CUSTOM WOOD GARDEN GATES #7

This Garden Gate is Base Price + 8%
Go to Base Price Table

“Come into the Garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone
–Tennyson–

Great Falls, Virginia

In this setting, the marriage between a wood gate and dry-set stone offers a timeless appeal.

Simi Valley, CA
(lower open slots)

Our Garden Gate #7-8 in southern California

When mounting to a stucco or stump block wall, jambs are required. The jambs mount to the surface with masonry spread-bolts and reduce the overall opening by 3″.

In an ongoing tradition throughout the site covering all our products, photos sent in of the ineffable young’n and pets. This one embellished with ruby slippers and all.

San Jose, California
(Lower open slots)

Trading ruby slippers for a Superhero.

Often, with irregular stone columns, it can be advisable to mount the jambs directly to the column block core. The depth between the block and the outermost stone is provided and we create the jamb thickness to that, plus 1/2″, allowing the swing to clear the stone. Here however, they ave elected to mount directly to the stone.

For detailed drawings showing the various applications of jambs and columns, see the Specification page.

*Also showing a good example of when to vary the finish of the gate from the surrounding precedent. Imagine this with the same finish as the stucco wall and you can glimpse the danger of a monotonous result. Monotonous results are when the architecture of a home is without either telling precedents or distinguishing details. Here we have the gate, the columns, and the cap along the top of the wall, all of which lends diversity to the landscape design.

Bloomington, Illinois

Garden Gate #7-19 in central Illinois with our patron and her resident Westie. Kiki. Kiki appears
transfixed by the camera lens.

Oakland, California
(Lower open slots and open mortised squares)

Flanked by flowering borders, gate #7-23 mounts off jambs set to the back side of the stucco wall. This simply to achieve the greatest opening radius between an existing wall opening.

Los Angeles, California

Flanked by brick columns, with surface-mounted jambs. The jambs butt square under the overhang of the cap, with an exposed chamfer. i.e. if the cap overhangs 1″ and the jambs are 1-½”T, then the miter is only ½” .

San Jose, California
(Open lower slots)

Flanked by a series of fence panels set atop a short stone wall.
Fence Style #1

Darien, Connecticut

A sublime property connecting the residence on the right to the outbuilding on the left with two parallel Wood Fence sections to create a bordered garden, safe from snacking wildlife.

Shown with fence style #1

Darien, Connecticut

Viewed from the opposite approach and leaving us here dreaming of this slice of heaven, leaving home in the morning to cross the garden and into the shop.

Note: Our homeowners recently re-landscape their property and the gates and fence panels were all demolished. Some 20 new fence panels and several new gates were built by Prowell for the new landscape. Photos arriving soon.

Fence Height: 48″

Venice Beach, CA
(Open lower slots)

Double Off-set Gates #7. Overall rough opening between posts 74″ x 42″ ht.
Left operable gate 44″ . Right fixed gate 30″.

Venice Beach, California

Front entry double off-set gates. Rough opening between posts at 60″.
More on Double Off-set Gates

Venice Beach, California

When stepping the panels down a slope, the exact step is easy to determine: set a stringline at the top of the high panel on the far end of the run, and on the other end wrap the string around the end post at the same desired height off the grade. At each post, square off a pencil mark where the string intersects that post.

Larkspur, California (Marin County)
(Open lower slots and lower open mortised squares

Rocky Mountain latch E414 and house numbers
Rough opening between posts at 48″ x 72″ ht from grade. 6×6 surfaced posts, clear western cedar.

Santa Rosa, CA
(Lower open slots)

Our Garden Gate #7-16 is shown to illustrate the wider width of a 52″ opening, but the accompaniment of the fence style #1 and how the horizontal rails align to those of the gate.

See more on Terracing Layouts and Sloping Grades

Tiburon, CA
(2-1/2″ spacing between pickets)

Wood Garden Gates #7-20 as double entry situated on the bay in Tiburon, California. Complete with seasonal wreaths. A slight departure with 7-20 in that the spacing between pickets is 2-1/2″.

