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Appreciation post: That time a gate hinge bolt sheared off at the worst moment
I was putting up a cedar fence in North Haven last Thursday, about 60 feet of board-on-board for a new homeowner. Everything was going smooth until I tested the double gate swing and pop - the bottom hinge bolt just snapped clean. I stood there cussing for a solid minute cause I had no spare 3/8 carriage bolts in the truck. Ended up having to drive 20 miles to the nearest hardware store, cost me an hour of daylight. But here's the thing - that old dude at the counter told me to grab stainless steel bolts next time instead of the zinc-coated ones I always used. Said the zinc ones get brittle after a few seasons of freeze-thaw cycles. Stuck a pair of stainless ones in and they threaded in like butter. Anyone else had zinc hardware give out on them after a few years?
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fiona_hunt714mo ago
@avery_flores I gotta say, are we sure stainless is really that much better? I've had zinc bolts on my own gate for like 6 years now (not coastal though, just regular New England winters) and they still look fine. Popped one out to check last fall and it threaded back in no problem. Maybe it's a salt air thing and not a freeze-thaw thing? Not trying to knock that old dude at the counter but hardware store guys love pushing the more expensive stuff.
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miller.diana4mo ago
Used to think zinc was fine for everything. Swore by it on my old shed gate and it held up for years. But after reading this I'm rethinking all the hardware on my place near the coast, that salt air probably makes it worse.
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