New garden gate

I have been living in my flat for about 9 years now, have a little garden with a gate which is used daily, either by me or visitors.  One can imagine what it looked like after all this time and use. Been prone to all weather types all the time.  A new one was necessary.  My landlord is difficult to get hold of so i decided to take the matter into my own hands.

I studied the current gate and checked other possibilities online.  I chose a simple construction. After having measured the old gate plus added height, off i went to my favourite place to spend money. The local hardware store.

I bought relatively cheap wood panels, four of them. All the same length.  Three hinges of my choice (see picture) and i decided againgst buying a new latch for a lock, as the one i had on the old gate was still in a good condition.

Back home, i went straight to work.  Laying three of the panels aside each other on the grass.  Meanwhile i measured the fourth panel, which was to be used for connecting the long ones (as seen in the picture). Two of the same measurements of course and cut them to the correct size using a jigsaw.

That done, i lay them in the right position, which was not 100% measurement, i have noticed that i have a very good sense of proportion, so i just "guessed)".  Without moving anything, now that everything had the correct position, i screwed the two horizontal planks onto the three vertical ones, leaving equal spaces between them.

That done, i did the same with the hinges and then stood the gate up so that i could cut the arch off the top.  I just used a pencil and drew the shape i wanted onto one side of the gate then using a jigsaw, i cut the excess wood off and smoothed the edges with sand paper. 

Now the tricky bit came.  I always work alone, this day was not otherwise.  I had to hold the gate in the right position and screw it onto the foundation pillar without doing it wrong.  Piece of cake!

All that was left to do was screw the latch onto the right spot and then i used Teak wood varnish again to protect the wood from wind and weather, which i will have to repeat annually to keep the gate in a good condition for another couple of years. 

This project took me about 2 hours to complete.  I made it in about June 2015.  These pictures are recent, January 2106. Just in case you thought that i would stand out in the cold and build a gate :)