Here are a few highlights of modern horizontal wood fences that we’ve built in the Los Angeles area over the years. Even though this is composed of highlights I’ve made it as thorough, informative and interesting as possible. Please enjoy!
Even though we built and stained this elevated/floating, semi-privacy horizontal Ipe wood fence back in 2013, it’s still one of the nicest, most elegant and artistic wood fences that we have ever built in the Los Angeles area!
I still remember the morning I first met with the owner over coffee to measure out and discuss this project. He found a photo of something previously built on the Internet that was similar but not quite right and appropriate for his situation. So we talked about how the design should be modified to their liking. Here is that photo.
We concluded with square steel tube posts (that finally got covered with matching Ipe wood strips), uniform length end-to-end spaces yet evenly and irregularly distributed in the body of the wood fence, approximately the same even spacing in between the horizontal wood planks, the same carriage bolt fasteners for strength and longevity, and the overall top height, length and bottom edge height dimensions. Our meeting and discussion was easy and only consumed about 30 or 40 minutes.
I’ve had other customers that have had special landscape designers and architects draw up designs to be built. Sometimes that’s a little frustrating-just because somebody drew it or used a computer to draw it doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate, or good design: function-wise (structurally) or form-wise (design and appearance). Yet these fancy designers still command a fee! I say let’s meet over coffee and figure out the details, it’s not really difficult or complicated, plus it’s fun to create something out of nothing.
I still like my (our) custom Ipe horizontal wood fence better. But I do admit the original is very nice. Here’s a look from the other end. Also the one section with no end-to-end spaces is the exact center of the fence! It went up slowly and carefully and came out fantabulous!
We built and stained this modern horizontal wood fence on the west side of the Los Angeles area. This customer, they had procured a landscape architect beforehand. In this particular case the parameters from the landscape architect were easy to follow, and when I finally met him at the end of the project he turned out to be really cool. It was busy so I didn’t make it back to photograph our build until almost 2 years later, so all the landscaping had been done immediately following our custom, modern horizontal front yard wood fence with matching pedestrian gate project. The bushes had been planted and had grown. It was an empty front yard with a dying lawn when we built this fence. It’s all beautiful now! And it was a hot day in LA when I stopped by to snap this photo.
The sun was a huge factor with this modern horizontal wood fence with matching pedestrian gates and matching semi-privacy sun-shades project over in a fancy neighborhood on the east side of Los Angeles. It wasn’t quite the peak of summer when we built it, but I can tell you the front of the house gets pounded by the sun for most of the day. Everything was a tear-down followed by our build. The previous sun-shades were 2×2 verticals, the previous side fences & gates were regular vertical dog ear.
Meeting with the owner was pleasant as it always is. He already knew almost exactly what he wanted. We measured it out together so I could find out exactly the precise dimensions that he wanted. The new semi-privacy sun-shades are just slightly larger than the previous ones (which were deteriorated and ready for replacement!), so he knew how much of the LA sun he needed to block.
Those 1×2 horizontals are elegant, I love how they look and I love building with them. But staining them is very tedious, OMG! Patience is required for the staining of 1×2 horizontals. Since building and staining this project I have only noticed similar wood semi-privacy sun-shades once or twice during my travels to and from our job-sites.
A similar but smaller project we built (and painted this time) a few years earlier had an interesting aspect. Believe it or not, according to the owner, this is Feng Shui. The owner was incredibly specific about all the dimensions, the quantity and sets of the different sized horizontal planks, it was a cool and interesting build and experience. 1x4s and 1x2s, it’s a beautiful pattern. 1x6s on the back side without any spacing so they could enjoy the aesthetic of the spaced planks in front as well as the privacy of the structure! Very Zen as well. And a true modern horizontal wood fence in the Los Angeles area, North Hollywood to be precise. The wetness of the paint is still visible in some places since I took this one right after we finished!
