Black Aluminum Fence and Arched Gate in DeBary, Florida
- FenceBlack aluminum, open picket
- LocationDeBary, Volusia County, Florida
- FeatureArched top gate set into the run
- Site notesBoundary carried along a public sidewalk
The arch is the point of this one. Everything else in the run is a straight top rail, and then the gate lifts into a curve, which is a small change that does a surprising amount of work. It tells anyone approaching where the entrance is without a sign, and it breaks up what would otherwise be a long flat line across the front of the lot.
Underneath the styling this is a standard black aluminum picket fence, powder coated and set on posts in concrete. The second photo shows the same run carried along the sidewalk, taking a corner and continuing down the property line past the neighboring homes.
Fences on a sidewalk line get looked at more than any other kind. Neighbors walk past them daily, the mail carrier walks past them daily, and anything out of line is obvious from twenty feet away. That is the reason a job like this one lives or dies on the survey and the setback rather than on the panel you picked.
Why put an arched gate in a straight fence run?
To mark the entrance. A long aluminum run reads as one continuous line from the street, and a plain gate set into it disappears completely until you are standing at it. The arched top lifts the gate above the surrounding rail line, so the eye finds it from the road. Delivery drivers find it too, which is a more practical benefit than it sounds.
There is a design argument as well. Arched gates soften a fence that is otherwise all vertical and horizontal, and the curve echoes the arched entries and barrel tile rooflines common on the homes around it. The cost sits in the gate hardware more than the arch itself, because a gate that sees daily use needs hinges rated for it, a latch that actually latches, and posts set deeper than the line posts either side. Our aluminum fencing page covers the gate styles worth considering.
How do you run a fence along a public sidewalk?
You find the property line before you find anything else. The strip between a sidewalk and the road is very often not yours, and in some subdivisions neither is a few feet on your side of the walk. Building on it means moving the fence later at your own cost, which is a conversation nobody enjoys having after the concrete has set.
A current survey settles it. Volusia County generally wants one with a fence permit, and existing corner pins on their own rarely satisfy the review, so we pull that paperwork together as part of any DeBary fence installation. Once the line is confirmed, the run gets set back far enough that the panels clear the walk and the posts stay out of the utility easement that usually runs alongside it. You can see the result in the second photo, where the fence holds a consistent gap off the concrete the whole way down and turns the corner cleanly at the end of the lot.
How much upkeep does a black aluminum fence need?
Almost none, which is most of the reason it gets specified in Florida neighborhoods. Aluminum does not rust. The color is baked on as a powder coat rather than brushed on as paint, so it does not blister or peel the way a painted steel fence does after a few summers, and there is no annual scrape and repaint waiting for you.
The realistic maintenance list is short. Rinse the sprinkler mineral off it now and then, keep shrubs trimmed back off the panels so they are not holding moisture against the coating, and check the gate hardware once a year because hinges and latches are the only moving parts on the whole fence. If a panel does get hit by a mower or a falling limb, single sections can be swapped without disturbing the rest of the run, which is something we handle through our fence repair service. The double picket aluminum fence in DeBary shows the same material in a version built for pets.
Want an aluminum fence that does not look like everyone else's?
Arched gates, picket spacing and post caps all change the finished look for very little money. Call Byers Fence at (386) 457-2045 and we will price the options together.