Timber gates are made to the opening, not trimmed to fit. We template the St Albans opening, allow for the fall of the path, and build the frame with a diagonal brace working in compression so the leaf cannot drop. Capital Fencing installs wooden gates across St Albans and out to hatfield and watford. St Albans City and District coverage plus proximity to M25 J21A / M1 J6 means most quotes are on your inbox within 48 hours of a site visit. Recent work on Folly Lane and Sandpit Lane. We orient jobs off St Albans Cathedral.
Timber gates are made to the opening, not trimmed to fit. We template the St Albans opening, allow for the fall of the path, and build the frame with a diagonal brace working in compression so the leaf cannot drop. Capital Fencing installs wooden gates across St Albans and out to hatfield and watford. St Albans City and District coverage plus proximity to M25 J21A / M1 J6 means most quotes are on your inbox within 48 hours of a site visit. Recent work on Folly Lane and Sandpit Lane. We orient jobs off St Albans Cathedral.
Iroko hardwood, oak or planed softwood on hot-dip galvanised ironmongery. Standard build: 44mm framed, tongue-and-groove infill, adjustable ball-race hinges, drop bolt to slabs. On St Albans jobs we adjust for extensive conservation areas mean fence heights and materials need to match the streetscape.
Property mix locally: Victorian terraces, Edwardian villas in Marshalswick, and Tudor / Georgian properties near the cathedral. Typical gardens: mature gardens, often with established hedging that needs lifting before fencing goes in. Postcodes we regularly service: AL1, AL2, AL3, AL4.
We'll say so on the site visit — a wasted quote helps nobody.
Leaf weight drives the post size — an undersized post is the most common reason a St Albans gate stops closing. For victorian terraces in AL1, that is where the cost sits. Worth weighing warm, matches most period and modern properties without looking industrial against timber moves seasonally — expect small alignment adjustments in year one before you commit.
End grain gets sealed before hanging, because a gate bottom rail in St Albans sits in splash-back all winter. We allow for mature gardens when setting out in St Albans. Worth weighing warm, matches most period and modern properties without looking industrial against timber moves seasonally — expect small alignment adjustments in year one before you commit.
End grain gets sealed before hanging, because a gate bottom rail in St Albans sits in splash-back all winter. Survey slots across AL1 are usually inside a week. Worth weighing warm, matches most period and modern properties without looking industrial against timber moves seasonally — expect small alignment adjustments in year one before you commit.
Leaf weight drives the post size — an undersized post is the most common reason a St Albans gate stops closing. We work this patch weekly, from Porters Wood out toward hatfield. Practically, that means easily re-sanded and re-oiled to refresh the finish every few years — and we're upfront that softwood side gates need re-treating annually to avoid black spot.
Adjustable hinges mean the gate can be re-trued in ten minutes years later, without touching the frame. For victorian terraces in AL1, that is where the cost sits. In short: warm, matches most period and modern properties without looking industrial, though timber moves seasonally — expect small alignment adjustments in year one.
A driveway or front gate is subject to the same permitted development height limits as a boundary fence, and a gate near a junction or a shared driveway has additional visibility requirements to keep sightlines clear for road users.
We check these before recommending a taller or more solid replacement gate, not just when repairing an existing one.
A tall boundary fence can significantly shade a neighbouring garden depending on orientation, and while there's no general legal right to a set amount of sunlight in a garden, an unusually tall or dark structure close to a shared boundary is a common source of neighbour friction.
Slatted, louvred or partially open designs let some light and air through while still giving privacy, which is often a reasonable middle ground where a fully solid fence would cause a shading complaint.
Discussing height and design with an affected neighbour before building, even where there's no legal requirement to, tends to avoid a dispute that a technically-compliant fence wouldn't otherwise resolve.
Temporary site hoarding during a build is a separate specification from the permanent boundary that eventually replaces it — hoarding is chosen for site security and public safety during works, often under a party wall or highways licence, while the permanent fence is chosen for the finished property.
Where a boundary needs both, it's worth planning the sequence so the permanent fence isn't installed and then damaged by ongoing construction traffic before the build finishes.
Hoarding on a public highway usually needs its own licence from the council, separate from any planning permission covering the building work itself, and unlicensed hoarding on a footway can be removed by the authority.
A wide or solid-faced timber gate can be heavy enough that a timber hanging post, even oversized, isn't stiff enough to resist long-term leverage, in which case a concreted steel post with a welded or bolted hinge plate gives a stiffer fixing.
This is more common on wide driveway gates than standard pedestrian gates, where the extra cost of a steel post is offset by significantly less long-term sag.
A south or west-facing garden dries out after rain considerably faster than a north or east-facing one, purely because it receives more direct sun through the day, which has a real effect on how long timber sits wet and therefore how fast rot and mould can establish.
