Building A Wooden Fence Gate

Plan your gate size to use full pickets.

Building a wooden fence gate.

Build a wooden fence and gate. The key is understanding a few basics about gate building and you can build any design gate you want. Some towns might require this plan for an approved building permit. If you ve got a 3x5 opening in the fence build a 3x4 box out of a weather resistant wood.

Keep out those pesky neighborhood kids. The home mender dustin luby shows us how to build and install a new gate for a privacy fence. More by the author. My name is sam and i m a community manager here at instructables.

I ve been meaning to rebuild one of my wooden fence gates that is over 12 years old. The frame for a basic wooden fence gate should be a simple box with 4 sides usually somewhat smaller than the gate opening. I got an old sewing machine when i was just a kid and i ve been hooked on making stuff ever since. Use graph paper to draw a plan for your fence.

Screw one side of the hinges to the fence post and align the gate between the adjoining gate posts and screw in the other side of the hinges to the gate. Nice looking gate i d second karel s suggestion regarding the addition of cross supports even with the corner bracing when the wood gets wet it will get heavy and eventually sag i used to build wood fences and we d actually build the gate in place with 3 2x3 s cut slightly smaller about 3 8 than the opening held in place temporarily with. It should be attached so that the bottom is about an inch off the ground to avoid attracting moisture. The box should be about an inch less wide than the rough opening to account for hinges and the thickness of gate as it swings.

See how i built a 12 foot wooden gate that won t sag. Gate pickets should be flush with the inside faces of the posts. Plan gate post locations. Design and hardware are what make a wooden gate operate well for decades.

Attach the gate to the fence posts.