Shown with a 3rd-party arbor

Dana Point, CA
(Lower open slots)

Garden Gate #7-18 in Southern California
Shown with Fence Panels #1

Hillsborough, California
(Lower open slots)

A carefully landscaped property in California’s Silicone Valley, bordered by tall brick perimeter walls barely visible on the far right.

Hillsborough, California

Here would be an example of where, regardless of the width of the gate, it might be better suited at 2-1/4″ thickness simply to avoid being upstaged by the sheer girth of the flanking columns.

Orinda, CA
(Lower open slots)

Stucco columns with a stone cap.

To prevent the arching top rail from striking the overhanging cap when the gate opens wide, we drop the spring-point (where the arch begins) to the bottom of the miter cut on the jambs.

The other option is when you have a cap that overhangs, say, 2″, we then create jambs that are 2-1/4″ thick, so the gate hinge-point is beyond the overhanging cap

*For those preferring a painted finish, see Pre-Finish Options for a discussion of why your gate must acclimate to the local climate for 2-3 weeks prior to painted finishes. Prowell does not offer any pre-finish that is not an absorbing finish for this very reason.

The cedar breaths when it is finally exposed fully to any climate other than its genetic origin of British Columbia.Finishes such as paints and solid-body stains and spar varnishes are less flexible and potentially troublesome during the first few weeks as the wood acclimates.

For paint, etc, please allow the gate to be installed and exposed for several weeks before applying your finish.

Houston, Texas
(Lower open slots)

The Garden Gate #7 being one of 25 varying Wood Gate Designs and matching flanking panels for the South Shore Woodlands housing park in Houston, Texas.

Shown with fence style #1

Houston, Texas

An in-progress photo illustrating the strategy of commissioning the gates prior to actually building the new homes—a sales technique to accentuate each lot with a distinct Prowell entry.

Santa Monica, California
(Lower open slots)

An early pair of #7-6 Wood Gates flanking this residence in Santa Monica. On the right, a pair of Double Off-Set Gates with flanking panels. On the left, a standard #7 Gate. Both gates are shown with optional Pattern Blocks.

More on Double Off-Set Gates.

Santa Monica, California

Double off-set Wood Gates. When there is an overall width that exceeds what is comfortable for a single gate and yet less than what is required for an equal double gate, a number of options are available. Here, we utilize the Double Off-Set. The right-side is fixed in place with a cane bolt, with the wider, operable gate latching to the smaller gate. This would be a solution to consider for openings of 60″, where two 30″ gates might seem a little narrow.

Another option is to use a single-span gate. Gates beyond 48″ in width default to 2-1/4″ thickness. — A third option is to set two 4×4 posts to each side of a centered gate, flanked by narrow panels to each side.

Ross, CA
(Lower open slots)

The below gate, titled #7 back when it was only the 7th in an eventual 162 gate designs yet to come. At the time, it marked an innovative high-ground in a long-ignored genre. Because it was the first commission that included several gates as well as 400 running feet of fence–publications such as Sunset, Fine Homebuilding, and several local papers made their way to the site, and right about then Charles must have realized that his time spent developing the designs and methodologies of this product line in the early ’90’s was as well-spent as any two-year span in his life.
The below photo was taken 14 years after the initial installation. The 2nd photo, showing Charles on the day of the completed installation.

At the risk of boring you, we’ll scroll through a few more offerings of Gate style #7

IN-PROGRESS

Laying out Gate style #7 as a double gate at only 48″ height.

Charles roughing out the top arch on the bandsaw.
January 2016

Digging into the archives

The mid-90’s, hosting the editors of Fine Homebuilding in the old Sebastopol shop.

Fine Homebuilding issue #100

We’re going to throw this in because it represents an early permutation of the eventual gate style #7, circa 1991.

Charles and the boys, Sam and Ben, engaged in one of their favorite pastimes around 1990. A calm, meditative pastime that seemed always to degenerate into a free-for-all wrestling match.

A few of the publications and sites featuring Prowell’s Gate #7