Structural · Case study
The Narrabeen Curved Fence
- Location
- Narrabeen, NSW
- Year
- 2025
- Duration
- 3 weeks
- Category
- Structural
32 linear metres of curved horizontal-slat fence following the boundary, with integrated low-voltage landscape lighting and full garden bed setting out.
Why this needed an engineer.
The boundary line ran along a gentle curve and a slight fall. A straight fence run would have looked clumsy against the planted bed and the retaining wall the client had already built. Curving a horizontal-slat fence is the hard option. Every post angle changes, every slat length is different across the run, and the lighting cable had to be sleeved through the posts before the slats went on.
The engineering thinking.
Surveyed the curve at 600mm intervals, set out post centres on a swept arc rather than chord segments so the curve reads smoothly from any viewing angle. Posts cut with the appropriate skew at each location and concreted with stepped footing depths to follow the fall without the top rail kinking. Lighting circuit run through cored posts, transformer hidden behind the retaining wall, so the wiring is invisible. Slats fixed with concealed stainless screws into pre-routed slots, set out with a 6mm reveal that reads as one continuous band of timber.
- Spotted gum slats (Corymbia maculata)
- H4 treated pine posts (concealed)
- 316 stainless concealed fixings
- Low-voltage landscape lighting
A boundary fence that follows the land instead of fighting it, with lighting that reads as part of the carpentry rather than tacked on after. The client wanted the timber to feel like it belonged to the garden. It does.
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