A garden gate drops for one of four reasons: the hinge screws have pulled out, the post it hangs on has moved, the gate itself has shrunk, or it has no diagonal brace, or one fitted the wrong way round. Most of the time it is the first one, and you can fix it yourself in an afternoon with a screwdriver and a few longer screws.
The trick is working out which of the four you have before you start, because the fixes are different. Here is how we go about it on gates across Warwickshire, and where the line sits between a gate job and a post job.
Why has my gate dropped?
The latch side has dropped because something on the hinge side has given way.
- Hinge screws pulling out. A gate is a heavy weight hung off a handful of screws, and the top hinge takes nearly all of it. Short screws, screws into damp softwood, or screws into the old holes of a previous hinge all work loose over a few years of slamming. This is the commonest cause by a distance.
- The post has moved. A timber post rots at ground level and starts to lean. A concrete post can lean too if the ground was never compacted around it. Either way the hinge side tilts and the latch side follows it down.
- Timber shrinkage. A new softwood gate hung in a wet spring can lose several millimetres across its width by August as it dries. Joints open, the frame goes out of square, and the far corner drops.
- No brace, or a brace fitted the wrong way. A diagonal brace should run from the bottom of the hinge side up to the top of the latch side. Fitted that way it is in compression and holds the far corner up. Fitted the other way it sags as if the brace were not there.
How do I tell which one it is?
Look at the hinges first, then the post, then the gate.
- Open the gate halfway, hold the latch edge and lift it. If the hinge plates rock, the fixings are loose. If the hinge is solid but the gate still moves, the gate’s joints are loose.
- Hold a spirit level against the post. If the post is out of plumb and the gate is square to it, the post is the problem. Push the post: if it moves at ground level, the base has gone.
- Look at the diagonal brace, if there is one. Bottom hinge to top latch is right. The other way is wrong.
- Measure the gate corner to corner both ways. If the diagonals differ by more than a few millimetres, the gate has racked out of square.
How do I fix hinge screws that have pulled out?
Replace them with longer, thicker ones into fresh timber. Prop the gate and remove the hinge. If the old holes are chewed, plug them with glued hardwood dowel, let it set, then drill fresh pilot holes. Use screws at least 50 millimetres long, or coach screws on a heavy gate. On a timber post, coach bolts right through the post with a washer behind are better still and do not pull out.
If the hinge itself is bent, replace it, and go one size up from what was fitted.
How do I fix a gate that has racked out of square?
Pull the frame square, then fit a brace, or turn the wrong one round. With the gate off and on a flat surface, push the dropped corner up until the diagonals match, then screw a brace in from the bottom hinge corner to the top latch corner. If the joints are loose, glue and screw each one while it is square.
A steel anti-sag kit, a wire with a turnbuckle across the same diagonal, does the same job on a gate too thin for a timber brace.
Can I just adjust the hinges?
Sometimes. On hook-and-band hinges you can pack the top hook out with a washer, or fit adjustable hooks, to lift the latch side a fraction. It is a shim, not a repair: if the screws are loose underneath it will drop again.
When is it a post job, not a gate job?
When the post moves at the base, the gate is not the problem and no amount of hinge work will hold. A timber post that is soft at ground level, or a concrete post that rocks in its hole, needs digging out and re-setting or replacing.
This is where most people stop doing it themselves. Digging out a concreted post is heavy work, the hole needs to be around 600 millimetres deep, and the new post has to be held plumb while the post mix sets. A repair spur, a short concrete or steel post concreted in beside the rotten one and bolted to it, is cheaper where the post is sound above ground.
Signs it is the post, not the gate: the gate hangs square to the post but the post leans, the post moves when pushed, the timber at ground level is soft under a screwdriver, or the gate has been rehung before and dropped again within a year.
What we do
We come and look before we quote, and the visit and written quote are free with no obligation. On a dropped gate that means a few minutes with a spirit level and a screwdriver, after which we can tell you whether it is a rehang, a new gate on the old posts, or a post job. We price it as a fixed job from the visit rather than turning up on our service rate, because a gate that needs a new post is a different afternoon from one that needs four screws. If it is four screws, we will say so, and you may decide to do it yourself. Old gates and posts stay with you unless the quote includes taking them away as a priced line.
We cover Warwickshire and the counties either side from our base in Nuneaton. If you are further out, ask anyway. Book a visit at mendwell.co.uk/book or call 07472 281 663, and there are more plain guides at mendwell.co.uk/guides.