We install wooden & metal gates for homeowners across Canonbury, with regular work near Upper Street. The right materials matter — softwood, iroko hardwood, oak all have their place depending on garden depth, ground levels and how exposed the boundary is.
A lot of Canonbury gardens are deep walled gardens with original brick boundaries and mature trees — panel runs need stepping and concrete-set posts to track the levels.
Every quote we write in N1 factors this in from the first measure.
Quick turnarounds, with materials that match the surrounding residential streetscape.
Bespoke widths, properly braced, with weather-resistant ironmongery suited to London exposure.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
Specified where it suits the brief — depth, exposure, garden style.
A gap left between a closing gate and its post or an adjacent leaf can trap fingers, particularly at a height a child would reach, and this is worth checking on any gate serving a garden used by young children.
Closing plates or adjusted hinge geometry can reduce the gap without replacing the gate itself.
A pair of driveway gates carries its weight on two separate hinge posts rather than one, so an imbalance between leaves — one heavier, one lighter, or one dropped more than the other — shows up as an uneven meeting line at the centre.
Correcting this usually means addressing each leaf's hinges independently rather than adjusting only the leaf that looks worse.
Brush application works the treatment into the grain and end grain more thoroughly, which matters most at cut ends and joints where untreated timber is exposed and most vulnerable to moisture uptake.
Spray application covers a large run far faster and gives a more even surface finish on smooth-planed boards, but relies on good weather and overspray control, and can leave the coating sitting on the surface rather than penetrating as deeply.
A practical approach on a full boundary is spraying the open panel faces for speed and finish, then finishing post tops, end grain and capping joints by hand with a brush.
A night latch, more commonly seen on house front doors, is sometimes fitted to a solid garden door or side gate door for self-latching convenience, engaging automatically on closing while still allowing free egress from inside.
It needs a solid, well-fitted frame to work reliably outdoors, since timber movement that would be barely noticeable indoors can be enough to throw an exterior-mounted night latch out of alignment.
Removing an old boundary fence before the new one is built leaves a gap that matters for security, for keeping pets or children contained, and for site safety around an open excavation.
A simple temporary screen — netting on stakes, or hurdles wired together — bridges that gap without committing to a full second install, and is worth agreeing with the client if the job will span more than a day.
On a site backing onto a road, path or shared area, a temporary barrier around open post holes overnight is also a basic precaution against someone stepping into an unmarked hole in the dark.
A solid acoustic face presents far more surface area to wind than an open picket or lattice fence, so the wind load transferred to each post is correspondingly higher and has to be designed for rather than assumed to match a standard fence.
Post sections are upsized and bay spans shortened on exposed acoustic runs specifically because of this higher wind loading, not purely for extra mass.
Cassette acoustic panels are dropped into a captive rebate machined into the post face, which keeps the panel edge sealed against the post without relying on face-fixed battens that could work loose.
The rebate depth and tolerance need to suit the specific cassette thickness supplied, so posts are matched to the panel system rather than treated as a generic fencing post.
Mineral-wool infill loses its acoustic performance if it gets wet and stays wet, so the base of an acoustic run needs a gravel board detail that keeps ground moisture away from the infill rather than wicking it upward.
Standing water at the post base is dealt with before the panel goes up, not left to be a problem discovered after the infill is already packed in.
Many panel styles have a clear 'good' face with a neater finish and a reverse face showing the frame, battens or rail ends, and getting this the wrong way round means the less tidy side ends up facing the client's own garden or the neighbour's, depending on convention and agreement.
Where a boundary is shared, it's worth agreeing in advance which side the good face should present, since local convention varies and assuming it defaults toward the neighbour without discussion can cause an avoidable dispute.
Checking panel orientation before fixing, rather than after several panels are already up, saves having to unfix and turn a run of panels that all went in the wrong way round.
Rails on a palisade or railing run are sized in cross-section to the span between posts, not to the pale height alone, because a rail that's too slender for its span will visibly deflect under a leaning or pushing load.
A heavier box-section or channel rail is specified on wider bays or taller runs, and increasing bay width to save on posts only works if the rail section is upsized to match the extra span.
Work generally runs boundary-first — posts and the main line go in before gates, so gate openings are set against a fixed, already-concreted frame rather than guessed at in advance.
On a longer commercial perimeter the line is broken into manageable sections so part of the site can stay secure while another part is being worked on.
Canonbury sits within Islington Council, part of London Borough of Islington, with Canonbury (Overground) as the anchor and A1 Upper Street the main route in and out. A406 (15 min) puts the gates crew on site fast, and our radius takes in islington, hackney comfortably. The local commercial cluster around Upper Street sees us regularly for security and boundary work.
Every Canonbury job starts with an itemised written quote, so nothing is assumed.
Installing wooden & metal gates across Greater London.
No subcontracted labour on site.
Canonbury gardens left clean at end of every day.
Within practical driving distance of Canonbury via A1 Upper Street and A406 (15 min).
Yes — we regularly install around Upper Street in Canonbury, with security-spec heights and proper paperwork for site access.
We'll come back and put right any installation issue we're responsible for. Every Canonbury job starts with a free site visit and a written quote so you know exactly what's included before we start.
Yes — manual and automated, with intercom and keypad options. Common in Canonbury for the larger detached plots.
Pricing varies with run length, materials (softwood / iroko hardwood / oak) and access. Every quote we send for Canonbury is itemised so you can see where the cost sits.
Most Canonbury jobs are quoted within 48 hours of a site visit and booked in within one to two weeks. We cover N1 from a base that keeps response times tight.
Local and straightforward. We turn up when we say, price fairly, and don't subcontract the job — homes across Canonbury are our day-to-day work.
Georgian and Victorian terraces around Canonbury Square in Canonbury usually means deep walled gardens with original brick boundaries and mature trees — and a gates spec that has to track those levels. That's what we spec for across N1.