Once an interior designer wanted our 1×2 horizontals for one of his customers! It was a change of pace working indoors. This was on the west side, over near Mar Vista. I have to say his idea materialized in an excellent way. A small project sure, but for us very unique and interesting and fun to help create. It turned out very, very nice! After we were done and gone, and the remainder of his work was done, here is the finished product in that context.
Another time I was called upon to help a restaurant with its outdoor patio situation. After dark, cars in the adjacent parking lot would shine their headlights right into the faces of customers eating in the outdoor patio of the restaurant. Plus there is a row of parking spaces where the cars’ headlights would be just a few feet away from the tables at that edge of the patio, very uncomfortable for customers there whether daytime or night-time.
It was really a pleasure building and staining this project. Actually it’s 99.9% always a pleasure to build our projects for our customers. But with this particular modern horizontal wood fence project in the Los Angeles area, we were able to experience yet another unique and satisfying gratification. That is the excellent food that is always made and served here! This restaurant in West Hollywood really knows how to make excellent food. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, hungry construction guys are easy to please with almost any food”. Well there is truth to that, but I LOVE their food, their Three Musketeers dish is my favorite. Here’s an outside shot which some of you will recognize.
A really fancy couple way up in the Hollywood Hills wanted to make their ugly pool equipment disappear. A modern horizontal wood fence with a matching double-swinger pedestrian gate pool equipment enclosure built and stained by us was the answer. Their pool patio was incredible, with awesome views overlooking Los Angeles.
Now you see it.
Now you don’t.
This customer has a very short back yard, plus, a very short concrete block wall separating their back yard from their neighbor’s. And their neighbor has an equally short back yard. With only the short block wall, there is zero privacy and it’s too uncomfortably close for each neighbor, easily looking into the other’s yard and house. So they removed a large hedge of bushes from along the wall to create more space in their small backyard (I know, here in LA some homes have NO backyard, some have small back yards, and some have larger backyards.).
It came out fantabulous! Even the neighbor’s side looks good. Just the right amount of privacy. And more usable space in the backyard. Often times these concrete block walls cannot be trusted to support a wood fence extension atop them. I’ve seem some pretty poorly built and deteriorating concrete block walls here in LA. These steel posts buried in concrete not only reinforce the foundation of the wall, but in the undesirable event of a large quake, the odds are that the wall will crack apart, bounce off the steel posts and either fall down or into the neighbor’s yard. And the odds are that the floating wood fence will still be standing, depending on how severe a quake is of course. One more shot of this modern horizontal Ipe wood elevated/floating wood fence, that we built in Culver City.
Venice! Home and showplace of modern horizontal wood fences in the Los Angeles area.
This was a fun and exciting build! The owner had a general whose specialty was time. I met with them both originally, very nice. But that general had all the trades going at the same time during this complete inside-and-out remodel, and was on-site cracking the whip and keeping the peace! It was fine to me. But I remember a couple of guys that lacked the flexibility and were uncomfortable at this very busy job-site!
I actually enjoyed the change of pace. I did not care for the parking availability there in that crowded district of LA. But hey, it ain’t Texas, it’s LA and some parts of LA are very small and crowded. If it were Texas I’d git myself a nice big lifted dually pick-’em-up-truck!
Privacy was important here so the owner went with the overlapping modern horizontal design wood perimeter fence for the property. There’s the utility enclosure with the double-swinger pedestrian access gate next to the back house, with the garage in the background.
It definitely came out fantabulous! The beach is just 2 blocks away.
Some of these homes up in the hills of LA have such small front yards! Like this one. Back yards are steep hills sloping away from the houses. Tight, narrow streets, so big dually pick-’em-up-trucks would have to squeeze through and rub bushes. Ahhh, the pleasure of driving around Los Angeles.
Everybody including all the neighbors loved it, another fantabulous build! These photos were taken right as we’re finishing up the last day, doing clean-up and packing up all the tools. A less expensive modern horizontal wood fence up in the hills of LA, with a special type of rough Redwood.
