Hardwood Fence, Arbour and Motorised Gates, [Suburb]

Hardwood fencing, a built arbour over the entrance, and motorised sliding gates.

The job

The clients wanted the front of their property closed off properly.

Not panels run along a boundary line, but something built: hardwood fencing, an arbour over the entrance, and motorised sliding gates.

Why hardwood

Hardwood is more work than the alternatives. It's heavier, it's harder on tools, and it doesn't forgive a rushed cut.

It's also what we'd choose if it were our place. It ages properly, it holds its shape, and a hardwood fence built well will outlast two or three cheap ones.

Both of us enjoy working with it, which isn't a small thing on a job like this. You can usually tell from a finished fence whether the person building it cared.

the gates

Two hardwood pedestrian gates at around 900mm, hung on hinges and latches. Then a four-metre sliding gate across the driveway, motorised, with sensors that open and close it.

The whole system runs on solar, so there was no need to get power out to the front of the property.

We set the automation up and tested it ourselves after going through the install requirements with the supplier we bought the hardware from.

The Ground Was The Problem

The frontage sloped, and the levels changed across it. On a fence that matters more than it sounds, because the eye picks up a line that isn't straight long before it notices anything else.

Most of the work on this job went into the set out before anything was built. We stepped sections where we had to and kept the overall lines as clean as we could, so it reads as deliberate rather than as a fence following a slope.

The gate heights and clearances had to be worked out precisely, because a four metre sliding gate that catches on a driveway is a four metre problem. The arbour and gate posts were set to suit the changing levels so the whole frontage ties together instead of looking like three separate bits of work.

On fencing generally

Fencing is the easiest thing in the trade to do cheaply. There will always be someone who'll run panels along a boundary for less than we'd charge, and for plenty of jobs that's the right answer.

What we're interested in is the other kind. Hardwood, built properly, with something at the entrance worth looking at. If that's the sort of thing you're after, it's a job we'd like.