Choosing Slat Spacing for Privacy

Slat spacing determines how much you can see through the panel — but only from a given distance and angle. This is the part most people get wrong when they picture it.

Stand close to a widely spaced slat fence and you can see straight through the gaps. Walk back five metres and the same fence looks considerably more solid, because your line of sight through each gap now covers a much smaller cone. Walk past it at an angle and it closes up almost completely.

So the useful question is not 'how private do I want it?' but 'who is looking, from where, and how far away?'. Someone driving past at ten metres is screened by a spacing that would not screen a neighbour standing at the fence.

Tightening the spacing costs you three things. Airflow, which matters in a small yard and matters a lot in a hot climate. Wind load, which rises as the open area falls and flows straight through to how heavily the frame, posts and footings need to be built. And material, because a tighter panel has more slats in it.

Opening the spacing gives all three back but screens less. There is no free option here, which is why it is worth thinking about rather than defaulting to 'as private as possible'.

If you find yourself wanting maximum privacy on a large or exposed panel, that is the point where louvre becomes worth pricing — it screens through blade angle rather than through gap size, so the airflow and wind load stay reasonable.

Go and stand where the person you are screening from actually stands. The footpath, the neighbour's deck, the upstairs window. Look at your yard from there and note what specifically you want hidden.

Then look at existing slat fences in your street from that same distance. You will very quickly get a feel for what spacing reads as private and what does not, and that is worth more than any number on a website.

Send us a photo from that position with your enquiry. It tells us more about what you need than a description of the spacing ever will.

Two situations change this from a styling choice to a requirement.

Pool barriers are subject to specific legal requirements covering gap sizes, heights and climbable zones. Those are legal requirements, not design preferences, and they are determined by regulation rather than by us. If your fence or gate is anywhere near a pool, say so in your enquiry so it is dealt with properly.

Containing a small animal is the other. If the fence has to keep a small dog in, the gap that works visually may be nowhere near tight enough. Tell us what the fence needs to do.