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Fixing a side gate..

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Ron6519 
#1 ·
Hello all, I'm pretty new around here, and I just bought my first home, a 1780 sq ft 2 story home built in 1988 in So. Cal's I.E. I've already done a few projects around the house, but have come up on my first problem, that has me a little stumped, my side gate has really started sagging the last few days, and after closer inspection of it, I noticed that whoever owned this house before me did a pretty poor job of making it work. It looks like they kinda rigged it up so it would work until the place sold. It had been sagging a bit since we moved in in the begining of August, but this morning when I took the trash out it sagged all the way to the concrete sidewalk. So in an attempt to fix it I predrilled a hole through one of the 4x4 posts and ran a 8 inch lag bolt through it into the 2x4 stringer of the fence, this pulled it up a little bit but not really to my satisfaction. I'm sure I need to remove the post's and repour them in concrete to get a good start on fixing this right, but my question is what to do about the concrete around the bottom? The concrete as you can see in the picture is poured right up to the post and I really don't want to have to cut a 1'x1' hole in the concrete to pour this, but I'm afraid that may be necessary. Any tips on doing it without cutting? Can I just pour around it? Or does anyone have any other suggestions on a way of fixing this problem? Thanks for your help!

In the pictures,
this one shows the drywall screws the previous owner used to make it work for awhile.


This one just shows the overall poor state of the gate.


And finally this one shows the bottom how the concrete is poured and how they tried to wedge up the post's, there is a little over an inch worth of wedges in there.
 
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#2 ·
That wood angle brace should really be going from the other corner down to the lower left. I would just replace that whole mess with something that would stand up and look better. Depending on your budget, will decide what type of fencing and stock you want to use. It does appear that the screws they used are just drywall screws, plus the hinges are way undersized, same for the barrel lock.
 
#3 ·
Yeah, my goal is to replace the whole thing, the neighbor is a renter, which is a bummer because the whole fence is in need of replacement but he's not going to help replace it and I can't afford to do that on my own. But as for the gate I can manage that, again, my question is about the footer for the post. Am I going to need to cut the concrete to pour a proper footer? Or is there a work around that I'm not thinking of? Another thought I had had was to reverse(and rebuild or replace) the gate so that the hing side is on the house side, so the weight won't be on the post it will be on my wall and will hopefully alleviate any sag? Thoughts?
 
#4 ·
Remove the post holding the gate and check it's condition.
replace if necessary.
Set new post in concrete and let set for a week.
Reset gate but don't use drywall screws.
 
#6 ·
What's the question on pouring the concrete.
Oh, I see - take the whole, old post out of there and pour new concrete.
(Dig it out, if you have to)
Don't pour around it.
It'll be more "crete" - however: more stable.

rossfingal

(If you're hanging gates off of it - new pour)
Fences aren't decks/foundations.
 
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