A custom front fence designed to contain a new puppy without reading like an add-on. Designed in two days, built in five.
New puppy in the house, no front fence, busy street out front. Melina needed a barrier and she needed it quick. The trick was the existing home — a clean architectural build with horizontal cladding. A standard paling fence would have looked tacked on. The fence had to read as part of the original design language.
Coby walked the frontage same week she emailed, sketched a horizontal slat profile that matched the cladding rhythm, sent the price the next morning. Five days later we were on site.
Spotted Gum slats, 65×19, hand-selected for grain match across the run. Hardwood posts on hot-dip galvanised stirrups (no buried timber). 316 marine stainless screw-fix concealed behind the slat face. Soft-close concealed hinges on the gate so it doesn't slam in the wind off the water. Cutek CD50 oil in Black Ash to deepen the slat colour and resist UV.
Survey to handover in eight days. Footings poured day one. Posts up day two after concrete cured overnight. Slat install day three to four — we batched the cuts in the workshop the night before so the on-site work was just fitting. Gate hung and oiled day five. Pricing in the horizontal slat band of $400–$650 per metre.
Front fence under 1.2m so exempt development under Northern Beaches Council. Slat gap spec at 12mm meant the puppy couldn't squeeze through — sized off the breed and Melina's vet's advice. Gate self-closing latch sized to the same standard as a pool gate latch even though pool fencing wasn't in scope.
Fence reads like an extension of the cladding. Slat shadows track across the wall behind it through the day. Puppy can't get out, dog walkers can't see in, and you'd have to be told the fence isn't original to the house.
"Coby responded very quickly to our brief. We needed a fence to house our puppy — one that didn't look like an 'add on'."
— Melina C., Avalon