Fences & Gates

What we build

Horizontal and vertical wood fencing, privacy screens, custom entry and driveway gates, and pool barriers. We do the posts and footings as well as the panels, and the posts are the part that decides whether a fence is still straight in five years.

Gates are their own problem. A wood gate is a heavy panel hung off one edge, and every gate that sags does so because the hinge post wasn't set for the load or the frame had no diagonal. We build gates with a properly braced frame and set the hinge post deeper than the line posts, in concrete, every time.

Pool barriers, where the rules are stricter than people think

This is where a fence stops being a fence and becomes a life safety device, so it's worth being precise.

California's Swimming Pool Safety Act requires that when a permit is issued for a new pool, or the remodel of an existing one at a single family home, the pool has at least two of seven listed drowning prevention safety features. Two, not one. That changed in January 2018 and plenty of people are still working from the old rule. An isolation fence is one of the seven. Some combinations specifically don't count as two, such as an exit alarm and a self-latching device on the same door.

For a barrier that isolates the pool, the statewide requirements are a minimum height of 60 inches, a maximum gap of 2 inches between the ground and the bottom of the barrier, no gap that passes a 4-inch sphere, gates that open away from the pool and are self-closing with a self-latching device no lower than 60 inches, and an outside surface with no handholds or footholds a small child could climb.

Two things to watch. The 60-inch latch height is for an enclosure gate. The 54-inch figure you may have seen is a different requirement, for a self-closing device on a house door leading to the pool. And unincorporated Los Angeles County is stricter than the state on several points. Most configurations there must not pass a 1-3/4 inch sphere rather than 4 inches, and double gates, gates wider than four feet, and driveway gates aren't permitted as pool barriers at all. Build to the state minimum in the county and you'll fail inspection.

In the City of Los Angeles, the ordinary exemption that lets you build a fence without a permit doesn't extend to swimming pool barriers. A pool barrier is permitted work. In LA County the enclosure has to be inspected and approved before the pool is plastered or filled.

There's a duty on us in all this too. Anyone entering into an agreement to do permitted work on a pool or spa is required by statute to give the customer notice of these requirements. We do.

Fences on slopes and retaining

A fence at the top of a slope is a different structure from a fence on flat ground. Wind load on a solid panel is substantial, and posts on a slope crest have less soil resistance in the direction that matters. Where a fence has to hold back earth rather than just stand in it, that's a retaining wall with a fence on top, and it needs to be engineered as one.

Materials

Cedar and redwood for most fencing. Hardwood where it has to match a deck. Steel frames for large gates and for anything with an automatic opener, because a wood frame that size will move. Stainless hardware near the coast. More on Ipe and hardwood decking.

Call (818) 345-2866.