Brett Pacis
4 years ago
“Highly recommend! Fantastic team and service at Method Doors & Gates. They came immediately to my home, fixed the problem with my driveway gate and kept me updated throughout the process.”
Custom Wood Gates
Custom Wood Driveway Gates in Los Angeles
Cedar and redwood driveway gates with a steel frame, a considered finish, and the privacy your home needs.
Plan the work with Method Gates
Get Your Free Estimate
Tell us about your gate. We'll call to schedule a visit.
No obligation. It takes about a minute, then we call to schedule. Prefer to talk? (818) 782-6180
Custom Wood Gates
Cedar and redwood gates with a steel structure
Our wood gates are cedar or redwood boards on a welded steel frame. The boards give the gate its look and its privacy. The frame takes the weight, keeps the leaf square, and gives the hinges, the latch and any operator bracket steel to bolt to.
The reason is moisture. Wood swells and shrinks as the air around it turns wetter and drier, far more across the grain than along it, so a frame built from wood keeps changing shape with the seasons. Steel takes up no water. With the steel doing the structural work, the boards are fitted with room to move, and the movement stays in the boards.
Design starts with the boards: horizontal slats or vertical boards, the width of the gap, a flat, arched or framed top, and whether the steel shows as part of the design or hides behind the wood. Those choices, the hardware and the finish go on a scaled drawing of your opening, and steel is cut only after you have signed it off.
A wood gate takes an operator as readily as a steel one, sized to the finished leaf. The same boards can carry on into a fence on steel posts, a walk gate or a matching garage door.
- Custom Gate Design Since 2006
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Designs & details
Explore Custom Wood Gates
Project photographs alongside labeled design renderings. Select an image for a closer look.
Service options
Wood gate designs
Horizontal slat
Level boards with an even gap, the look that suits modern and mid-century houses. A tight gap gives near-full privacy; a wider one lets light and air through. Slats can run across one steel frame or sit in panels framed by steel.
Vertical board
Boards set on end, butted tight or with a narrow reveal, under a flat or arched top rail. It suits Spanish, ranch and Craftsman houses and closes off the view from the street.
Arched and framed panels
Raised or flat panels inside a visible frame, an arched top, and strap hinges or clavos for a carriage-house front. The arch and the panel divisions are set on the drawing so a pair of leaves meets cleanly at the center.
Wood and steel together
Boards set within an exposed steel frame, or a row of steel pickets above a wood privacy panel. The steel is finished to match the house's other metalwork, and the proportions are drawn so neither material looks added on later.
Choosing the wood
Cedar or redwood
By the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's measurements in its Wood Handbook, both woods shrink and swell less than most softwoods, and both give excellent paint performance. They part ways on decay resistance, color, weight and the way bare boards weather. Western redcedar heartwood is rated resistant to decay; redwood heartwood is rated resistant from old-growth trees but only moderately resistant from young growth.
| Compare | Cedar (western redcedar) | Redwood |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Heartwood reddish or pinkish brown to dull brown, with nearly white sapwood. Straight grain and a uniform but rather coarse texture. | Heartwood from light cherry red to dark mahogany, with a narrow, almost white sapwood. Generally straight grained. |
| Weight | The lighter of the two: a specific gravity of about 0.32 at 12% moisture content. | About 0.35 for young growth and 0.40 for old growth, so roughly 10 to 25% denser than cedar. |
| Stability | Very low shrinkage: 6.8% by volume from green to oven-dry. | Close to cedar: 6.8% for old growth and 7.0% for young growth. |
| Finish | Rated by the Handbook for excellent paint performance. Its heartwood extractives can bleed through paint as a reddish-brown stain, so paint goes over a stain-blocking primer. | The same on both counts: an excellent painting wood whose extractives also call for a stain-blocking primer under paint. |
| Upkeep | Heartwood rated resistant to decay. Left bare it weathers to silver-gray, and in the Handbook's 16-year outdoor test it wore away faster than redwood. | Old-growth heartwood rated resistant, young growth moderately resistant. Bare redwood also grays, but eroded more slowly than cedar in the same test. |
On a wide leaf or an automated gate, cedar's lighter weight is worth having. For a deep red under a clear or semitransparent finish, redwood starts closer to the color.
