How the gap between verticals sets the balance between an open fence and a private one, and where the limits sit.
A vertical fence is defined by its gaps as much as by its verticals. The gap is where you decide how open or how private the line should be, and because every fence we make is made to order, it is a decision rather than a fixed feature.
A wide gap reads open. It suits a front fence that should feel welcoming, or a pool surround that should keep the outlook. A tighter gap reads as a screen, for a boundary you want private without a solid wall.
On our Batten style we set spacing from 75 to 85 mm for an open look and 25 to 50 mm where privacy leads. Other styles have their own range, and we will tell you what yours does.
For a pool barrier no gap may exceed 100 mm anywhere, which keeps the spacing non climbable to AS 1926.1. That limit applies whatever the style.
Gap width is only part of it. On a section that is deeper than it is wide, the face you see from the street is the short side and the section runs back behind it. Standing square to the fence you look straight through. Walking past, the faces close up and the yard disappears.
That is why two fences with the same gap can feel completely different. A deep, narrow section gives you an open fence from the front and a private one from the side, which is usually exactly what a front boundary wants.
The spacing does not have to be uniform. You can run an open gap along the street and tighten it where a window or a neighbour looks in, holding the same style, height and finish throughout, so the fence still reads as one piece.
This is one of the practical advantages of making every fence to order. Nothing about a standard panel has to be worked around.
The easiest way to feel the difference is a sample and a tape measure. Hold two sections at 50 mm apart, then at 80 mm, in the light where the fence will stand, and look through them from square on and from an angle.
Send us the boundary and what you are trying to screen, and we will tell you what spacing we would draw it at.
This guide covers front fencing.
