Matching a New Gate to an Old Fence

It is the most common request we get and the one where honest expectations matter most.

Material and profile can be matched

Board width, spacing, cap detail and post style can all be reproduced. On a fence built to any standard pattern this part is straightforward.

Bring us a photograph and we can usually identify what is there before we arrive.

Colour is the hard part

New cedar next to eight-year-old cedar is not the same colour and will not be for a season or two. Stain narrows the gap; it does not close it immediately.

Anyone promising an invisible match on weathered timber is setting you up to be disappointed.

Metal matches better

Powder-coated metal in the same profile and colour gets you very close, because the finish does not weather the way timber does.

If matching matters more than anything else, that is worth knowing at the design stage.

Sometimes contrast is the better answer

A deliberately different gate reads as a design choice. A gate that is almost the same reads as a repair.

On plenty of Whittier frontages a black metal gate in a timber fence looks better than a timber gate that not quite matches.

What we will tell you

How close it will get, and when. If the answer is that it will look mismatched for a year, we would rather say so before you commit than after.

That conversation takes two minutes and saves a great deal of disappointment.