Hanging gates - what sort of gap should i leave in the centre?

But the rest of the question is of the nature of "how long is a piece of string?". We aren't told how the gates are going to hang and need to know what sort of pillars and hinges you intend using.

You are usually governed by the dimensions of the locking mechanism. But if they are just bolts going into the drive/path there is nothing to govern you setting them at whatever distance you wish.

The only other criterion to watch out for is the slope of the path to and from them. They have to open downhill.

Weatherlawyer formulated on Friday :

Not necessarily!

If the hinge pin locations are offset from the gate post, it is perfectly possible to have the gates open to the up hill side. Funnily enough, I had to show a professional gate maker how to actually achieve the offset - he had never seen it done before.

Fabricate some hinges like this and you can adjust the gap and skew at will.

=============================== You could weld a masking strip (about 3mm x 50mm) the full height of one gate to act as a stop for the other gate. This will mean that the gap will be covered and thus less critical and the gates will always line up correctly.

Cic.

I am having some difficulty getting a mental image of this myself. Would you be kind enough to explain?

Guessing...

If the top gate hinge was in front of the bottom one the gate would open inwards and upwards.

i am using what i assume are farm gate hinges from my local agricultural supplier. Pin will be welded to my post and the 'loop' section of the hinge is on a piece of threaded bar and i am going to drill my gates and use 2 nuts to attach it to the upright end - thus i will have some adjustment on the hinge.

I had not considered giving it an offset to make it open sloping - but in this case i do not really need to. The ground is fairly flat on both sides and i am lifting the gate above ground level (by 6 inches or so at one end since it slopes) to give extra ground clearance.

I imagine he means he means leaning the gate backwards or forward so it follows the contour of the ground beneath it when opened. You see it quite often.

ive not worked out a definate locking plan. i am thinking i will just drill a hole somewhere and mount a sliding bar in it with some stops and a hole for a lock. I also have some downwards bolts to lock it into the floor and will put a small rest in the centre of the drive to support it and lock the bolts into.

I'm not quite clear what you mean here. I was going to have them totally level so that i can open them either way (as i wish to get a car through at an angle on occasion to get at one side of my garden). There is a slight slope on the ground but my posts are straight!

Mine are slightly adjustable as described in an earlier post.

I was considering a masking strip but it will limit the ways i can open and close the gates so was considering avoiding it (until i have got them up and tried using them anyway!)

I can always add one later if required to make them look right. i bought some suitable angle with the rest of my metal.

My posts are 80mm square steel box section which is 6'6" above ground, and close to 3 foot below set in concrete in a hole that was about 2 foot square . Im going to fill the posts up with concrete tommorrow too.

I hope that they will not move! :)

offset one hinge on the post and put a spacer type affair like in grahams picture in there and it should open on an angle to cope with a slope and you can also get it to open right round the gate post and sit flush it you tried.

There are two methods, assuming you want the end of the gate to rise as it opens.

1. Post vertical, gate vertical when closed. You have the lower hinge pivot point further away from the post than the top hinge. The offset in the hinges will mean that the gate will not be vertical when open.
2. Hinges both in line, but with gate at an angle when closed - top further out to main road than the bottom one. As it opens it rises and will also become vertical at 90 deg fully open.

1. Would be some method using a rising hinge, as used on some interior doors, but I have never seen one for a drive gate.

Harry Bloomfield explained :

I used method 1, but have yet to get around to installing a method of stopping the gates being swung out into the road rather than in. I cannot fit an L shaped plate as a stop, because that would seriously reduce clearance for cars as the drop down to the road. A bolt down into the drive is all I have at the moment.

One problem we used to suffer was delivery people coming through the drive gates and straining the hinges opening them out - rather than using the smaller garden gate directly alongside (no idea why they choose this route). Left swinging out in the road, they are a danger to passers by and traffic.

I fitted a padlock to the drive gates which put a stop to it, but taking that on and off took time. I then hit upon using a simple spring link 'D' - something similar to the quick release metal 'D' shaped things used by climbers for their ropes (name?). Delivery people can't work out how to take the link out, so they use the garden gate -problem solved.

Many thanks for the clarification from everyone.

I have yet to build the piers for my gates but you have given me some ideas as to how they could open up the slight slope of my driveway.

PJ

You could attach a chain from the gate to a peg at the edge of the inside drive, preventing the gate from swinging outwards but not obstructing it swinging inwards.

Owain