Garden gate

[Chris_belgium]

So, i am planning on making a driveway gate, the wood i am going to use is some kind of hardwood wich will hold up good to the weather. I was thinking aphselia or oak or something like that.

The gate i'm going to make is a sliding gate, it will be rather large, about 5,5 mtrs long and 1,4 mtrs high. But since it is a sliding gate, it will note have the great forces on it as a two piece swing open gate would have on the hinges.

The gate i am planning to make will roll on a rail on 3 or 4 wheel, thus supporting the total length of the gate, greatly reducing stresses on the joints. The plan is very simple it will be a rectangular frame of wood (these main beams would be about 7cm x 10 cm or something like that) and then in the horizontal beams i will route slots in wich i will fit boards of about 15cm wide 4cm thick.

But i see one problem here that i do not know how to solve, on the bottom horizontal beam, the routed slots in wich the 4cm boards will rest, will fill up with water everytime it rains, and i think pooled up water in such a slot will make the wood rot fast, so how can I prevent this?


example of the type of gate i am looking to make.

http://www.collstrop.be/images/poorten_puerto_w600.jpg

 

[GEPPETTO]

Hi Chris,

what do you think is I say you should fill the gaps between the vertical boards with other wood? or I will drill the gaps to make a drain hole ? :roll: I'm not an expert.. Am I completely wrong :roll: ? If I would have at hand a lot of black locust I'll make it with it.

Cheers
Gabriele :wink:

 

[Gill]

Hi Chris

You could avoid the problem altogether by using mortise and tenon joints instead of routing a channel. However, if you stick to your plan you could always drill angled drainage channels between each upright.

That's going to be one very heavy gate! I hope whoever is going to use it visits the gym regularly.

Gill

 

[Nick W]

I think I'd not put them in a mortice, but make the bottom rail narrower (and maybe taller to maintain strength) and screw/nail the bottom of the boards to the front of the rail, making them hang slightly lower then the bottom of the rail itself.

 

[ike]

I second what Nick suggests. As an aside, how will the gate be supported vertically ?

Ike

 

[Chris_belgium]

@ gill, it's going to be a motorised gate, so no gym for me

@ all the rest, I think i'll go with the drainage holes at the bottom, but then there will still be a problem on the sides of the vertical boards in the slots, those areas will always stay damp long after it has rained. And since there will never be direct sunlight inside the routed slots on the bottom rail, it would take a long time drying thus my gate wood rot quickly.

Or am I just underestimating the quality of hardwood like oak or aphselia, maybe it can stand up to this kind of moisture without problems? How do the pro's take care of this problem?

@ nick, i have tought of what you are suggesting, but that has a kind of amateuristic look of construction wich i am trying to avoid.

@ gepetto, I don't understand what you mean by filling the gaps with other wood?

@ ike, the gate opening will be around 5m, but the gate itself will be 6mtr. At the motor side there will be some kind of construction, like an inverted U and the gate will slide in that opening, inside the construction there will be several wheels supporting the gate from the side over a length off approx 1m (therefore the gate will be 6mtr long for an 5mtr opening). On the other end there will be a stop post with wedges and a routed vertical channel a little wider than the thickness of the gate, so when the gate is fully closed the 'head' of the gate will be directed by the wedges into the routed channel and the gate secured inside the routed channel, thus supported on both sides, i hope this makes some sense

 

[Hitch]

it sounds like you have got your rolling gear sorted, heres a link anyway...
http://www.brindley-steel-forging.co.uk ... ms3066.htm

They work great, did a steel gate wit the bigger one, 6m long, and nearly a ton.

 

[engineer one]

chris what i think gepetto is talking about is putting blocks between the uprights which are shaped to allow rain to run off.

when one puts a deck or fence up, one tends to put a cap on top of posts, or shape them at an angle to allow the rain to drain off.

in your case i think you should think of angled filler blocks at the bottom, and a good outside filler which is flexible to allow it to move.

all motor cars have holes in the bottom of their doors to allow rain water to drain off, so that too may help with your gate. the big thing is to avoid areas where the water could stand in pools for a long time.
the movement of the gate will shake off some water, and as long as you
design some run offs that will cover the rest.

looks like an interesting project, but surely you are not going to find pieces of wood 6 metres long, so you must join in the middle perhaps??

paul :wink:

 

[lugo35]

nick has stated the right way of doing things
got to let the water run off and give it no chance of hanging. drain holes will eventualy block with dirt.

 

[RogerS]

You could make the bottom rail out of two pieces and sandwich the verticals between them. That way you automatically get the largets drainholes possible ..but you still will have your remaining issue re water between the vertical and the rail....but I think you will always have that problem unless the verticals just hang down unsupported at the bottom.

 

[Chris_belgium]

@ lugo i have indeed tought of the design nick suggested but as i stated before, this is a look of construction i am trying to avoid. I don't want any visible screws or other type of fasteners. And also i do not like the look of that design. I prefer the sturdy look of the rectangular main frame with the boards inbetween.

@ Roger, sandwiching seems to me overcomplicating the construction, I have looked around a bit in the town I lived, and have seen a couple of gates designed the way i want, so there must be a way to avoid this problem, but on the outside of the gates I couldn't see how they deal with the moisture issue (that is if they even deal with it at all, maybe they just routed a slot for the boards and leave it like that.)

@ everyone else, I think i am going to cut the slots in the bottom for the boards and then drill a couple of big holes (20mm or so to prevet the holes of getting filled up with dirt) in the bottom of each slot. That will take care of the water pooling up, I am also maybe gonna try to slope the bottom of the slots towards the holes helping the removal of water.

But I am still curious how the pro's would solve this problem?

 

[Chris_belgium]

it sounds like you have got your rolling gear sorted, heres a link anyway...
http://www.brindley-steel-forging.co.uk ... ms3066.htm

They work great, did a steel gate wit the bigger one, 6m long, and nearly a ton.

Thanks for the tip, but the hardware in that link is for a hanging gate, the gate i'm trying to make will be one that roll on top of a rail. But you were correct, I found a local supplier here for all the hardware.