Show me your gates!

Just put up most of a fence and now have to build gates. I'm curious what everyone's gates look like.

We have heavy deer, wild boar and monkey pressure. For now we are happy to just keep out the deer and boar, but would like to at least use a latch that the monkeys won't figure out. We will add electric fencing for the monkeys later.

What does your gate look like?

What do you like about it?

What would you change?

Get a pet gorilla, that will scare them off!
On a serious note though, you've got monkeys to keep out? Good grief and i'm moaning about an obnoxious badger. Permies does put things in perspective indeed.
Maybe they're afraid of guard dogs? Maybe grow veggies in polytunnels , underground green houses for your fruit trees. Netting over your whole plot.

My gates are tube gates, in in places where I need to stop drafts, or contain baby lambs, I put cheap roofing steel sideways on the tube gates, and use self-tapping screws to adhere the steel. It is cheap, and I can put such things as latches and holders.

Our gates/doors to date

Of course my gates serve the purpose of closing areas off, but really, they're just kind of for fun.  Considering I'm only on a third of an acre total, and most of the gates are in the back yard which is probably 1/8th or so of an acre, it's really overkill.  

I really like my gates, and admire other people's homemade gates as well.  Most of my gates were inspired from ideas I got from the internet, although they're all entirely my own design.

Okay, so I have this new gate in mind.  Purely conceptual at this point.  
It will hopefully look something similar to the crude drawings, which is how all my gates start.
I am going to "cheat" and use something off of amazon that I just ordered.  A solar lit metal moon that I can hopefully incorporate into the design.  

I just made a trellis/garden arch out of some rebar and want to gate it off with something.

Hopefully I'll update this in a month or so with the end product.
If not then it turned out as a dud.  
:)

Hi Mandy,

I never thought of a Dutch door for a high tunnel.  I am going to copy.

and done.

Not what the drawing was, but I am pleased.  

The moon lights up at night with a solar light.

:)

This is a work in progress for our zone 1-2 fence gate, meant to keep our LGD (pictured below) in, and he will repel animals we want to keep out. Its going to be a 12ft vehicle gate with 4x4x4ft rock jack posts (pictured below). I am at about 2ft up the posts with rocks (will add wood as I go up to make adding the base rocks easier to lift in), and it is feeling absolutely solid. I'd like it to ultimately be vehicle resistant, so I will go up further, but I am thinking at 4x4x4ft of rock is going to be overkill. It will however be great thermal mass for the sangiovese (grape for making chianti) or other warmth loving vines we will grow up them. I thought of topping it off with 1ft of soil with a layer of berlap or felt between soil and stone, but am thinking better of it due to that reducing the lifespan of the rock jack gate posts. I am alternatively considering using a rock jack as a pond filter. Any thoughts on these ideas?

What does your gate look like?

What do you like about it?   It's just wide enough so I can back my old ford ranger in, to offload wood chips.  


What would you change?  It's too heavy and sags, I should have used suspension wires.  I never got around to adding hardware because I fenced the rest of the yard.  I had to pull grass to get it shut.

Hey Scott,

I never knew this before I saw this video, but it looks like the gate on the left side has its cross brace backwards?  I think the weight should be placed on the bottom hinge (like your gate on the right?  I am not good with wood, but this might help with the sagging you mentioned (even though it looks like the right gate is the one sagging?  Maybe I've got it backwards?  

Great functional pair of gates regardless.

Here's a quick video that explains it better from someone who also made a gate with the cross brace opposite of what its "supposed" to be.  

