The short version
- A timber picket is one dressed board, shaft and head cut from the same piece, face-fixed to the rails.
- Five head styles ship as standard: pointed, dog ear, round, French Gothic, and flat.
- Zero the gap and a picket fence becomes a paling fence — same boards, same fixing, no daylight through it.
- A scalloped top dips or arches the picket lengths while the rails stay level.
- Swing gates are ledged and braced, not framed — no stiles, no weld.
- Treated pine is the standard species; hardwood costs more and carries a heavier leaf.
Picket head styles
The head is cut straight into the flat face of the board with a saw or a router, so the shaft and the head are one piece, not a shaft with a separate cap. Pointed and dog ear are the two everyday tops; round, French Gothic, and flat cover softer, more decorative, and plainer jobs respectively.
| Style | The cut | Where it's used |
|---|---|---|
| Pointed (Gothic) | A symmetric point, height set independently | The classic everyday picket top |
| Dog ear | Both top corners clipped at 45°, flat shoulder between | Quick to cut, common on paling fences |
| Round | A half-circle head, always half the picket width | Softens the look of a front fence |
| French Gothic | A stepped decorative point | Feature front fences, period properties |
| Flat | Plain square cut, no shaped head | Plainest, cheapest to cut |
Rail-and-picket vs framed construction
Every other gate in a typical catalogue is a welded aluminium or steel frame with an infill screwed, bolted, or clipped inside it. A timber picket gate is built the opposite way around: two or three horizontal rails span between the posts (on a gate they double as ledges), and the pickets face-fix straight to the front of those rails. There is no perimeter frame and no hinge stile at all.
| Factor | Framed metal gate | Timber picket gate |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical members | Stiles at each edge of the leaf, welded or bolted | None — pickets face-fix straight to the rails |
| Hinges mount to | The hinge stile | The rails themselves, which act as ledges |
| Racking resistance | The welded frame corners | One diagonal compression brace per leaf |
| Typical material | Aluminium or galvanised steel RHS | Dressed treated pine or hardwood DAR |
Without a frame to hold it square, a hung leaf needs its own racking resistance. That is the job of the diagonal brace: one board running from the bottom hinge corner up to the top latch corner, cut from the same section as the ledges. Run in that direction it works in compression, pushing back as the leaf's own weight tries to close the diagonal up, which is the opposite of how a slim welded steel cross brace resists load in tension. Leave the brace off and an unbraced ledged gate sags on its latch edge inside a season.
Flat top or scalloped: which to pick
A flat-top fence keeps every picket the same length, which is simpler to cost, quicker to cut, and gives one cut-length note on the drawing instead of a schedule. Pick it for a straightforward boundary fence, a paling fence, or any job where matching the neighbours matters more than a decorative silhouette.
A scalloped top earns its extra cutting time on a front fence or an entry gate where the silhouette is the whole point. The rails never move; only the picket lengths change, dipping (concave) or arching (convex) across each span or each gate leaf, always returning to full height at the posts or the meeting stiles. Because no two pickets share exactly the same length, the drawing carries a dedicated Picket Lengths schedule grouping pickets by their measured cut, rather than one note that covers the whole run.
Timber species: treated pine vs hardwood
Treated pine is the default for both pickets and rails: it is rated for in-ground and above-ground exposure, widely stocked in DAR (dressed all round) sections from 65x19 up to 88x19 for pickets and 70x35 up to 90x45 for rails, and it is the cheaper of the two options by a clear margin. It suits the great majority of boundary fences, side fences, and standard gates.
Hardwood costs more per metre and weighs noticeably more once it is cut and hung, but it holds up longer under sun and weather and carries a heavier leaf without the sag a lighter species would show over the same span. It is the common upgrade on a feature front fence, a period-home gate, or any leaf wide enough that the extra stiffness matters to how it hangs and swings over the years, not just how it looks on day one.
Sizing a fence, panel, run, or gate
A standalone panel is sized between two posts, with the picket height measured from the ground up to the tip of the end pickets and a small gap left under the picket feet to keep the end grain clear of standing water. A fence run repeats that same panel construction across a total length and a target post spacing, with the run working out the bay count and pitch for you rather than you sizing each bay by hand. Gates keep the same picket height and gap-below datum as the fence, so a gate hung between two runs of fence lines up without a step in the picket line.
Spacing between pickets is set one of two ways: a fixed face-to-face gap, which is the classic picket look at around 50 mm, or an exact picket count fitted evenly across the span, which is handy when you need the picket line to land on a particular rhythm. Set the gap to 0 mm for a butted paling fence instead of a picket fence, though anything between 0 and 5 mm gets refused, since it is too tight for the timber to move, paint, or fix cleanly.
Draw a timber picket fence or gate from your numbers
Type the width, height, and rail count, pick a head style and a species, and CAD60 draws every rail, picket, and brace with a dimensioned cutting list. Start here:
Questions people ask
What is the standard timber section for a picket fence?
70x19 DAR (dressed all round) treated pine is the standard Australian picket section. 65x19 reads finer on a low fence, 88x19 suits a taller or wider-spaced one. Rails run 70x35 up to 90x45 DAR, and a gate's ledges (the rails a leaf hangs on) step up to 90x45 as the working minimum.
What is the difference between a picket fence and a paling fence?
The boards and the fixing are identical. A picket fence sets a visible gap between boards, usually around 50 mm, so light and air pass through. A paling fence sets that gap to 0 mm so the boards butt tight and the fence reads as a solid privacy screen. Head style is independent of either choice.
What is a dog ear picket head?
A dog ear head clips both top corners off a square-topped picket at 45 degrees, leaving a small flat shoulder between the two cuts. It is one of the two everyday picket tops, alongside a pointed (Gothic) head, and it is quick to cut because it is two straight saw cuts rather than a shaped router pass.
Should I choose treated pine or hardwood?
Treated pine is the standard fencing timber: cheaper, widely stocked, and rated for in-ground contact. Hardwood costs more and weighs more, but it lasts longer exposed and takes a heavier gate leaf without sagging. Most suburban fences run treated pine; a feature front fence or gate on a period home often runs hardwood.
How is a scalloped picket top built?
The rails stay dead level. Only the individual picket lengths change, cut shorter toward the middle of a span for a concave dip or longer for a convex arch, with the end pickets at every post always returning to the full entered height. Because every picket in a scalloped run is a different length, the drawing carries its own Picket Lengths schedule.
How is a timber picket gate built without a welded frame?
Ledged and braced. The same horizontal rails the pickets are face-fixed to double as ledges, carrying one hinge each, and a single diagonal timber brace runs from the bottom hinge corner to the top latch corner to stop the free edge sagging. There is no perimeter frame and no hinge stile, unlike a welded aluminium or steel gate.