Old Letchworth's housing stock — the earliest planned cottages of the Garden City Movement — sets a particular brief for gates. We work day-in, day-out on modest leafy gardens with original cottage walls, which means we know what to spec before we arrive and don't waste a site visit measuring what's already obvious.
Old Letchworth's housing stock — the earliest planned cottages of the Garden City Movement — sets a particular brief for gates. We work day-in, day-out on modest leafy gardens with original cottage walls, which means we know what to spec before we arrive and don't waste a site visit measuring what's already obvious.
Most Old Letchworth jobs go in within one to two weeks via A1(M) J9. Phone, WhatsApp a photo of the boundary, or use the form — whichever is fastest.
the earliest planned cottages of the Garden City Movement. The gardens behind them are modest leafy gardens with original cottage walls.
That shapes the gates brief — every quote we write here factors in heritage approvals add lead time but are non-negotiable for boundary work.
Clay ground that swells and shrinks seasonally puts extra strain on a heavier double-skin panel, so base depth is increased rather than kept at a standard lap-panel spec.
Where ground has been disturbed by previous building work, we test rather than assume, since rubble or made ground close to the surface changes how a base actually needs to be built.
Pergola posts generally need a larger section than a fence post of the same height, since they carry a horizontal beam and roof structure rather than just resisting wind on a flat panel, and undersized posts show up as noticeable sway at the top rather than immediate failure.
Softwood pergolas are almost always pressure-treated given the exposure, while a hardwood pergola can be left to weather untreated in the same way an oak gate can, at a higher initial material cost.
Screening timbers fixed to or beside a pergola structure follow the same gap and profile logic as free-standing slatted fencing, so the same trade-offs between privacy, light and wind loading apply.
An acoustic enclosure built around fixed plant needs a hatch or removable panel sized for routine servicing access, positioned so it can be reached without dismantling the whole structure.
The hatch itself is a potential gap in the acoustic seal, so it's detailed with an overlapping edge or gasket rather than left as a simple butt-fitted panel.
A post cap that doesn't fully overhang the post's top edge on all sides leaves a lip where water can track back under the cap and sit on the end grain, defeating much of its purpose.
Pyramid or weathered profile caps shed water faster than a flat cap, which matters more on an exposed post than a sheltered one, though either performs better than no cap at all on a cut post top.
Caps fixed with a single central nail can work loose and rock in wind, letting water in at the edges; a bead of exterior adhesive under the cap in addition to fixings gives a more weathertight result.
A pedestrian gate needs enough clear width once open to comfortably pass through with hands full, a pushchair or a wheeled bin, and a gate that technically opens but leaves very little usable width against an adjacent wall or post is a common design oversight on tight side returns.
Checking the actual clear opening, not just the gate leaf's nominal width, avoids this problem before a gate is ordered.
An old post base often left in the ground after a previous fence comes out will usually be a lump of concrete far bigger than the post it once held, and it rarely sits exactly where a new post needs to go.
Breaking it out with a hand tool or breaker takes real time compared with digging clean ground, and on a long run of old fencing there can be one buried lump per post rather than just an occasional obstruction.
Where a footing can't be fully removed without excessive disruption, offsetting the new post's position by a short distance is usually more practical than fighting the old base to keep exact spacing.
A 'T' mark on the inside of a boundary line on a Land Registry title plan is a conventional (though not conclusive) indication of who owns and is responsible for that particular boundary feature.
Where two T marks meet to form an 'H', that usually points to a shared responsibility, such as a party fence wall between two gardens.
The mark is only ever a starting point for a conversation, not a legal guarantee, so we'd always suggest checking the actual title register wording or asking a solicitor if ownership genuinely matters for a job.
Adding a row of vertical steel pickets above a mesh panel gives extra height without the wind loading of a full-height solid mesh extension, and the picket spacing is kept tight enough that it doesn't create a new set of usable footholds.
This detail is common where a boundary needs to reach a taller overall height for a later phase of a site's security review without replacing the mesh panels already installed at the lower level.
A grass verge between a garden boundary and the road is often owned and maintained by the local council as part of the adopted highway, rather than by the adjoining property owner.
This affects where a fence can legally be positioned, since building onto highway land, even a seemingly unused verge, generally needs authorisation.
Where the extent of a verge and its ownership isn't obvious, the local highway authority can usually confirm it against their adopted highway records.
A heavier acoustic panel needs a deeper and often wider post foundation than a standard fence panel of the same height, since both the static weight and the increased wind load have to be resisted by the base.
Skimping on foundation depth to save time on a heavy panel run is a common cause of leaning posts within the first couple of seasons.
A cul-de-sac head sees vehicles braking, reversing and turning rather than passing through at a steady speed, producing a different noise character from a through road — shorter bursts, more low-speed engine and tyre noise, and occasional reversing alarms.
A plot on the turning head benefits from a barrier assessed against this stop-start pattern rather than against a through-traffic model, since the noise events are more frequent but individually shorter.
Yes — removal, disposal and site clear-up are included as standard. We leave Old Letchworth gardens tidy at the end of every day.
On the earliest planned cottages of the Garden City Movement streets in Old Letchworth we usually try to match the existing line — height, style and finish — unless the brief is a deliberate change.
Comfortably across letchworth, hitchin and the wider Hertfordshire area. A1(M) J9 keeps the radius practical.
For most Old Letchworth jobs we lean toward softwood or iroko hardwood, but the brief decides — your garden style, modest leafy gardens with original cottage walls, and how long you want it to last.
We'll come back and put right any installation issue we're responsible for. Every Old Letchworth job starts with a free site visit and a written quote so you know exactly what's included before we start.
Every Old Letchworth job starts with an itemised written quote, so nothing is assumed.
Installing wooden & metal gates across Hertfordshire.
No subcontracted labour on site.
Old Letchworth gardens left clean at end of every day.
Within practical driving distance of Old Letchworth via A505 and A1(M) J9.
From Old Letchworth through letchworth and hitchin, Capital Fencing is the local wooden & metal gates team — Letchworth Garden City (East Coast) anchors the patch. Talk to us before you go further; most queries get answered on the phone in five minutes.