A finished board looks different from a raw one, and a stain shifts each wood in its own way, so compare the two with the finish you have in mind rather than bare.
Figures are the Wood Handbook's averages (FPL-GTR-282, 2021: Tables 4–3, 5–3a, 14–1 and 16–1). Individual boards vary with grade and growth. For comparison, coast Douglas-fir shrinks 12.4% by volume.
Construction
Why our wood gates are built on steel
So that the part holding the gate square is not the part that moves. A wooden frame depends on its joints, and every one of them sits in wood that changes size with the weather. A welded steel frame has no wood in its joints, so the boards fixed to it can swell and shrink without pulling the leaf out of square.
The frame is cut from steel tube to the drawing, laid flat on a welding table, tacked, checked across both diagonals and then welded. Hinge plates, the latch keeper and any operator bracket are welded on at that stage, so nothing that carries load is screwed into a board. Our article on how a custom gate is built follows a frame through fabrication.
A steel frame does not make a gate immune to sagging. Hinges wear, and posts can shift in their footings under any gate, so the hinges, the posts and their footings are chosen for the combined weight of steel and wood, and they are on the drawing as well.
If you already have a wood gate that has dropped or drags, residential gate repair covers assessing and repairing it.
Honest pricing
How we price custom wood gates
A wood gate is priced from its drawing, because the drawing fixes what drives the cost: the size of the opening and the number of leaves, cedar or redwood and how many boards the design uses, the steel frame and hardware, the finish, and whether an operator is added. Your written, itemized estimate is based on the design and scope you discuss with us. Our driveway gate cost guide covers what gates cost in Los Angeles and what automation adds.
Free on-site estimate, with a written PDF quote within 1–2 business days. The written, itemized quote describes the proposed gate and installation.
Get Your Written EstimateWhat sets the number
- Size of the opening and number of leaves
- Cedar or redwood, and the board count
- Steel frame, hinges or track, and latch
- Stain, sealer or paint system
- Posts, pillars and footings
- Operator and entry controls, if automated
The proposal separates the work being recommended so you can review the scope before approving it.
What to expect
From a measured opening to a finished wood gate
Measure the opening
Width, height, grade, the space the leaf needs to open and the state of any pillars are recorded, and the house front is photographed so the boards can echo it.
Lay out the boards
Board direction, width, gap and top line are drawn over the steel frame, with the hinges, latch and any operator bracket placed.
Approve wood and finish
You sign off the drawing, the species and the finish. Steel is cut and boards are ordered only after that.
Weld, fit and finish
The frame is welded and squared, the boards are fastened with room to move, and the finish is applied before installation.
Hang and adjust
The leaf is hung on its posts or pillars and checked for free movement and latching. An operator, if there is one, is set up and its safety devices tested.
Reviews
What Customers Say About Working With Us
Rachel Cohen
6 years ago
“Had iron pedestrian gate installed at my parents house. The company was very professional, efficient and the price was very fair (we shopped around of course). I definitely recommend using this company A+ experience all around”
Negen Zohar
5 years ago
“I had phill from method came out to give us a quote for our gate project, I must say I had such a good experience with this company, he was so polite and professional and explained everything until smallest details and I got exactly what I…”
Custom Wood Gates FAQ
Questions about custom wood gates
Practical answers to help you plan the next step.
The frame removes one cause of sag, a wooden frame changing shape as the wood moves, because the boards carry no structural load. It does not remove the others. A hinge that wears, or a post that moves in its footing, will let any gate drop, which is why the hinges, posts and footings are matched on the drawing to what the finished gate weighs. For a wood gate that has already dropped, see residential gate repair.
