Composite Fencing

A low-maintenance alternative to timber that doesn't rot, warp or need treating

Composite fencing, made from a mix of wood fibre and recycled plastic, is built specifically to avoid the maintenance cycle that comes with timber — no annual treating, no rotting boards, no warping — at a higher upfront cost than timber but with a genuinely different long-term maintenance commitment.

Composite fencing boards combine wood fibre with recycled plastic, bonded together to give a material that looks broadly similar to timber but behaves very differently once it's installed. The core advantage is what it doesn't need: composite boards don't require annual staining or treating, don't absorb moisture the way timber does, so they won't warp, split or rot the way an untreated or poorly maintained timber fence eventually will, and colour is consistent throughout the board rather than a surface treatment that fades and needs reapplying. Installation follows broadly similar principles to timber panel fencing — posts, whether timber or composite themselves, still need setting correctly in concrete, since the structural fundamentals of a fence don't change just because the visible boards are a different material — but the boards themselves clip or fix into a post-and-rail system designed specifically for composite, rather than being nailed the way timber boards are. The trade-off for the reduced maintenance is a higher material cost upfront compared to standard timber, which is a genuine factor in the decision — composite makes most sense for households wanting to avoid the recurring time and cost of timber maintenance over the years, rather than simply choosing on lowest initial price.