This is worth factoring into treatment choice as much as species choice — a slower-drying orientation benefits more from a breathable stain that lets residual moisture escape than from a heavier film-forming coating that traps it in.
Two identical fences in the same postcode but opposite orientations can have meaningfully different realistic maintenance intervals for this reason alone.
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 mainly concerns shared walls between buildings and excavations near a neighbour's structure, and doesn't generally apply to an ordinary timber garden fence.
It can become relevant where work involves a masonry party fence wall genuinely astride the boundary, or excavation for posts close enough to a neighbour's foundations to fall within the Act's distance rules.
Where there's doubt about whether notice is needed, a party wall surveyor or solicitor can confirm this far more reliably than guessing on site.
Fixings on a gate close to a public road pick up more airborne grit, salt spray in winter and general moisture than one set back in a garden, which accelerates corrosion on standard galvanised screws and bolts.
Stainless steel fixings cost more but resist this environment noticeably better, and are worth specifying on any roadside gate repair.
A useful pre-quote ground check covers a short list of practical questions: what does a trial hole show in the first 300-450mm, is there any standing or seeping water, are there visible roots or a stump near the line, and does the ground rise or fall noticeably along the run.
It's also worth asking the client directly about anything not visible on the surface — a known soakaway, an old outbuilding, a buried oil tank or a recent extension — since owners often know details that a visual survey alone won't reveal.
Recording these findings against each section of the run, rather than a single note for the whole boundary, is what allows post depth and base type to be specified accurately rather than uniformly guessed.
Corner plots and driveways onto a road often have a highway visibility splay — a triangular zone near the junction — where boundary height is restricted so drivers and pedestrians can see each other clearly.
These restrictions are usually lower than the standard 1m front-boundary limit and are enforced by the highway authority rather than just general planning policy, so it's worth checking with the council for any plot near a junction or driveway crossing a footway.
Open railings or low planting within a visibility splay are common solutions where some boundary definition is still wanted without blocking sightlines.
Allotment and paddock boundaries are often on ground that's been cultivated, grazed or left rough for decades, with a topsoil layer that's deeper and looser than a typical garden lawn but can also conceal old cultivation debris, buried irrigation pipe or fencing stobs from previous boundaries.
Paddock ground grazed by livestock compacts unevenly, with poached, churned patches near gateways sitting very differently underfoot from the firmer ground a few metres away.
Post specifications on this kind of ground usually need to account for stock leaning or rubbing on the fence line, which is a different load case from a garden boundary that just needs to withstand weather and general wear.
A keep takes the direct impact of the latch bar every time the gate closes, and over years of use the keep's opening can wear wider than the bar, letting the latch rattle loose even when the latch mechanism itself is fine.
Replacing a worn keep is usually far cheaper than replacing the latch it serves, so it's worth checking the keep first on an older gate with a loose-feeling latch.
Many boundaries in practice aren't purely fence or purely hedge but a fence backed by an established hedge on one or both sides, which complicates simple assumptions about who maintains what.
Deeds rarely specify hedge maintenance in the same way they specify fence ownership, so in practice it tends to be agreed informally between neighbours, which is worth clarifying in writing before installing a new fence against an existing hedge.
A fence installed too close to an existing hedge on the boundary line can also restrict future access for cutting that hedge from one side, which is worth flagging before positioning posts.
A gate hung with tight clearance over a lawn can start dragging once the surface underneath is changed to gravel or block paving, since both typically sit slightly higher than turf and compact unevenly over time.
We check finished ground level, not just the level at the time of the original hang, before setting clearance on a repair or re-hang.
Fence panels are typically supplied in fixed height increments — commonly around 0.9m, 1.2m, 1.5m and 1.8m — which is worth knowing when planning a boundary near the 2m permitted development limit, since a gravel board on top of a full-height panel can tip a run over that limit without anyone intending it to.
Odd plot heights, sloping ground or a specific privacy requirement sometimes mean a bespoke panel height is the only way to get an exact fit, which costs more than off-the-shelf stock but avoids an awkward final course.
It's worth measuring the total height including any gravel board and capping before ordering, rather than just the panel itself, to avoid a nasty surprise at the planning-limit boundary.
Side gates, double gates and driveway pairs all get the same treatment — hot-dip galvanised ironmongery, adjustable hinges, and a drop bolt into a slab where it is needed. Wooden Gates across AL1, AL2, AL3, AL4 is one of our regular runs. We'll quote honestly, tell you if wooden gates isn't the right answer for your garden, and book the job in within a week or two of a signed quote. Recent work on Sandpit Lane and Folly Lane. We orient jobs off St Albans Cathedral.
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