A wood driveway gate in San Diego is a vehicle opening. It is not a wood garden gate on a side yard, and it is not an aluminum coastal leaf with a wood picture glued on. Searchers type “wood driveway gates” because they want the face of the house to match a wood fence. The proposal has to carry the weight of a car, a slope, and often an operator.
Garden leaf, entry leaf, and driveway pair are three jobs
A garden gate is a person, a wheelbarrow, and two bins. An entry gate faces the sidewalk. A driveway pair has to pass the widest vehicle you actually own, then hang without sagging after the first wet winter.
Measure the clear opening at the top and the bottom. Write both. A 16-foot picture in a catalog is not your apron in Kensington or your long drive in Rancho Santa Fe. Decide single swing versus double swing versus a wood face on a slide. Slope at the street is the fork. Inward swing that hits the rise is a daily scrape. Outward swing into the sidewalk is a right-of-way problem. Ask the contractor to mark the arc on the ground.
Species talk is matching, not a lifespan contest. This site has no verified year-count for cedar, redwood, or pressure-treated pine on a driveway leaf. Ask for the same species as the existing wood fence, or a written note that the species will differ and how they will finish it. Coastal Encinitas and Point Loma take salt. El Cajon and Santee take heat and movement. Hardware that is fine in a side yard rusts on a street-facing pair.
Automation is a separate job. A wood leaf is heavy. The operator has to be listed for that weight and for wind on a wide face. A solar opener does not make a sagging wood pair lighter. If you want the look of wood and the maintenance of aluminum, that is two quotes, not one “wood-look” line.
What the wood driveway proposal has to name
- Opening width, leaf count, and swing or slide.
- Frame: steel frame with wood cladding, or all-wood with specified rail and brace sizes. A board-and-batten face with no named frame is how sag starts.
- Brace direction, hinge size, and how many hinges per leaf.
- Drop rod or cane bolt on a double pair, and the receiver in the pavement.
- Bottom gap on a slope, and whether the leaf is racked, stepped, or built with a straight bottom and a triangular gap.
- Finish: stain or paint system, number of sides, and who recoats. Wood fence maintenance is the upkeep URL. This page is the leaf URL.
- Operator, if any: model, listed capacity, safety devices, access, manual release.
- Posts: size, material, bury, and whether the existing fence posts are large enough to hang a vehicle leaf. They often are not.
- Demo of the old pair, haul-away, and pavement patch at the drop-rod receiver.
Inside the City of San Diego, Table 142-03A still splits below 7 feet and 7 feet or greater for a building permit under that division. Zoning height at the street is a different question from the permit trigger. Unincorporated lots use County PDS070: 6-foot exemption if zoning compliant, 42 inches front and exterior side, 72 inches rear and interior side, confirm for the parcel. A driveway pair on the front line is often the height the neighbors notice first.
If the pair is on a shared line, Civil Code §841 notice still comes first. C-13 covers gates. Masonry columns holding the hinges are not C-13 wall work. Split the paper if a mason is pouring those piers.
California Health and Safety Code §115923 still applies if this opening is also a pool enclosure gate. A driveway pair that is part of the enclosure needs the latch and swing rules. Confirm with the building department.
How wood driveway bids go wrong
A garden-gate price on a 14-foot opening. A stain-only quote with no frame. An operator sized for an aluminum leaf. Hinges into a 4x4 that already leans. No drop rod, so the pair sags into a V. A coastal pair quoted with interior hinges.
Fence Pros San Diego is a referral service. We match you with licensed, independent local fence professionals. We do not install, we do not publish a 2026 wood-gate package, and you contract with the pro directly. Verify the license on the CSLB site. Business and Professions Code §7048’s $1,000 exemption is not a driveway-gate project.
Call when you want a wood face on a vehicle opening and a licensed contractor to spec the frame, posts, swing, and any operator for your San Diego lot. Call us at (858) 400-4906 and we will connect you with a licensed fence contractor.