Safe to say, it’s been a bit of a rough year. And now with the weather starting to take a turn, the Meteorological Office is taking steps to help people prepare for the potentially harsher conditions that we could be seeing in the next few weeks. We’ve got plenty of experience helping our customers to recover from the effects of adverse weather here at Welch Fencing, with a long history of providing replacement garden fence panels – or entirely new fences – to customers looking to revitalise their gardens in the wake of heavy rain, hail, snow or storms.
We heartily support the Met Office’s mission to help the UK prepare itself for winter, so in that spirit, we’ve collected some of its best advice to look after your garden fencing.
Caught out by winter weather
Recent research by YouGov, carried out on behalf of the Met Office, found that 42% of its respondents had been “caught out” by winter weather, Some of the most common issues included being late for work, cancelling social plans, and having difficulties around the house or garden. As you might expect, fencing, gutters and garden furniture were at the centre of lots of problems.
The Met Office recommends:
• Tying down your garden furniture or putting it away to prevent any of it becoming a ‘missile’ in high winds – this includes children’s toys, and even bigger items like trampolines
• Trimming trees or branches overhanging your garden in advance (especially if they look weak) to prevent them from falling down and causing damage to your garden fencing – or worse, hurting a member of your family
• Clearing your gutters in advance to stop them from becoming blocked
Personally, here at Welch Fencing, we’d also advise:
• Performing a quick visual inspection of your fence, to check in advance for any weak spots or any areas where it might be easily damaged.
• Checking the posts, especially if you have wooden ones rather than concrete posts
• Identifying and replacing any garden fence panels that look like they might not stand up well to the adverse weather
The other side of your garden fence
While you’re thinking about the best ways to look after your garden fencing over winter, the people at the Met Office suggest that it might be worth taking a moment to think about the people on the other side of it, too.
Specifically, the Met Office suggests checking on elderly relatives and neighbours, as well as your own friends and family. Mental health is a major concern over winter – according to the Met Office’s own research, – 41% of its respondents said that they had anxiety around certain weather types, and being forced to stay at home. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a very real thing!
Even just a quick conversation can do wonders for helping people to feel less isolated, and if you’re able, it’s always nice to provide a bit of practical help with they need it too, such as assistance with shopping. You can find out more about the Met’s suggestions for helping neighbours over on its website, or take a look at its full spectrum of WeatherReady advice, encompassing your home, garden, car, and personal health.
We’ll leave it to them to advise you on most of that though. Here at Welch, we’ll stick to doing what we do best. It’s worth taking a look at our post on how to fix a storm damaged fence – and if you ever decide you need any replacements, you’re in exactly the right place.
Here at Welch Fencing we’ve got a great range of replacement fence panels and concrete fence posts for you to browse right here on our site. As an experienced UK manufacturer of concrete fence posts and garden fence panels, we have our very own fleet of delivery vehicles at our disposal, allowing us to get your products right to your door.
If you have any questions about any of our products, or you need any more detailed information, feel free to contact us on 01772 336 476, or fire us a quick email on sales@garden-fence-panels.co.uk.