Start with color: cedar heartwood runs reddish or pinkish brown, redwood from light cherry red to dark mahogany. Cedar is the lighter wood, which helps on a wide leaf or an automated gate. Both shrink very little and both hold paint well. The cedar and redwood comparison on this page has the USDA figures.
It depends on the finish and on how much sun and rain the gate takes. For cedar and redwood siding with smooth vertical grain, the USDA Wood Handbook estimates about 2 to 4 years for a semitransparent stain and 10 to 15 years for a primer and two coats of paint, and says climate and exposure change both. It also advises finishing cedar soon after it is installed. Ask for the finish system in writing, so a later coat can match it.
Yes. The operator is chosen for the finished leaf, steel frame and boards together, and UL 325 asks for two separate kinds of protection at every point where the moving leaf could trap a person. For a new gate planned with its operator, see automatic gates. For a wood gate you already own, gate opener installation starts by checking whether it can take one.
Yes. The board width, gap and stain can continue along a fence on steel posts, into a walk gate beside the driveway, and across a custom garage door built the same way, cedar or redwood over steel. Drawing them together is simpler than matching one to another years apart.
Service area
Custom Wood Gates across Los Angeles
From our office in Van Nuys we cover the San Fernando Valley, the Westside, and the neighborhoods in between.
- Bel Air, CA
- Beverly Hills, CA
- Brentwood, CA
- Burbank, CA
- Calabasas, CA
- Canoga Park, CA
- Chatsworth, CA
- Encino, CA
- Granada Hills, CA
- Hollywood, CA
- Lake Balboa, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Mission Hills, CA
- North Hills, CA
- North Hollywood, CA
- Northridge, CA
- Pacific Palisades, CA
- Pacoima, CA
- Panorama City, CA
- Porter Ranch, CA
- Reseda, CA
- San Fernando, CA
- Sherman Oaks, CA
- Studio City, CA
- Sun Valley, CA
- Sylmar, CA
- Tarzana, CA
- Universal City, CA
- Valley Village, CA
- Van Nuys, CA
- West Hills, CA
- West Hollywood, CA
- Woodland Hills, CA
Related services
Driveway GatesSwing and slide gates in steel, wrought iron, clear cedar, and redwood, sized to your opening, your slope, and how your driveway is actually used.
Residential FencingIron, steel, and wood fencing that matches your gate, built from the same drawing.
Custom Wrought Iron GatesWrought iron and steel gates built by our fabrication partner of 15 years — pickets, scrollwork, arches, and hand-forged details to your drawing.
Pedestrian GatesWalk gates, side-yard gates, and entry gates built to match the driveway gate, with self-closing hinges, keyed or electric locks, and intercom release.
Custom Garage DoorsCustom carriage-style and modern garage doors built and installed to match your gate and the front of your home.
Guides & answers
Privacy and Security Driveway Gates in Los Angeles: Height Limits, Solid vs Slatted, Anti-ClimbHow tall a gate can be in the City of Los Angeles, what solid, slatted and picket infill each trade away, anti-climb details that suit a home, and why the gate is only one part of the perimeter.
How a Custom Gate Is Built, From Drawing to Install DayFrom the tape measure on your driveway to the drawing, the cut list, the welding table, the finish, and install day — what “custom fabricated” actually means.
Choosing a Garage Door for a Los Angeles Home: Modern, Glass, Wood, Carriage and Insulated Doors, and Matching the GateWhich door suits a Spanish, Craftsman, ranch, mid-century or contemporary house; steel, wood-look, real wood and glass compared; R-value vs U-factor; and matching the driveway gate.
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Let’s Talk About Your Custom Wood Gates
Call now or send the form. A real person from our Van Nuys office will schedule your free visit and walk the opening with you.
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Get Your Free Estimate
Tell us about your gate. We'll call to schedule a visit.
No obligation. It takes about a minute, then we call to schedule. Prefer to talk? (818) 782-6180