Fixing a fence yourself: which jobs are realistic DIY

What most people can do themselves

Replacing a single damaged board or panel is usually straightforward. You unscrew or lever off the broken piece, measure it against the gap, cut a new one to size from matching timber, and fix it back with galvanised screws rather than nails, which hold far better over time in the Estonian climate of freeze-thaw cycles. If the fence is painted or stained, match the new board before fitting it so it weathers in evenly.

Straightening a post that has tilted slightly, without the concrete footing having failed, is also a reasonable weekend job. You dig out around the base, check the post is sound where it meets the ground, pack the hole with fresh gravel or concrete, and brace it upright with two temporary battens screwed to neighbouring posts until it sets. This only works if the post itself is not rotten and the lean is a few degrees, not a collapse.

Tightening loose fixings, replacing a rusted hinge, resetting a gate latch, or giving a wooden fence a fresh coat of stain are all sensible DIY tasks. None of them require special skill, just the right screws, a spirit level, and patience to let each step dry or set before moving to the next.

• Replacing one or two damaged boards or panels
• Straightening a post with a sound base and a mild lean
• Swapping worn hinges, latches or fixings
• Sanding back and restaining or repainting timber
• Clearing vegetation and resetting loose gravel boards

When you are actually dealing with posts or footings

A post that wobbles at ground level, has snapped below the soil line, or sits in a footing that has cracked and heaved is a different job entirely. Removing an old concrete footing without damaging the fence either side, digging a new hole to the right depth for the local frost line, and getting the post plumb and square while the concrete cures is fiddly work, and a mistake here shows up as a leaning fence again within a year or two.

If more than two or three posts along a run are affected, the fence is often better treated as a section to rebuild rather than a repair. At that point you are choosing footing depth, post spacing and bracing for the whole run, which affects how it copes with wind loading over its life, not just how it looks on the day.

This is where fence repair work is best handed over, particularly if several posts need resetting or the ground has shifted enough that the whole line is out of true. Getting depth and concrete right the first time avoids paying twice.

Gates and moving parts — why they so often go wrong

Gates fail more often than fixed fencing because they carry load on one edge and swing under their own weight every time they open. A gate that has begun to sag is rarely a hinge problem alone; it is usually the post it hangs from working loose, which no amount of hinge adjustment will fix for long.

Fitting a new gate square, with clearance that stays even through a Baltic winter's freeze and a summer's swelling of the timber, takes more care than most first attempts allow for. Automatic or heavy metal gates add hinge loads that a standard timber post was never built to carry, and they are usually better assessed by someone who does this regularly.

If your gate is simply sticking or the latch no longer lines up, check the hinge screws and the post first, that is a fair DIY check. If the post itself is moving when the gate swings, treat it as a post repair, not a gate repair.

Which tools are worth buying before you start

A short list of decent tools makes the difference between a job that goes smoothly and one that stalls halfway. Buying cheap versions of these often costs more in wasted materials and second trips to the shop than buying properly once.

You do not need a full workshop. A spirit level, a post hole digger or narrow spade, a hand saw or jigsaw, a cordless drill with driver bits, and galvanised screws and brackets sized to your fence will cover almost every DIY repair described above.

• A spirit level, ideally one long enough to span two posts
• A post hole digger or narrow spade for footing work
• A hand saw or jigsaw for cutting boards to size
• A cordless drill with a full set of driver bits
• Galvanised screws, brackets and post supports rather than nails
• A bag of quick-setting post-fix concrete if resetting a footing

Where to draw the line and call someone

The point to stop and call for help is when the job involves more than one post footing, a structural gate, or a fence that leans along its whole length rather than at one point. These jobs take longer than they look, and a poor result is expensive to undo once concrete has set around a post out of true.

Our fence repair and installation work starts at 45 € per hour, with a fixed quote for larger jobs once we have seen a description or photos of what needs doing. For anything smaller and unrelated to the fence itself, loose fixings elsewhere, a gate that needs a hinge swap, general odd jobs from 39 € per hour cover it without a special call-out.