Looking for some thoughts on an 8 foot wide front garden gate

Carlow52

The gate is required to keep the grandchild in the front garden during play time so the life of the gate I would say will need to be 3 or 4 years only.

Ope is 8 foot wide and drive just longer than a car so car will need to be put out on road when gate is closed across.
gate will be along the party garden wall when open.

It will be hinged on the inside face of the brick pier

It wont open out.

I will post a pic later to show why 2 gates wont work

As I don't want it climbable, my initial thoughts were a 4" by 2" red deal frame faced with 1/4 or 3/8 wbp ply both sides.
The top rail would be rebated to take the ply flush and the bottom rail reduced in thickness to let ply down to bottom of rail.

Decent 4" nylon wheel will take the front weight.

All observations welcomed, including size of frame
Thanks

One shot on kill

why dont you buy some planks of teak to make the frame with two square panels in it then rebate the frame and use exterior grade mdf v groove it with the router and also cut the panel tight fitto the frame and use the v groove to blend two together and paint it then

that would look very well

and also why just build a gate build it to last

Carlow52

Thanks for input: what size section would u make the teak frame from?

The gate wont be used once the kids are big enough to climb over it or the party garden wall due to size of drive way

Double Barrel

Carlow,

A Lightweight cattle gate as a base (16,17 18 ?? gauge galvanised pipe) Sheath with 1x redwood or red cedar and galvanised hardware.

One shot on kill

you woud get away with 50 x 80-100 but might look a bit light use 18 mm exterior and i would put an x on the back for strenght but your mdf will ( should ) keep it square but x it to be sure

jack of all

I've only ever used exterior grade MDF once (for a shopfront fascia/ signboard) and while it worked well in my application (I was meticulous and pre-primed all cut edges, screw and pellet fixings and everything caulked and painted thoroughly) I don't think I'd like to use it for a gate. I'd prefer a marine ply (pricey) or at the very least a top quality WBP ply (not a cheap Chinese product). A galvanised steel strap (40 or 50x 3mm or similar) would be a help to counteract sagging.

One shot on kill

jack of all wrote: »

I've only ever used exterior grade MDF once (for a shopfront fascia/ signboard) and while it worked well in my application (I was meticulous and pre-primed all cut edges, screw and pellet fixings and everything caulked and painted thoroughly) I don't think I'd like to use it for a gate. I'd prefer a marine ply (pricey) or at the very least a top quality WBP ply (not a cheap Chinese product). A galvanised steel strap (40 or 50x 3mm or similar) would be a help to counteract sagging.

in any xterior joinery no matter what it is id say you would have to be meticuluos with priming as this is the protection no matter what you use