Hello this is Dustin with Home Mender, and today we are going to be replacing this hideous gate. This gates way late to wait for a wake date.. In other words, it’s dead. it looks like… well I don’t know what it looks like. It’s just horrible. It’s got to be changed. Let’s get to it.
1 Determine swing out or swing in ?.This one has an entry door to the house right there.
This one really has no choice but to swing in. If your gate swings out, you’ll need to do it a little different because this one swings in. It’s not cut quite to the post, obviously. So it doesn’t hit the post when you shut it. If your gate swings out, you’re going to want to put a slam strip at the strike post so we can stop when the gate is shut.
2 Measure for the new gate Now let’s measure. We want our gate to fit inside, post to post. This one’s at 50 and a half. We’re going to check the bottom too. 50 and a half. We’re going to cut our gate and frame it at forty nine and a half. That gives it a half inch on both sides.
3. Cut the width of your gate. Im using a 8’ fence panel.Let’s start by measuring out our 49 ½. Now 49 ½” splits one of my pickets. So we’re going to pull that one off and then we’re going to want that side to be at our strike side. We definitely want the gate to open at the strike side with a full picket. Go ahead and marker forty nine and a half. Use your speed square to get a 90 degree cut. square. Go ahead and bang that picket off of there. We’re going to put that aside because we’re going to use it later, cut your panel.
4. Frame the gate .Now that we’ve got our gate panel to work with, it’s the right size, we’re going to go ahead and frame the gate. If you don’t frame a gate, it is going to eventually sag. You can’t just put hinges on a panel. You actually have to build a gate. Otherwise it’s going to sag and droop, And as my daughter says, “Dad, why is that gate so sad?” Let’s go ahead. And 45, the ends of the top and bottom stringers and forty five of them towards the center of the gate. We are going to “picture frame” it in.
You want to measure your sides from the top of your top stringer to the bottom of your bottom stringer. Just under fifty seven for me, we’re going to cut our 2×4 sides at 56 ⅞”. Cut your two sides of the gate and 45 the ends towards the center of your gate. Now, let’s put it together, since these are the sides of our gate frame, we’re going to need to cut back the center stringer the width of a 2×4 which is 3 ½”
Measure the three and a half and make a mark and cut off the 3 ½ from each side of the center stringer..5 Screw your sides onto your gate. Now, the sides should fit right into our frame. Using some 3 ½” deck screw, we can toenail our sideboards in, you can also throw one into the middle stringer.
Slip, you’re “needing to rip Picket” under the gate, make sure your height is right and mark the width of your picket. Complete your line with the straight edge. Rip your picket.
Now, screws would poke through, so we’re going to nail it on.
6 Put in a cross brace. Now that our gate is framed, we’re going to throw in a cross brace just for added support. This is the difference between your gate sagging and your gate, not. Throw your two by four up there and make your mark. We’re going to set it inside the stringer and we’re going to notch out in the center straight. Now, toenail it into the Stringer’s.
7 Secure the hinges to the post I like the 6” T hinges. Let’s go ahead and secure the post side of the hinges. My post is pretty plumb,, so I can probably hang my hinges at the same spot on the edge of the 4×4 However, if yours is crooked, you may need to adjust it, moving them in or out.
8 Hang the gate on the hinges. I set my gates on top of a scrap 2×4 so it’s installed off the ground. Now, once our hinges are on the post, we’re ready to secure them to the gate. Mines leaning just a little bit. So I’m going to hold my gate towards the post when I screw it. After youre top hinge is done, make sure your gate side is uniform to the post, secure the bottom hinge. After your hinges are secure, let’s remove our prop board, give it a test.
9 Put on your latch or catch hardware Our gate is swinging awesome now, Now, this particular homeowner wanted a slide latch. Looks something like this. Put it on from the inside. And that way he needs to go through his back door to get it into his fence.
He doesn’t want people being able to go through from the front. We’re going to position it slide latch so outsiders can’t reach over and open his gate. After its mounted , we’re going to drill a hole in the side of the post so we have someplace to slide the latch. Give it a test!
Looking good now I can throw a padlock on there and keep away those pesky neighborhood kids. For Home Mender, I’m Dustin. I hope you learn something today and if you did, subscribe!