Marshall & Mollie

We live in a track home. Hard to believe I know, but Las Vegas is packed full of them. One thing we’ve discovered about living in such a cookie cutter house is that the builders don’t often spend the money on quality materials, in order to save a few pennies here and there.

Prime example, side house gate. Rusted. Paint didn’t last for 5 years, and the masonry bolts holding it all together were loose and painfully ugly. Typical in the neighborhood.

So last Saturday I was digging holes in the backyard in some attempt at landscaping (I use the word ‘digging’ loosely here. Maybe picking rocks and chipping desert concrete is a more appropriate description.) After swinging the pick one too many times, I stood up in my frustration and the gate caught my eye. It was GO TIME.

See the gate doesn’t open either. The previous owners left a padlock on it. Yes, also rusted. Convenient. I grapped pliers, snips, cutters and other tools of destruction and managed to destroy the gate. I felt wonderful. That is until I realized that now I had to explain to my wife why I destroyed our perfectly functional side gate. Oh yeah! Its because I want to build a NEW EVEN BETTER ONE YEAH! Heh…of course that was the plan all along.

I don’t have too many photos of the process. Keithers previously mentioned that I should post more details on the stuff I do, to make it more informative and useful. So, I’ll give the basics of gate building. Or at least of how I tried to work it.

Trip to the Depot. Three 8′ 2×4’s, and seven 8′ 1×6’s are all the lumber that I required. More might be necessary if your gate is wider…mine was right at 40″. The Depot has all kinds of hinge setups available, and I found some black painted weather resistant ones, that came with burly wood screws. Three hinges seemed appropriate. Grab a matching clasp and you are good to go.

My situation was kind of different because I had to attach the thing to concrete block. This required another trip to the Depot to grab a 1/4″ masonry bit to drive holes for some wedge anchors. I used Redhead wedge anchors when I used to metal frame and knew they worked well, so that’s what I went with. I have a hard time trusting masonry screws.

I built the gate with a center spreader, and three cross braces. The planks are screwed down to the frame using 2″ coated screws to prevent them from rusting and turning the purdy wood colors. I pre-drilled my holes, and countersunk them by drilling with a larger drill bit 1/2″ into the wood or so to make a slot for them to sit in. I opted to make the arch on top to spice it up a bit (man that sounded lame). I did this by getting Mollie to hold a line at the base of the gate for me, then I scribed a circle across the top. Little work with the handsaw and some sanding and I was good to go.

I shimmed the gate into place with some wood scraps, marked my holes and drilled away into the masonry. It really went fairly smoothly and all the wedge anchors held well. I hung the gate one hinge at a time, fixed the clasp, and it was basically done. Now we just need to stain it with some kind of sealer to keep the weather from destroying it. All in all it took me about five hours to build and hang it. Time well spent to not have to look at the rusted junker gate anymore.