Before & After: DIY Decorative Gate & Fence
- Sarah
- Oct 3, 2021
- 3 min read
Now that we have our beautiful retaining wall and garbage blind it was time to install a little fence and gate on the side of our house. But what should it look like? 🤔
BEFORE
We had a temporary fence up with some stakes and wire. This was not a great solution with a dog. It also wasn't practical for getting in and out of the backyard.
We wanted our fence and gate to look good as we are continuing to work on our curb appeal. We also wanted it to have the option of a large opening just in case we ever need to get a truck or bobcat into the back yard.
AFTER
We decided to build a custom fence and gate that matches our garbage blind. The thought was to keep the rhythm going with the design.
Can not wait to tackle the back yard next year. 🤞 Would love some shrubs to hide the back of our neighbors garage, but I digress.
Didn't Chris do a fabulous job? We're really happy with the result. The gate really does feel like a cheery destination and as an added bonus, our little Chihuahua Bella cannot get through!
THE FULL STORY
Chris's take: I really liked the clean, modern look that we achieved in the garbage blind at the top of the retaining wall, so I wanted to extend that look to the fence line.
I wanted to keep it thin. I could have used 4x4 as fence posts, but that was bulkier than I wanted. And I was afraid that a wooden post smaller than that would eventually break off. And on top of both of those options, I have had to deal with rotting wood posts embedded in concrete and I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone. So I decided to try something new (at least for me) and used metal U-posts, the kind typically used for street signs. The results are mixed; they were easy to work with and there is no risk of rot or really of the posts breaking, but the metal posts do flex which causes the entire fence to wobble a few inches whenever the gate closes.
Here you can see how I integrated (and hid) the green metal posts. I used lag screws to attach the outer vertical board to the U-post, then screwed the horizontal boards to the outer boards between the posts, and then finally screwed the inner vertical board through the post which left only those last screws exposed.
I did pour concrete to hold those U-posts, but because I didn't have to worry about rot, I was able to cover the concrete with dirt.
Now, another design constraint was that we wanted to be able to open the gate to up to 6+ feet wide, in case we ever needed to bring equipment into the backyard. We didn't want to deal with a giant gate door, so I decided on a split door. Here you can see the gate in all it's wide-open glory.
This required that each door be able to support it's own weight when only connected to one post. The result is the X supports shown on this picture.
The left side in the above picture is the side that would normally remain stationary, so I put a drop rod to keep it closed. And since that side of the fence did not have an additional section to support it, I buried a brick under that drop rod and provided a support for that drop rod to rest on to provide support for that end of that gate section.
Finally, the gate latch is a simple mechanism, providing a lever from the outside. I did use tensioned gate hinges that allows the gates to self-close.
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