Adding PVC Fencing to Your Range: A Guide for Fencing Contractors and Landscapers

Short answer: PVC won't replace timber or steel in most of your work, and it shouldn't. It's worth offering for a specific group of customers: people who want a white picket, privacy or post-and-rail fence and never want to paint it, plus pool surrounds, equestrian yards, nurseries and hospitality frontages. Installation is assembly rather than carpentry, so crews pick it up quickly. The skill is still in setting the posts accurately.

Who asks for PVC

PVC enquiries tend to come from:

• Homeowners replacing a tired painted picket fence who are tired of repainting
• New-build and coastal properties where white suits the house
• Pool and hot tub owners wanting a clean barrier with self-closing gates
• Equestrian yards and smallholdings wanting post-and-rail without the painting
• Nurseries, holiday parks, pubs and hotels that want a smart boundary with low upkeep
• Older or busy homeowners who simply don't want maintenance

If your area has few of these customers, PVC will be an occasional job. That's fine. Offering it still means you don't lose the job to someone who does.

Where it doesn't fit

Be straight with customers:

• Security perimeters: steel mesh or palisade.
• Traditional closeboard boundaries on a budget: timber is cheaper upfront.
• Very exposed, high, solid screens: possible with the right posts and footings, but talk through wind load honestly. Fencing warranties, ours included, exclude wind damage.
• Customers who want natural timber: composite or real wood.

How installation differs

Posts are everything. PVC panels drop into or fix to routed posts, so post centres must be accurate. There's far less adjustment than cutting a timber rail on site. Set out to a tight string line, with a spacer cut to the exact panel centres.

Post sizes. Our picket and pool ranges use 4 × 4in posts, and privacy uses 5 × 5in posts for wind load. Aluminium inserts are available to stiffen rails where needed.

Hard surfaces. Steel surface mounts bolt to concrete or decking, so there's no breaking out on patios and pool surrounds.

Cutting. Panels are supplied to set widths. Odd lengths need planning: part panels, custom gates, or adjusting centres. Made-to-measure gates are available from 50cm to 183cm wide.

Speed. Once posts are set, panels go in quickly. Pre-assembly from our workshop (minimum 5 panels) cuts site time further.

Gates. Supplied with self-closing hinges, latch and fixings. Hang them on properly set posts and adjust the hinges after the posts have cured.

Pricing your work

Price labour per job as you would any fence, but recognise:

• Less site carpentry
• More setting-out care
• Less waste
• No finishing, so no paint or stain

Materials are priced per component (panels, posts, caps, gates), so your quote can be itemised clearly. Many contractors use our Complete Fence Planner to build a parts list from the site measurements and email an itemised quote, then add their labour.

How to sell it

The pitch that works is simple and true:

• It costs more than timber upfront.
• It doesn't need painting or treating, won't rot or splinter, and washes clean.
• Residential customers get a limited lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, and commercial jobs a 30-year one. Show them the warranty page so they know what it covers and excludes.

Don't oversell security, noise reduction or storm-proofing. Customers remember.

First-job mistakes to avoid

• Setting all the posts first without fitting panels as you go. One drifted post and the last panel won't fit.
• Forgetting the hard-surface sections. Patios and paths need surface mounts. Order them with the job.
• Under-ordering caps and gate posts. Count every post on the drawing.
• Hanging gates before the concrete has cured, then finding they've dropped.
• Cutting panels without checking the system's guidance. Plan widths first.

Supply and logistics

• Trade accounts: we don't publish a trade discount; contact us for a trade account
• Trade quotes on projects over 50m
• Collection from Rotherham (S62), or pallet delivery UK-wide at a flat rate of £200
• Pre-assembly at £20 per panel (minimum 5 panels)
• Showrooms in Rotherham and Newhaven, by appointment, to bring customers to see the product
• Installer introductions: we're supply-only and introduce customers to independent installers through our Find an Installer page

Getting started

Most contractors start with one job: a picket front garden or a pool fence. They price materials through the planner, then add PVC to their website and van once they've fitted it. If you want to talk volume or account terms, go to Trade Enquiries.

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