Hardwood and redwood.
We build in redwood and cedar when a client specifies them. Most of our gates are built from hardwoods such as Sapele, which we recommend for durability.
Why not redwood?
Redwood is the default outdoor wood in Northern California because it's local, familiar in California landscapes, and rot-resistant enough for fence pickets. It is not the right species for a gate that has to stay flat, stay plumb, and hold its finish for decades. Density and movement are the reasons.
Redwood has a Janka hardness rating around 450 — soft enough that hardware pulls, latches gouge, and hinges work loose over time. It's dimensionally reactive — a redwood stile can move 3⁄16 of an inch across its width between a dry September and a wet February. It weathers to silver-gray within two seasons and needs re-oiling every year to hold a color. As an old-growth species, tight-grained heart redwood is also increasingly hard to source consistently.
Three species, chosen per project.
Our most-specified species. Sustainably harvested West African hardwood, roughly three times harder than redwood, with tight interlocking grain that resists twisting. Ages to a warm reddish brown rather than silver-gray. Takes a deep penetrating oil beautifully.
The right answer for a lighter tone or a client with a Craftsman-language home. Closed-cell structure (the same reason it's used in wine barrels) makes it exceptionally water-resistant. Fumes beautifully to a deep brown when treated.
The heaviest option, and the longest-lived. Nearly eight times harder than redwood, effectively rot-proof, and often left to weather to a driftwood gray without failure. Reserved for exposed coastal and full-sun sites where nothing else will hold.
Selected for the site. Built for the long term.
A redwood gate on an estate property typically needs its finish renewed every year and its frame reset (hinges re-shimmed, hardware reseated in fresh wood) somewhere between years eight and twelve. By year twenty, it's often on its second or third leaf.
A Sapele or white oak gate — framed mortise-and-tenon and hung on hardware sized for the loaded leaf — needs the finish refreshed every three to five years and, in our experience, nothing structural for the life of the property. The distinction is in the joinery, dimensional stability, and hardware — details engineered for decades outdoors.
We'll spec the right species for your site.
Species selection is site-specific — exposure, architecture, microclimate. We work it through with you on a free on-site design consultation.