The owners stained it themselves to save a few bucks. They did go with my recommendation on which specific high quality exterior oil base stain & sealer to use after we built it. They used the clear/”natural” color of that product group, I have driven by since and it really looks nice. I might swing by another time for that photo and toss it in around here, but everything (especially driving here in LA) consumes time.
These are just a few highlights of modern horizontal wood fences that we’ve built here in the Los Angeles area. Go to the Photos page of the main website to see many more by clicking HERE.
This little project was way up in the hills of the suburbs. Again it came out excellent. The soil was extremely rocky, digging the post holes seemed to take forever. Previously they had thin, hollow square steel tube fencing and gates that were rusting through and also too short to keep the bears out.
They wanted single cylinder (key operation on the outside only) deadbolts on these gates keyed alike, no problem! Our unique and strong (because I designed and built them) heavy duty wood gates operate and swing as smooth as butter.
The wood 4x4s for the hinge post and the latch post are bolted to 1/4″ thick square steel tube posts, each buried 3 feet deep in concrete (3 x 3 for the latch posts) and (3-1/2 x 3-1/2 for the hinge posts). Plus those heavy duty square steel tube posts are thoroughly cleaned and then painted with heavy duty oil base primer before burial in fresh concrete. Furthermore after the bolting we filled them each with a couple strands of rebar and fresh concrete all the way to the top!! These heavy duty gates are high quality and expensive to build.
So yes, those posts are VERY strong. This is necessary to keep the posts in place and stable to accommodate deadbolt locks that are expected remain in alignment and operate smoothly over time long after we’re done and gone. 1×6 Redwood horizontals with 1/4 inch spacing, this is another project built to last for a very long time.
Here’s a 1×2 modern horizontal front yard wood fence with matching pedestrian gate that we built and stained on the west side of Los Angeles several years ago, in the Mar Vista area. This photo is not as crisp as the rest, apologies. Our straight bottom edge shows the uneven sidewalk a bit. I like how the 2×6 cap stepping down on the side sets it off a bit and gives it a noble look and feel.
It was 2010 or 2011 when we built this project. Out in the semi-rural suburbs with the pleasure of much larger lots and yards, but the expense of much longer modern horizontal wood fences to have built in the Los Angeles area, here I am again a year ago re-staining to renew and preserve this wood fence.
Originally the owner and I discussed the design and we created a look and structure to his liking. These photos were taken just a year ago when he had me back to restain and renew the modern horizontal wood fence with the custom steel flashing cap.
It was really hot that week here in LA! A fire broke out up the street and grew to a pretty large blaze but only a couple of homes were lost. The owner stayed behind since evacuation wasn’t mandatory, and came down to the roadblock (to keep out looters and lookie-loos) to escort me to the job-site during the days of this restaining project.
It was very hot and sunny. There was so much smoke that it acted like cloud-cover and lowered the temperature outside by at least 10 or 15 degrees by blocking out the direct sun. The lowered temperature made it easier to work on this project. Being a cigarette smoker helped me, most of the non-smokers were bothered by the smoke. The smoke didn’t bother me at all.
They just let the fire burn and protected the houses and structures and people’s yards. It was a little bit exciting, not too much. A change of pace for sure, there were so many firetrucks in that neighborhood it was ridiculous, all protecting people’s homes, yards and structures. It was a distraction from work also since I took long breaks to hang out and watch the fire with the residents there.
Finally I finished the restaining project of the modern horizontal wood fence that I originally built back in 2010 or 2011. It’s still the nicest front yard wood fence on the whole street.
This modern horizontal front yard wood fence with a matching pedestrian gate portal that we built and painted in the Los Angeles area also turned out fantabulous. But JEEZ what a tight neighborhood with such small streets, lots and yards! You can see how close the front porch is to the fence and the street.
But routinely again it came out great. You can also see where most people park and put out their trash bins on trash day. Way up in the Hollywood Hills, this is up in Laurel Canyon.
Here’s another elevated/floating, modern horizontal wood fence in Los Angeles that we built. As is often required I had to design it specifically for this situation.
