Custom-fit timber gate in Marchwiel

The job

What we did in Marchwiel

The gate here was a low picket set between the house wall and an outbuilding. It had gone grey and soft, several boards had split away from the rails, and at waist height it was doing nothing for privacy or for keeping the yard behind it secure.

Openings between two old brick walls are rarely square, and this one was no exception. An off-the-shelf gate would have needed packing on one side and would have shown a tapering gap down the edge. The replacement was measured and built to fit the opening as it actually is.

It was built as a vertical board gate on a ledged and braced frame. The brace is the part people leave off, and it is the reason a tall gate either stays square or starts catching on the floor within a season. Ironmongery is a ring latch with a drop bolt into the ground, so it holds steady when it is left open.