Phone orders on 0208 088 2269/ £14.99 delivery for all orders
Most screening goes wrong for the same reason: someone buys a height rather than solving a problem. A 6ft panel does not hide you from an upstairs window, and a 3ft one will not hide the bins. This page works backwards instead — start with what you are trying to screen, and the right answer falls out.
Start with what you are screening
| The problem | Height | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bins, compost, an oil tank | 4ft | Taller than the object, low enough not to loom. Screening one thing needs less than you think |
| A patio or seating area | 4ft or 5ft | You are seated. 4ft clears eye level when sitting, 5ft covers standing too |
| A hot tub | 5ft or 6ft | Both seated privacy and shelter from wind, which matters more than people expect |
| Next door’s ground floor | 6ft | Full height. This is the one job where nothing less will do |
| Next door’s upstairs windows | no fence will do it | See below — the geometry defeats you |
| Wind off open ground | 5ft or 6ft | A woven panel filters wind rather than fighting it, which is the whole point |
| Defining a space, not hiding it | 2ft or 3ft | Structure without enclosure. Reads as intentional rather than defensive |
The upstairs-window problem, honestly. Sightlines from a first-floor window come down at an angle, and a fence only blocks the part of that angle close to it. Stand at the boundary and you are hidden; sit ten feet into your own garden and you are visible again over the top. No fence of any height fixes this — the geometry is against you.
What does work is putting the screen near where you sit rather than at the boundary. A 5ft or 6ft panel a few feet behind a seating area blocks far more of that downward view than the same panel thirty feet away. It is the one piece of advice we give most often, and it usually saves people money.
Panels or screening rolls?
Plenty of people search for screening rolls, so it is worth being straight about the difference. We make panels, not rolls, and here is the honest comparison rather than a sales pitch.
Rolls
Thin brushwood, reed or split willow on wire, unrolled and cable-tied to an existing fence or frame. Cheap, quick, and good for covering chain link or a tired panel you are not ready to replace.
They are a covering, not a structure. Expect a couple of seasons before the wire shows and the edges fray.
Panels
Whole rods woven around uprights into a rigid, self-supporting panel. It stands as a fence in its own right on posts, with no existing structure needed.
More money up front, five to ten years in return, and it looks like a made thing rather than a wrapper.
If you have a sound fence and want to hide it for a season or two, buy a roll. If you want the screen to be the boundary, buy panels — putting a roll on a failing fence just means doing the job twice.
How much screening you actually get
A woven panel is not a solid wall, and that is deliberate — the gaps are what let wind through instead of blowing the fence over. Up close you will see daylight through the weave. From a few feet back it reads as solid.
Between the two materials, willow screens marginally better: the rods are slimmer and the weave sits tighter, so there is less to see through. Hazel has thicker rods and a deliberately looser, more rustic weave — slightly more open, and the sturdier panel of the two where it will take wear.
The difference is small. Height matters far more than material — a 6ft hazel panel screens vastly better than a 5ft willow one. Choose the height for the job first, then pick the material on looks.
Screening now, or planting for later
The usual instinct is to plant a hedge and wait. The better answer is often both, and hurdles make that easy.
A woven panel gives you screening on the day it goes up. Plant behind it and in five or six years the planting has taken over — by which time the panel is at the end of its natural life anyway and can simply be removed and composted. You get instant privacy and a hedge, without an ugly temporary structure in between.
It also works the other way. A hurdle run makes an excellent nursery screen for young plants, sheltering them from wind while they establish. That is the job these panels were doing on market gardens long before anyone put one round a patio.
What it costs
Screening a typical patio — an 18ft L-shape at 5ft high:
3 willow panels at £46.41 — £139.23
4 posts (2.4m UC4) at £15.22 — £60.88
1 pack of 50 stainless cable ties — £11.02
Delivery — £14.99
Total — £226.12
Remember the post count: one per 6ft plus one to finish the run. Three panels need four posts.
| Height | Hazel | Willow |
|---|---|---|
| 3ft × 6ft | £32.25 | £30.30 |
| 4ft × 6ft | £38.37 | £36.65 |
| 5ft × 6ft | £45.90 | £46.41 |
| 6ft × 6ft | £53.92 | £54.16 |
Common questions
How high can I put up a garden screen without permission?
In England and Wales the general rule is 2 metres for a fence or screen, dropping to 1 metre where it adjoins a road used by vehicles. Our tallest panel is 6ft, which is comfortably inside that — but posts stand proud, and rules differ for listed buildings, conservation areas and some new estates with covenants. If in doubt, a call to your local planning office costs nothing.
Will screening block wind as well as sight?
It will reduce it, and a woven panel does this better than a solid one. Solid fencing creates turbulence that drops back down behind it, so the sheltered zone is smaller than you would guess. A permeable screen slows the air through the whole depth of the garden instead. This is well established in horticulture and it is why hurdles have always been used as windbreaks.
Can I fix screening to an existing fence?
Hurdle panels are self-supporting and want their own posts. If you have a sound existing post line and just want to cover the panels, a roll is the more sensible buy. If the existing fence is failing, replace it properly rather than screening the problem.
How long will a screen last?
Five to ten years for a woven panel. Keep the bottom clear of soil, fix it at four points per upright, and check the ties each spring — those three habits account for most of the difference between the bottom and top of that range. Full detail in how long hazel hurdles last.
Do you sell hazel screening rolls?
No — we make woven panels only. If a roll is genuinely what your job needs, we would rather tell you that than sell you the wrong thing.
Work out what you need
Measure the run, divide by six and add one post. Then pick your height from the table at the top and your material from hazel or willow. Browse hazel hurdles, willow hurdles and hurdle fencing, or describe the problem to us and we will tell you what will actually solve it.