The next door neighbor was an apartment building and that concrete wall {that turned out to have been built with zero foundation and was leaning towards that neighbor (belonged to the neighbor so it could not be trusted to build upon, plus we couldn’t have our build touching it)}, no problem. This customer just wanted a little more privacy for the back yard pool patio from the apartments next door for his family. Taken from the neighbor’s driveway you may be able to see where we slightly notched the bottom of the 4×6 posts so as not to touch the wall. Clear Redwood 1×6 T&G (Tongue & Groove) horizontals, much nicer than that knotty Pine, Douglas Fir, Cypress or whatever the house-flipper used on the similar fence we needed to compliment up above on the other side.
Here’s the last photo of this one, taken from this customer’s garage driveway. At the bottom of the photo you can see a little bit of the cheap T&G lumber the house flipper used for the similar fence that they “built”.
This project was something new and different, slightly that is. Back in 2008 when I chose the Internet domain name WoodFenceExpert.com, I thought I was so clever. Little did I know or foresee that I would attract the challenging projects which my esteemed competitors would just decline for easier, faster & more profitable projects. Oh well. Here I needed to draw from my expertise & experience to build this modern horizontal wood fence securely upon this pre-existing stone retaining wall. It’s ALL stone and mortar, there is no concrete or block to this wall. And the surface is totally irregular, uneven and rough since it’s a stone & mortar wall.
No problem, I knew what to do. The build and fastening remains hidden behind the horizontal planks in this photo. And I’m going to keep it this way, hehe. Over the years I’ve put out a lot of wood fence and gates design and construction information, via my photos, videos, etc. I’ve seen copies of my structural styles around town many times, plus I’ve gotten inquiries for help from people all across the country. “How do you do this? What about that?” No problem. But this particular time I’m going to let this one ride as hidden. The main reason for this project was the jumping doggie owned by this customer. They had to keep their dog on a leash in the back yard or it would easily jump the wall and run off. Here you can see one of the matching gates by the back corner of the house, and their jumping dog peacefully and humanely contained and controlled.
A very short time after this build the owner sent me a video he shot from his phone (while inside the house of course), of a random bear walking on top of the fence and finally jumping off to go explore elsewhere. Notice how the fence does not move, wiggle or wobble when this heavy bear lunges off the fence! Must be a pretty strong and securely built modern horizontal wood fence by yours truly, WoodFenceExpert.com!
Here’s a quick highlight of another project. This modern horizontal wood fence and gates project we built and painted in Beverly Hills, one of the fancier areas of Los Angeles. It came out fantabulous. Here’s a quick video with me from a couple of years ago.
Well let’s do another video shall we? This project in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles had us building and staining a 1×4 modern horizontal Redwood fence and gates “on top of” an existing steel fence and gates. I know everybody likes to say wrought iron, but those days are a hundred years gone now. Wrought iron is solid iron, forged, welded and/or shaped to the craftsman’s and customer’s design specifications. What people erroneously call wrought iron today is just thin-walled square steel tubing, honestly. So it’s accurate name is steel fence. This steel fence and gates were still good enough to build upon (they hadn’t rusted-out yet). Here’s the video, a customer testimonial.
Again, these are just a few highlights of modern horizontal wood fences that we’ve built here in the Los Angeles area. Go to the Photos page of the main website to see many more by clicking HERE.
The classic lines of 1×4 horizontals with 1/2 inch spacing will always be in vogue. No we did not build the tiny garage-shed up at the end. But this modern horizontal wood fence we built and stained on the east side of Los Angeles is 2-sided fence with a regular dog ear vertical plank facade on the other side of the framing. Both neighbors met and discussed this project when I met them originally and during the project. Another fantabulous build!
Let’s see some 1×4 horizontals with 1/4″ spacing. We built and stained this about 3 years ago. This set of photos right after our build is BEFORE this customer completely re-landscaped the front yard. It really looks awesome today!!
Clear Redwood 1×4 horizontals with 1/4 inch spacing, very nice! We built this one a few years ago and stained it with a special, high quality oil-base 2-coat exterior stain & sealer. This is the color they wanted, it’s definitely stunning!
