Replace wooden driveway gate

[Higgs Boson]

My old driveway gate -- what's left of it after the termites have finished -- is badly in need of replacement. Online, I found instructions for building such a gate at eHow Home. Yes, I know it's a simple job, but I don't have the tools or facilities to DIY.

I looked on-line for "wooden driveway gates" but found nothing anywhere near my very low price range.

This is a narrow driveway beside an old house. It was built in conjunction with nabe fence. It hangs off wooden posts embedded in concrete. Posts look OK.

This is a pricey area for skilled labor [I was just quoted $95/hr for labor to replace a simple bathroom sink!!!!]

Any hope of my buying the materials and hoping for a good enuff laborer from the kind that waits for work outside the local building company (Bourget Brothers).

If you have experience, would appreciate a breakdown of labor/ materials.

TIA

HB

[dadiOH]

Maybe. Ask...

Sabes construir una porton bien hecha para mi entrada de coche?

Not possible unless you care to elaborate...how high, how wide, single piece or two? Like that.

[Joe]

Hire a pro and use the time you save for something important. Get bids first. The only skill you need is to write the check and enjoy the result.

Joe

[aemeijers]

(to OP)

1. Do you really NEED a gate? (Kids, dog, whatever) Or is this just a matter of there has always been a gate there?
2. If you don't need it, rip it all out and don't worry about it. As you have found, wooden gates are a high-upkeep PITA.
3. If you do need it, and can't afford a pro to build a new one, check out pre-made gates at local fence companies and farm supply stores. Some of the metal ones are not ugly. And some of the metal ones can easily be skinned with wood as a low-skill DIY project, if the posts and hinges are strong enough, and you choose a light wood like cedar to make the skin out of. Somebody probably even has a gate with premade flanges to add wooden horizontal rails to screw fence pickets to. If not, fence store has all sorts of brackets that wrap around the metal tubes so you can add rails.

[Higgs Boson]

It's for privacy. I don't want people staring into my backyard. And it could be a teeny-weeny deterrent to a non-athletic burglar.

This puppy has been on the job for several decades, so I think it's pulled its weight, but it's ugly and hard to keep closed even after I changed latch, because sags.

I have been online to gate companies and have checked Home Despot and one other place. Prob. is that most gates I saw are wider than my narrow driveway. It may be that these places show only the fancier gates; I will be looking around some more.

But I think that finding someone to knock together such a simple gate shouldn't be too expensive (fingers crossed). I would like to use seasoned wood if not too much more expensive, since the present gate has gaps between boards as the wood dried and shrank. But even that is no biggie, as I could back it up with something when it starts to shrink. I am NOT building for the ages! Just something not so ugly and termited.

An earlier poster pointed out that I had not posted measurements:

Roughly: house wall to fence is 10.5 ' wide. gate is 64" high at its lowest point (top is gracefully curved) each panel is approx 46" wide.

In addition, there are "returns" on each side approx 2' wide.

Appreciate all the feedback.

HB

[dadiOH]

Hook a cable from inside lower corner to outside top corner, tighten cable with a turnbuckle. That will fix sag, not ugly :)