Temporary Fencing Panels

The three panel tops, and when each is right

Panels look alike in a yard and behave very differently on a site boundary.

• Standard panels have a straight top rail and an open mesh. The cheapest option and the right one where the fence is marking a boundary rather than resisting entry.
• Round top panels turn the top rail over into a curve. It removes the sharp edge, which matters where the public passes close, and it gives less for a hand or a foot to grip at the top.
• Anti-climb panels use a tighter mesh that will not take a toe or a finger. This is the specification for anywhere holding plant, tools, copper or fuel, and for any boundary facing a route people walk at night.

Panels are sold in packs of 10, 40 and 50. Work out the run first: count the metres of perimeter, divide by the panel width, and add two or three spares, because panels get damaged and a gap in a fence line is the fence line failing.

The parts that actually keep a fence closed

A temporary fence is almost never climbed. It is unclipped, lifted off its feet and walked through, then put back so nobody notices. The accessories are what stop that.

• Coupler clips join panels at the uprights and tighten with a tool. Standard, and undone with a spanner by anyone carrying one.
• Anti-tamper clips need their own spanner, sold alongside them. Buy the spanner with the clips and keep it off the site.
• Anti-lift devices pin the panel down into the foot, which closes the route in that needs no tools at all. It is the gap most fence lines leave open.
• Bracing legs and support braces with pegs hold a run against wind and against being pushed.

Order clips generously. They are the cheapest item on the order, the first thing to go missing, and the reason a fence line does not go up on the day.

Feet, ballast and hard ground

Rubber block feet at around 18kg take the panel legs and spread the load. Hi-vis ballast blocks at 20kg sit over the feet where more weight is needed, and the high-visibility colour reduces the trip hazard that the feet themselves create on a footway.

Both are a one-person lift with moulded handles, both stack for transport, and some feet take a forklift channel so a pallet can be moved without unstacking. On hard standing where pegs cannot be driven, the ballast is the only thing holding the fence up, so do not treat it as optional.

Debris netting changes the wind loading

This is the mistake that puts fence lines on the ground.

An open mesh panel lets wind through. Attach debris netting or a solid hoarding panel and the same fence becomes a continuous surface for the wind to push against. The panels have not changed, but the load on them has increased sharply, and a run ballasted correctly for open mesh will go over.

If you are adding netting, add ballast and bracing at the same time. Netting comes in 2m x 50m rolls and is fixed with cable ties, stocked here from 150mm up to 900mm and in several thicknesses, so the tie can be matched to the mesh rather than doubled up.

Gates, and the rest of the boundary

Every fence line needs a way through, and a person-sized gap between two panels is not it. Swing and sliding gates, pedestrian turnstiles and lockable systems are stocked alongside the panels, for hire as well as purchase.

For permanent mesh boundaries and security-rated systems, see mesh security fencing. For gates on their own, see mesh gates.