I’m showing so many photos of this to thoroughly demonstrate how to properly maintain a single height of a wood fence with level horizontals on a hill or slope.
Our building and staining this modern horizontal wood fence was just the first step of this customer’s total re-landscaping of the front yard.
Those big concrete foundations got almost completely concealed when they continued with their re-landscaping of the front yard. Now they are invisible, sorry I haven’t stopped to take the photo. But I have driven by and seen it.
The craftsmanship way is to step or slope the wood fence with level horizontals. Sloping looks more modern and requires a bit more work than stepping on a hill or slope. When you slope such a wood fence you can gradually increase or decrease the height.
I also wanted to show off the whole project. You can see how perfect the lines are.
Here’s another set of photos from a project that we built and painted about 2 years ago. This modern horizontal wood fence with matching pedestrian and double-swinger driveway gates is in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. I waited until AFTER he finished re-landscaping the front yard before I took these photos.
Rough Redwood 1×4 horizontals with 1/2 inch spacing, painted. Looks pretty nice!! The matching gates are pretty sleek.
Double-swinger wood driveway gate matching the modern horizontal wood fence, this is easily the nicest front yard fence in the neighborhood!
He added decomposed granite with the landscaping scheme. I love how it all turned out.
That wood driveway gate will never sag. Special interlocking diagonal array frame, heavy duty hinges and bolts, super-heavy-duty steel posts, that gate will be sitting and swinging there for a very, very long time!
Another view of the front yard. I like how the little concrete stepping pads are laid out.
There are the front porch entry steps on the left.
That pedestrian gate is over 4 feet wide. Can you see the steel hinge post that the wood 4×4 hinge post is bolted to?
Finally a view from the other side inside the yard.
Here’s another! This modern horizontal wood privacy fence with matching pedestrian gate project in Los Angeles that we built and stained has an electric (battery-operated) combination deadbolt that we installed! Clear Redwood 1×6 horizontals look excellent after we hit it with the high quality oil-base exterior stain & sealer that I prefer.
This customer will be doing the new landscaping later. Can you see the 3 x 3 x 1/4 inch thick square steel posts that the 4×4 hinge post and latch post are bolted to? They are buried 3 feet deep in fresh concrete, and are filled to the top with fresh concrete inside with 2 strands of rebar inside also. WHO else builds with such strong hinge posts and latch posts? Maybe I’m the first. Surely after this long blog article goes live online there will be others.
Here’s a project where the neighbors shared the cost on this back yard fence and gate project on the west side of town. We built and then painted this back yard modern horizontal wood privacy fence with alternating sections. These two neighbors have kids and dogs so they wanted a gate between their yards.
Again I did not think ahead about doing this blog article, by taking photos of the old fence. It was a deteriorated old wood fence falling apart, it was a mess. It’s not a mess any longer! It came out great.
Here are some photos of a little front yard project we did a few years ago for a developer that takes older, deteriorated properties, fixes them up and then sells them. This is a small two building apartment complex/property. The fence encloses the front yard and makes it fancy! The second building is in back of this long narrow property.
Everybody loved it. It’s a very nice custom, modern horizontal front yard wood fence with matching pedestrian gate project on the east side of town. 1×4 horizontals with 1/4 inch spacing makes an elegant and classic look.
Easily the nicest fence in the neighborhood after we finished. Matching pedestrian gate in front to enter the property and front building, it’s a seamless build!
The gate operates perfectly.
Here’s an inside shot. Our project was step 1 of re-landscaping the front yard, which is usually the case.
Yeah the yard was a mess. But today the front yard is beautiful, the owner did an excellent job re-landscaping the front yard after we finished this project and left. The owner also followed my recommendation of having the framing side inside on the lower side of the front yard there.
A few years ago a call from Whittier where this customer already had these concrete pillars built, had us build and stain this modern horizontal wood fence in between them. The classic look of 1×4 horizontals with 1/2 inch spacing is almost never inappropriate.
