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Posted by MiamiCuse on May 10, 2008, 12:30 pm
> MiamiCuse wrote:
>
>>
>>> MiamiCuse wrote:
>>>
>>>> I had a wood fence built and the fence gates are not lined up. The
>>>> fence was built six months ago and after some rain and sun now the
>>>> problem magnified.
>>>>
>>>> There are two gates, one left and one right, 5' wide each with a total
>>>> of
>>>> 10' opening. Posts and gates are 6' tall.
>>>>
>>>> The fence posts are plumb when you look at the gates from the front.
>>>>
>>>> The fence posts are not plumb when you stand at the gate opening and
>>>> look
>>>> left and right. One tilt forward a bit and one tilt backward a bit.
>>>> Therefore the gates are tilted in opposite directions. At the top the
>>>> if I measure the two tip of the gates where they are supposed to line
>>>> up, they are just a bit over 4 inches apart.
>>>>
>>>> OK I know the proper thing to do is to pull the post up, break the
>>>> concrete
>>>> and redo the post and reattach the gates. But...
>>>>
>>>> The way I constructed the posts, I knew the 5' gates would be heavy and
>>>> may
>>>> pull on the gates. So I had the fence post for the gate and the
>>>> nearest
>>>> next fence post (which is about 3 feet away, anchored into the same
>>>> concrete. I dug a tench 4 feet long, and sank both posts into it, and
>>>> then poured solid concrete into it, with the intention to not let the
>>>> fence post
>>>> pull on the concrete at all, and I did a good job of it in one
>>>> direction. I am really not looking forward to deconstruct the entire
>>>> section of the fence wall and pull up that concrete on both sides.
>>>>
>>>> So that leads to my questions. Are there other remedies to consider.
>>>> Can
>>>> I
>>>> shim the hinges? Can I somehow buy some sophisticated hinges that are
>>>> capable of adjustments inward and outward that would make it less
>>>> noticable?
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> MC
>>>
>>> If the concrete is holding the posts in their original position then its
>>> not
>>> the posts. Install 2 adjustable wire tensioners, also known as dolphin
>>> strikers. This will pull the outside of gates up if they are sagging.
>>> Usually the weight at the ends cause the gate to sag.
>>>
>>> --
>>> "You can lead them to LINUX
>>> but you can't make them THINK"
>>> Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
>>
>> There is no sag. The movement is not in the direction of the two gates
>> tilting towards each other. The movement is on gate is tilting forward
>> (towards you if you standing in front of the gate) and the other gate is
>> tilting backwards (away from you if you are facing it), it's not plumb at
>> an
>> axis 90 degrees from what you were thinking. I hope I explained this
>> right.
>>
>> MC
> I understand what your saying. Are the post leaning in opposite directions
> or are the gates warped? You might try shims and longer screws.
> --
> "You can lead them to LINUX
> but you can't make them THINK"
> Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
I went and did some measurements and checked alignment, and determined that
it is a combinations of things.
First, one of the posts is out of alignment. It is plumb, but out of
alignment. If I stretch a string from one corner of the fence all the way
to the other corner, crossing all the intermediate posts, one of the posts
is out of alignment by about 1.5 inches. In other words, I have posts A, B,
C, D, GATE - GATE, E, F, G, H, and I string from A to H, post E is shifted
north by an extra 1.5 inches.
Second, both gates were warped. This is probably due to a combination of
bad hardware (angles were rusted) and bad wood (the fence contractor ran out
of PT wood and were short two pieces and sub in normal wood I had laying
around for indoor framing) and now some are badly warped.
I will need to rebuild the gate, no doubt, use stainless steel hardware and
better parts.
However I would rather not redo post E, since posts E & F are both cemented
into a single wide trenched concrete footing. However, the hinges I have
must mount on the face of the fence and gate so no shifting or offset is
possible. Are there any fence hinges I can use that allows mounting of it
on the inside (like door hinges), this will allow me to mount both gates
with a slight shift from the posts. I just don't know if such hinges are
possible (strong enough) for fences. I will ask in another thread.
Thanks!
MC
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