WOOD GATES #114

This Garden Gate is Base Price + 30% /per gate (With Acrylic rod)
Base Price + 18% / per gate (w/o acrylic rod)
Go to Base Price Table
As a single or double wood gates.

+ 40% /per gate (with acrylic rods)
Mill Valley CA

After a series of early commissions following the speculative design for garden gate #114, we can feature a project with the accompanying fence design. #144-5 introduces Fence Panel Style #8. Built on a sloping grade, the bottom horizontal rails of both the double gates and the accompanying panels are tapered to the slope.

The neighbor Mommy Dino has arranged a play date for Baby Dino with the ever-popular Viggo.
Come on out, Viggo . . . No need to hide under the paper fold. It’s only Baby Dino.

Mill Valley CA

Utilizing Option A in the various options available for sloping grades, we have tapered the bottom rails of garden fence #8 and stepped the panels.  The double wood gates are tapered across the bottom, but level across the top.

See Sloping Grades.

Mill Valley CA

Double wood gates on a sloping grade require a landing zone to accommodate an in-swing toward the property. A “Landong Zone’ being the 32″ required by code between the wooden gates and any steps leading up, or down. If the landing zone is not level, the gates must be hung high enough off the grade to clear the rising slope. Consequently the walkway was re-graded to a level slab for the first 32”.

Mill Valley CA

Meet Viggo, The 6-month old Toy Poodle who safely scouts the comings and goings of every neighbor and passersby from the peek-a-boo barrier of his new fence. On this day, this particular day, his human has arranged a play date with a new friend. He’s been watching, and waiting, all morning.

with acrylic rods
Tiburon, CA (Marin County)

Custom wood gates #114 was created originally for a fully renovated 1952 residence in Tiburon, CA.

Black acrylic rod
WoodRX ‘Mahogany’

Tiburon, CA

As the entrance wood gates, through an atrium garden courtyard en route to the front door.

The gate latch, cane bolt, and dead bolt is offered through 360 Yardware.

Tiburon, CA

Custom wood gates #114. 

Mill Valley, CA (Marin County)

As the primary pedestrian gate entry. At the street level in a neighborhood without sidewalks. An entire county, basically, that cannot be bothered with the courteous infrastructure of providing sidewalks. Sidewalks for young mothers with their baby strollers or seniors and their daily walking exercise, or young’ns with their training-wheel bikes. A county with a median housing value of $1.8 million, without sidewalks. As opposed to everything east of the Rockies, where sidewalks are the equivalent to winter coats in January.

Mill Valley, CA

The secondary pedestrian gate off the driveway gates.
Rocky Mountain latches E414.
‘

Mill Valley, CA

To be fair, Marin County was populated by summer cottages –shacks–for the gold-rich San Franciscans in the mid to late 19th century. Built and framed with first-growth redwood milled on site. As the decades passed and the county matured, the ‘shacks’ were renovated one by one, and the new homes were clustered between the originals wherever they would fit–cantilevered off the steep hillsides– and yet, 175 years later, there was still no time nor patience to be bothered with the simple civic liability of sidewalks.

Here we show the full splay, less the top pedestrian gate out of view on the left.
Driveway Gates Style #10; The terraced fence panels Style #8; And the pedestrian gates #144-7 partially obscured to the left of the drive gates.

No acrylic rods
Mill Valley, CA

Custom wood gates #114-1 shown without the acrylic rods.

Palo Alto, CA

Entry wood gates #114-1 in Silicone Valley, south of San Francisco.
Rocky Mountain latch #E358
WoodRX ‘Teak’

No acrylic rods
Seattle, WA

Double entry wood gates #114-2 for a renovated 1950’s postmodern home in Seattle.

Finished on site with a dark green solid body stain. Unknown brand.
When painting the gates, the cedar should be fully exposed to the elements for 2-3 weeks to allow it to acclimate prior to the application of paint, solid-body stains, or any non-absorbing finish.

Seattle, WA

The entry prior to installing the double entry wood gates.

With acrylic rods
Sonoma, CA

The wood gates #114-3 shown at only 46″ net height.

Sonoma, CA

Note that the jambs on this application of the wood gates style #114 have been mounted toward the property edge of the columns. Although the majority of the gates/jambs are centered within the column depth, mounting as shown below does offer a wider swing arc. And yet there is always a danger of ‘chip out’ when bolting close to the edge of a stucco/block column.

Sonoma, CA

A1950’s makeover. Perfect for the entry garden gate #114.
No finish.
So what architectural style is not perfect for this gate style?
Victorians
Colonials
Italianate Palladio
Saltbox

With acrylic rods
San Anselmo CA

The single entry wood gate #114-4, with acrylic rods.

WoodRX ‘Mahogany’

San Anselmo CA

Entry wood gate #114-4 shown with a 3rd-party arbor. Mounting to stone columns where the stone is smooth enough that the jambs mount directly onto the stone.

The matching Fence Style #8 to the wood gates #114.

IN-PROGRESS
How to build the wood gate #114

Dadoing the grid joints for the wooden gates #114 involve the use of stop blocks and spacer blocks to accommodate the wider grid dividers. .

Hand-planing with a low-angle (25º) Veritas plane. A well-honed blade is equivalent to a properly honed scraper with the exception the plane removes more stock. The finished surface, for both, is preferred over a sanded surface.

Ben illustrating the proper method for working a low-angle block plane. Although the pressure is slightly more on the heel–or his left hand–the thumb of the right hand prevents the potential ‘dig’. Resulting in an even stroke.

Although Ben learned his planing techniques from Charles, and Charles from his father and his father from his father, Ben is the only one in this lineage to spend two years at the venerable North Bennet Street School of Fine Woodworking in Boston, where for two years, six days a week, they focused on the minutia to a level that, upon Ben’s return, Charles became the student and Ben the teacher.