- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
Nothing peeves me more than a gate in a fence that sags-it looks terrible and they're always a $#&@^ to close. I'm fencing my entire yard with a 6' dog ear fence that I'm building from scratch and I'll need two 8' openings on either side of the house. The gates will consist of double 4' wide doors fashioned from the same materials making up the fence panels. My first thought was to beef up the posts that will bear the weight of the doors. 4 x 4 x 8 posts will be used everywhere else, but I'll use 4 x 6 x 10 posts for the gates, burying a full 4' of the post in the ground. My next thought was to use piano hinges for each door. However, the gates are still going to be exerting a lot of force on the support posts-should I try to incorporate some sort of bracing for the post itself? I should also add that I thought about adding a support carriage (wheels) to the bottom of each door, but the ground is uneven and it would be too much of a hassle to try to level it out to the point that the door could swing all the way out and be fully supported. Any ideas?