Hey all, my question is related and you guys seem very knowledgeable. I’m building an aluminum panel (5 1/2’ x 6’) fence with cedar 4x4 posts. My intent was to build a dual swing cedar “double v” gate (each side being about 7’ long). This construction and materials will end up being a pretty light gate. Light enough in my mind that I went ahead and, perhaps ignorantly, already sunk my 4x4 posts for the gate. All of the posts I sunk in concrete and both sides of the gate will be tied into the broader structure of the fence.
Reading this question and the responses has made me slightly concerned about my decision being a mistake and that I should have used 6x6 for the Gates. So, I guess my question is...aside from being scolded for the mistake I’ve already made...is input as to whether this smallish and lightly constructed gate is going to be a problem, and if so potential remedies that don’t involve attempting to break 2’ of concrete and a do over. I was thinking support wheels in the center that accept the load when in the closed position to minimize time under stress?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Doug

Douglas Williams wrote:Hey all, my question is related and you guys seem very knowledgeable. I’m building an aluminum panel (5 1/2’ x 6’) fence with cedar 4x4 posts. My intent was to build a dual swing cedar “double v” gate (each side being about 7’ long). This construction and materials will end up being a pretty light gate. Light enough in my mind that I went ahead and, perhaps ignorantly, already sunk my 4x4 posts for the gate. All of the posts I sunk in concrete and both sides of the gate will be tied into the broader structure of the fence.
Reading this question and the responses has made me slightly concerned about my decision being a mistake and that I should have used 6x6 for the Gates. So, I guess my question is...aside from being scolded for the mistake I’ve already made...is input as to whether this smallish and lightly constructed gate is going to be a problem, and if so potential remedies that don’t involve attempting to break 2’ of concrete and a do over. I was thinking support wheels in the center that accept the load when in the closed position to minimize time under stress?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Doug

Hey doug

The wheels will definitively help with sag.  based on your photo. The 4x4 posts are held together with the aluminum panel fence? I am not quite sure what your photo was showing
I believe as long as your fence is attached to each post. it will have the support needed. Adding the wheels is just a good idea if you ask me.

Here’s my gate update:

Let me try this. The last post I made ended up upside down

Ok, sideways.  Let's do this with other gates.

I give up!

I thought there was a new post, but apparently it was a false alarm.  Something about welders in my email.

It was fortuitous timing?  My very first welding project/gate just came back home to see me!  It lived in San Jose, CA where I made it.  It moved to Eugene, OR, where it stayed a couple of years hanging out.  Then it decided to go via U-haul to Millcreek UT, where it stood around doing what gates do for a couple of years, and then it showed up right here in sunny southern Utah this last week!  I used a rusty patina paint, when I built it, and it's in perfect condition still to this day!

RIP Sydney!  Best dog ever!  This was the gate for her play area.  I made it around 1995, and last saw it around 2000.

I think I can proudly call myself a mastergater at this point.

My son-in-law’s gate to his unfenced property.

A house was being built next door. In the course of that building, there were a lot of cut-offs being tossed around the job site. I asked if I could sort through them, for lumber and OSB I might be able to use. They gave me the go-ahead, so I did. I even cleaned (stacked the trash for easier removal and to weigh down things that would blow off.

I had fenced in the upper yard to give our two doggos a few thousand feet of romp room. Too, I cut a section of the railing out of the deck wrapping three sides of the house and installed stairs into the romp area. I was using some heavy gauge wire panels to block escape into the wilds of the neighborhood, and wanted to install actual gates for each of the four escape options.

Meanwhile, a friend had just installed railing around his deck and asked if I wanted the left over aluminum tubing.

I used some of the 2x6 from the house build and the aluminum to make gates.  I purchased inexpensive handle type latches you'd use on an exterior-interior door, joined a few pieces of the wood and cobbled together these.

I yet have two to finish and will make the pipes closer together. As they are, the gaps are more than adequate to block our dogs from exiting, but people visiting with smaller dogs still have to watch them, to insure they don't slip through the 5" gaps.

P.S. The wood decking is being replaced with composite. Some of it will not be, IF we get the remodel going, to improve the interior stairs, which would include a hobby room and office.

SIDE NOTE: Under all the decking I'll be slathering Henry's roof tar. to protect the support framing from water penetration, with extra attention at where the deck ties to the house (the builders errored and tied it straight to the house, so that area will get goop and flashing).

SIDE NOTE: The aluminum tubes were shy of the lengths I needed, so I used some scrap conduit to join them. The sloppy fit was solved by just peening over the cut portions of the conduit, until if fit tight on the other tubes.