Here’s a before photo. Not very pretty or strong looking. This job was in Irvine over 4 years ago. Irvine is a long commute in the ever-worsening LA traffic, we usually don’t travel that far. But who knows? Maybe these distance jobs will become a larger part of our work. We tore-down, removed and legally disposed of this ugly and deteriorating old wood fence.
Here’s the awesome new modern horizontal backyard wood privacy fence and gate, that we built and stained.
Irvine is supposed to be one of the safest towns in the country. This is the photo taken from outside this backyard wood fence that is at the rear of this property. This property and fence back up to a public elementary school yard, a big difference from the chain link cage-look of LA public school yards.
Here is an example of a type of project that we RARELY do. But in this case it was appropriate to use the existing chain link posts to build a new modern horizontal wood fence and gate upon them. The work and expense necessary to completely remove all of the chain link fence and put in new posts, especially with that tiny wall there would have been too much. We did have to add a post or two on the sides anyway for structural strength. As we are just setting up to get started on the first day, back in 2013 here’s a photo.
And yet again it came out fantabulous!
Chain link fences are put together very fast. Usually I just won’t use the old posts because the project won’t be right. Post spacing, strength and final appearance are the main reasons I won’t. But when it IS doable, there are little framing tricks (construction techniques) to make it work, as we did in this instance. I am not going to show them off to further educate my esteemed competitors, hence the absence of an inside view photo. 1×2 and 1×4 horizontals with a 2×6 cap, photographed to show-off the alignment plus the invisibility of the 2×6 cap when viewed at this particular height!!
Here is a modern horizontal wood fence project in the Los Angeles area that was done in phases. It was a big yard, so we returned three more times after this to build the other segments of the back yard perimeter, modern horizontal wood fence and gates project. That makes this first phase (these four photos) a sub-project. This is also an excellent example of a horizontal wood fence on a slope.
This back yard was getting completely redone. New landscaping, new concrete patio and walkways, awesome new saltwater pool, it was getting completely transformed into something very, very nice and elegant. You can see the new swimming pool in the foreground.
All of this new modern horizontal wood fence got painted a beautiful and unique light brownish earth-tone color. If I ever go back there I will snap a couple of quick ones to show you and add them here at a later time. This outside view shows the framing side, a give-away for how to frame these horizontal wood fences on a slope for my aspiring, esteemed peers in the industry.
And here’s the gate at the bottom.
This modern horizontal wood fence and gate project we built and painted earlier this year (2018) way up in the fancy area of Studio City. We came in after the addition (which we enclosed with this horizontal wood fence and gate) and concrete was all done. These eight photos I rushed through snapping a walk-through-view of the project. From the back end to the front end where the gate ends it, and then out around the outside, you can see our project just BEFORE all the new and elegant landscaping was about to begin.
Privacy with a view, it’s an elegant neighborhood up there. You can see the form is ready down there for the tiny concrete slab, for the garbage bins.
Nice and clean lines everywhere, this was a fun creation.
And here comes that awesome, unique design, strong and stable wood pedestrian gate!
What you cannot see is the thick and very strong square steel tube post behind the 4×4 wood hinge post that is supporting the hinge post with thick heavy duty bolts. You also cannot see the rebar and concrete that we filled the square steel tube post with inside, all the way to the top. We had to cut and jackhammer a hole into the concrete for that heavy duty steel post, to make sure the gate would be held up and right for a very, very long time.
Color coordinated with clean lines everywhere, this came out very, very nice!
Now let’s have a couple of outside views of this modern horizontal wood fence and gate project that we built and painted here in the Los Angeles area.
This is a true example of an elegant, modern horizontal wood privacy fence and pedestrian gate project. The landscaping people were starting the next week after we left. If I ever drive up that street again I will grab a quick photo and add it here later.
I could continue on-and-on with more-and-more project highlights. I will return from time-to-time to add even more Modern Horizontal Wood Fence project highlights from our wood fence projects here in the Los Angeles area.
Visit the main website at WoodFenceExpert.com.