damage work.

Cut two or three braces roughly a third longer than the post height. Drive one end firmly into the soil at about 45 degrees and screw the other end to the post with two 100mm screws. Fix the brace on the side the wind hit — that is where the pressure will come from next time. Screw into the post rather than the panel, since panel timber is thin and splits easily.

Never lean a ladder against a loose panel to reach the top of a post. Use a stepladder on firm ground, or work from the garden side at ground level wherever possible. If a run is badly twisted and you cannot brace it confidently, take the panels out and stack them flat until you can rebuild properly.

Deciding What to Repair and What to Replace

Not every damaged fence needs new timber. A quick, honest assessment saves money and landfill. Push each post firmly at waist height and watch the base. Then probe the timber at ground level with a screwdriver — if the blade sinks in easily, the post is rotten inside even though it may look sound above.

• Post solid, panels loose: repair. Refix the panels with screws and add a new batten where the old nails have torn out.
• Post rotten at the base only: usually repairable with a concrete repair spur or a bolt-down post base, driven alongside and bolted through the sound timber above.
• Post snapped, split, or rotten above 300mm: replace it. Dig out the old concrete, set a new post in fresh mix, and leave it to cure before hanging panels.
• Panels with one or two broken slats: splice in matching timber rather than replacing the whole panel. Treat every cut end with preservative.

Repairing Posts, Rails and Panels That Can Be Saved

Where panels have simply been blown out of their grooves, refit them rather than forcing new timber in. Two people make this far easier than one — a standard 1.83m panel is awkward and catches the wind even on a still day.

Replace old nails with screws. Galvanised or stainless steel screws grip better in wet timber, can be tightened later, and are far less likely to pull out in the next gale. Space them at 300mm centres along rails and stagger them slightly so you are not screwing into a line of old nail holes. Drill pilot holes in older, brittle timber to stop it splitting.

Where a rail has cracked, sister a new length of timber alongside it and bolt or screw through both. This is quicker than dismantling the panel and stronger than a glued repair.

Replacing a Panel Without Disturbing the Rest of the Run

Measure the gap between posts at the top, middle and bottom — they will rarely match. Order to the narrowest measurement and pack out any difference with a slim batten rather than forcing a panel in, which bows the post and shortens its life.

Lift the new panel into the grooves dry first to check the fit, then fix. Refit or replace gravel boards so the panel is not sitting directly in soil or on a wet path. Once the run is sound, give the whole fence a wash down with a garden hose and a stiff brush to shift grit and algae, and clear the gutter line and patio of debris the storm left behind. Clean timber dries faster and reveals rot earlier.

Treating and Future-Proofing Before the Next Gale

Finish by brushing preservative onto any bare cut ends, and onto the lower 400mm of every post. Keep soil, mulch and compost heaped away from the base of posts — constant damp at ground level is what kills most fences, not wind. Check drainage along the boundary so water does not pool at the foot of the run.

After any significant gale, spend five minutes walking the fence line, tightening the odd screw and pushing each post. Small checks now are far cheaper than rebuilding a whole run in February.