UKC

I'm about to make a pair of gates to replace some wooden fencing which is blocking off a passage at the side if the house.

The fencing is supported by two uprights which I intend to leave in situ as gate posts. The problem is that one of them is not precisely vertical. This results in the distance between the two being 55.5 inches at the top and 56 inches at the bottom. I don't want to start messing around with the uprights because they are fairly firmly fixed.

I'm thinking about recessing the top hinge that will be attached to the "out of perpendicular" post by about half an inch so that the gates will hang square.

Any carpenters out there care to comment please?

In reply to mypyrex:

I'd pack the bottom hinge mounting out with a piece of timber rather than recessing one. That or use an adjustable threaded hinge arrangement so you can correct any sagging over time. To finish I'd add a little trim piece painted/stained to match the post to disguise the non-parallel gap which would make me crazy.

If the posts are tall enough you could add a cross bar to square it all up and prevent the weight of the gates pulling the posts out of true over time.

jk (not a carpenter)

In reply to mypyrex:

Any reason you can't use the perpendicular post for hinges and just have a rhombus shaped door?

In reply to balmybaldwin:


Double gates!

In reply to mypyrex:
I think I'd put adjustable hinges on the top and bottom of both gates, and fiddle about with them both so it looks right by eye. If there's a half an inch difference between the top and bottom on something as long as fence posts, you could probably have both gates out of true just a little bit and not notice it particularly, compared to one gate straight and one out of true?

When fitting gates as entrances to fields and paths and things outdoors, things have never seemed to look right when everything was square, due to the ground being uneven too I think, it's always somehow looked nicer to the eye when everything was 'equally off'.