Handyman Service in Cockfosters

Garden screening is bought to solve a problem of sightlines and immediately becomes a problem of wind. A trellis panel is mostly holes, which persuades almost everybody that it weighs nothing and catches nothing, and then the first proper gale of the autumn takes it, the fence panel behind it and frequently the post as well. Around Cockfosters, where plots are wide, boundaries are long and mature trees funnel gusts down between houses, that is a familiar sequence.

Height, boundaries and the conversation with next door

Adding trellis to the top of an existing fence increases the height of the boundary structure as a whole, and there is a point beyond which permission is needed — lower still where a boundary runs along a highway. Ownership matters too: a panel fixed to a neighbour's fence is a fixing to their property, and the courteous and practical route is a free-standing screen just inside the line. Any of this within a conservation area, or involving a wall that turns out to be shared, deserves settling before timber is bought rather than afterwards.

What the existing fence can actually carry

A closeboard or lap panel fence was sized for the load of the panel alone. Bolting a metre of trellis to the top of it roughly doubles the sail area and moves the leverage to the worst possible place, at the far end of the post. Where screening is going up on a fence line the posts are the component to upgrade first: longer posts, or a concrete spur bolted alongside a sound one. Slotting trellis into the existing capping and calling it done is what produces a garden full of splintered panels every winter.

Fixing to a wall without trapping water against it

Screening fixed flat against masonry holds a permanently damp film between the two, and both the timber and the wall suffer. Battens set vertically behind the panel, on washers or proprietary spacers, hold it clear so air can move and rain can run off. Fixings go into the body of a brick rather than into a mortar joint on an older wall, at a sensible distance from the edge, and stainless or properly galvanised fittings are worth the difference outdoors. Hinged panels on a wall, held by turn buttons, let the wall be reached again in ten years.

Plants, and what they do to what they climb

A screen is usually wanted green, and the choice of climber determines how much maintenance follows. Twining plants and anything trained on wires can be laid down with the panel when the wall needs attention; self-clinging climbers cannot, and they take the paint, the pointing and sometimes the render with them. Dense evergreen growth against a house wall keeps it wet, shades it from any drying sun and shows up internally as a cold, spotted patch on the other side of that masonry, which is then work for experienced black mould removal in Cockfosters.

What moves in behind a screen

The gap between a panel and a wall is sheltered, dry at the top and undisturbed, which makes it attractive to more than plants. Wasps building under a capping, squirrels using a trellis as a ladder to a soffit and rodents running the length of a fence line behind dense cover are all common in gardens backing onto woodland, and none of it is dealt with by moving the screen — it is a matter for the pest control team in Cockfosters. Leaving a clear band at the base of a panel makes the route much less useful.

Cables, lights and what is already on the wall

Garden walls and fences carry more services than people remember. Supplies to a shed, an outside socket, festoon lighting and low-voltage cable runs are frequently clipped along exactly the line a batten wants to occupy, and drilling blind into a wall beside a back door is a genuine risk. Anything that has to be disconnected, re-routed or re-terminated is work for Enfield electrical services team, and the screening is set out around the finished positions rather than over them.

Arranging the work

Charges follow the run length and whether posts are being renewed, since digging out an old concrete mass is most of the labour on any fence-line job. Access to both sides of the boundary shortens the visit considerably, and long panels will not go through a narrow side passage, so the route in is checked before delivery. Offcuts and old timber leave under waste carrier duty of care. Similar work a short way west is covered by the Barnet branch, and handyman service explained describes the wider range of outdoor repairs available.