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That one time a simple gate latch took me three hours to figure out
I was putting up a cedar fence for a client in Springfield last month, a pretty standard six-foot privacy job. The whole thing went smooth until I got to the double gate at the end of the driveway. I installed a heavy-duty latch, the kind with the vertical rod that drops into the ground. Got it all mounted, closed the gate... and it was a full inch and a half off. The rod wouldn't line up with the hole in the concrete. I checked my post levels, my hinge alignment, everything. I must have taken that latch off and put it back on five times, shimming and adjusting. The problem was the ground had a slight slope I didn't account for, so when the gate swung shut, it settled differently than when it was propped open. I finally fixed it by putting a small wedge under the latch side of the gate frame before I drilled the final holes. Has anyone else had a gate fight them over something that seemed so simple?
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quinn60615d ago
Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, three hours for a latch sounds like a lot. Sometimes you just need to step back for a minute instead of forcing it. Abby_martinez had the right idea with checking the simple stuff first, like loose screws. A lot of these problems come from overthinking it. A small slope shouldn't cause that much trouble if you measure with the gate closed from the start.
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abby_martinez15d ago
My neighbor's gate latch was off by two inches last summer. I spent an hour just staring at it before I realized the hinge screws were loose. That slope thing is sneaky.
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