How To Repair A Wooden Fence Gate

Sometimes an sometime, sagging gate can be stock-still with new hardware or past adding a sag kit. Other times, it's all-time to just start over and build a new gate.

Today nosotros're building a gate using the EasyGate No-Sag Gate Kit, which includes four black, sturdy, metal brackets; screws and hinges which you add to your ain lumber; and a gate latch. The EasyGate kit fifty-fifty includes a drill bit for pre-drilling holes and a driver bit for the screws.

Pace i: Measure gate opening and decide on swivel placement

Carefully measure the opening for the gate you lot're going to build by measuring the altitude between gate posts. The width of our opening is 35 1/4". Now is also the fourth dimension to figure out whether the hinges will be on the left or right side of the gate. Stand on the inside of the gate (the side where you lot'll pull the gate open toward yous) and note which side the hinges will be on. The black EasyGate brackets will evidence on this "pull side" of the gate. Our hinges will be on the right.

Step two: Measure out and cut top and bottom rails

• How To Apply a Round Saw

We're using cedar 2-by-fours for our gate rail. Following the directions from EasyGate, we cut 2 pieces at 34 i/4" (one inch shorter than the gate opening). One slice will be our meridian rail, and the other will be our lesser rail.

Footstep three: Attach brackets to top and lesser runway

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Starting with the pinnacle rails turned on edge, adhere ane hinged bracket and one non-hinged subclass below the two-by-4 rail using the provided screws. Since our hinges will be on the correct, the hinged bracket was on the right as well.

Spiral the two remaining brackets to the height of the bottom rail using one spiral in each of the 3 spots where at that place are holes. Don't forget to position the hinged bracket on the aforementioned side as the upper-hinged bracket.

Note: The EasyGate kit comes with a drill chip for pre-drilling your lumber. Pre-drilling is never a bad idea, just we chose not to this time because the western red cedar lumber we used was somewhat soft and the screws weren't probable to split it. If in dubiety, take actress time to pre-drill your screw holes.

Step four: Add side rail to brackets

The length of your side rails volition depend on the superlative of your fence. We wanted our top and lesser gate rails to line upwardly horizontally with the contend runway on either side of the gate, so we cutting two-by-fours to fit that height, and, using the holes in the brackets, screwed the vertical rails in place.

At this step, you'll take a sturdy, iv-sided framework to attach boards to.

Annotation: Our Stride 5 and Step 6 are reversed if yous compare them to the EasyGate instructions. EasyGate has you lot mount the gate frame to the gate posts and then consummate the gate by attaching fence boards. That would work fine, but we decided to adhere our contend boards first and then hang the gate. Our method ways hanging a heavier, completed gate, so if you're working solitary keep that in mind.

Stride 5: Attach fence boards

We knew nosotros wanted our gate to be 5' tall, and knew (from the old gate) that a two" gap at the bottom was needed for the gate to swing fully open, then nosotros cut a couple of inches off of v' debate boards and fastened them to the gate frame. Many people utilise nails for this, merely we used exterior screws.

Step half dozen: Hang gate on the hinge-side post

Next, we lifted the gate into position. A block of forest (or in our case, a brick) helps agree things at the right acme while you mark where the hinges will attach to the post. The hinges tin can mountain parallel to the gate and across the face up of the mail service, or be placed perpendicular to the gate in the gate opening. We liked the cleaner expect of the 2d method, and then later noting the proper height of the hinges, we propped the gate into its open position, opened the hinges, and screwed them into place.

Step 7a: Choose a gate latch

The EasyGate kit doesn't come with a gate latch, which allows you lot to pick the manner and type that works best for you lot. The simplest latches are like shooting fish in a barrel to install and work fine in many instances. Cull a heavy-duty version if your gate is going to be used daily. Some latches are more easily operated from the pull side of the gate than the other side, and people often run a string to the other side to make life easier. Other latches are double-sided and piece of work as well from either side of the gate. We chose to use one double-sided latch that includes a thumb latch on the exterior.

Step 7b: Install thumb-latch gate hardware

This latch seemed to exist complicated at start glance, but it was easier to install than we first thought. Belongings the broad, interior subclass on the gate runway, nosotros marked for the oblong hole, which the thumb latch will laissez passer through. Following the latch instructions, we drilled two holes (i to a higher place the other) and then joined them together using a wood chisel. At this bespeak, nosotros assembled both sides of the latch mechanism, inserted the thumb latch through the pigsty in the gate, and marked the hole locations for the inside and exterior pieces. (This is easier with two people, and it allows yous to test the action before anchoring the pieces with screws.) Later verifying it was going to piece of work, we screwed the hardware onto both sides of the gate. Lastly, nosotros mounted the post-side subclass for the latch.

Success! We have a sturdy new gate with a latch that works hands from either side of the gate. The gate looked and so nice, we replaced the fence boards on either side, too. Now, our outdoor living infinite is prepare for summer.

Source: https://diy.dunnlumber.com/projects/how-to-replace-a-fence-gate

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