How to add a gate with existing fence posts?

[inchpincher]

I need to add a side gate in between two existing concrete fence posts (with a gravel board). I've failed to find a 6ft panel with integrated gate that I can just slide in so I'm considering options and ideas please.

I can buy a single 3ft gate, baton to the concrete post to attach the hinges and then cut down the existing panel to size but this approach I feel would need a top brace across the whole width for strength. Or use two opposed gates but then there's the problem of fit because of the batons each side...

How would you knowledgeable lot go about this?

Cheers

 

[wristpin]

Add an intermediate post to narrow the gap for an available gate?

 

[marlinspike]

Could you put another concrete post in? Then have a 3ft gate from somewhere like Wickes, and cut down a 6ft wide panel to fit the gap between the old post and new post. Might look a bit odd with a tall, narrow fence panel but would save making a bespoke gate or panel.

Alternatively, a giant catflap would serve the same purpose. Unless you need to put the bins out, obviously.

Edit: drat, Wristpin beat me to it.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Could you put another concrete post in? Then have a 3ft gate from somewhere like Wickes, and cut down a 6ft wide panel to fit the gap between the old post and new post.

This is how I'd do it.

 

[Jan]

Depending on the style, a modern mild steel double bed base might just fit the bill/space. I modified one to make a pair of driveway gates at the bottom of my back garden and cut down one half of another to make a single 3' (approx.) gate at the side of the house. Each gate does exactly what it needs to do and cost almost nowt. As a tyke that's my kind of price!

 

[inchpincher]

Thanks guys. I'm trying to avoid the extra post route, mainly to keep the time and cost down but also because it would require alteration to the gravel board and brick patio on the inside. I think I might fashion a timber frame which the door fits inside and then secures to the post.
It also needs to look a bit in keeping as it's overlooked by our neighbour who was kind enough to let us put side access in across her land in the first place (on the previso we remove it when we sell).

 

[rich r]

Could you put a 4" wooden fence post in? If the ground's solid, bolt a metal fence post holder down or if it's not, use a hammer in type. Cut down a fence panel to fill the gap between one concrete post and the wooden one, and use the other half to make a gate (add horizontals and cross bracing). Then it'll still look substantially like the other fence panels and you can easily remove it when you need to and slot a full fence panel back in.

 

[normspanners]

personally I would put the gate in the middle say 3ft wide then you only have 18" of fence on either side, make up a 50-60mm steel box U frame with the two middle posts double cross braced on "your side" to get the strength for the hinges also the bottom box bar, would have bottom cut out to form a U to lip over the gravel board. screw the vertical planks to the frame with tec screws for further strength.
That way you are not drilling into the posts it just slides down and is easily replaced with a fence panel. Then if the gate slams it doesnt crack the concrete posts

 

[inchpincher]

So here is the panel in question. You can see the gravel board and patio will be a bugger to heave out and mess with compared to a bit of joinery bodgery.

Please don't burn me as a hieratic but I sold my mig/tig/lathe when I moved in with the girlfriend

But I'll get a Harrison and a portamig when we sell this place

 

[normspanners]

looks like you cant lift the panel out because of the eaves

 

[normspanners]

How about running 3off 9' x 2x3 or could use scant (on there side) horizontal rails though to the other panel to the right, where the fence panel rails are now, you would have to notch out a little for the concrete post, screw through the panel rails from the other side on both pieces and into the 2x3 that would gain strength, and pull the panels tight to the post (if the notch was the correct size). Cut the left panel vertically at the end of the new rails, to make a gate out of, another 5ft 2x4 vert screwed to the end of the rails to form your hinge frame, the gate would then be held by the solid right hand panel, strengthen the cut off piece of fence with 2x2 as agate then tee hinges and a catch on the left post. In my experience the last thing you want to do is drill the concrete posts and expect any strength from them they tend to crumble if old. Then you have a job on ya hands. It would then be easy to replace by just rescrewing the gate back on the original piece by cutting 3ft of the new rails and moving the rails onto the original panel

 

[inchpincher]

looks like you cant lift the panel out because of the eaves

You were right! There's no way the fence came before the house so god knows how they got it in. I sawed it in half in the end and went the timber frame route, probably won't last the next decade but if I took my muddy bike through the house one more time I'd be living some else verrrry soon.

 

[Jan]

I've made gates in fencing in a similar fashion in the past. Screw hinges on one edge of a panel and then to the post, followed by sawing through the panel and fixing nails/screws to create a loose section with a bolt to keep it shut when not in use.

 

[Pete.]

You're gonna have to live there forever or break your promise to the neighbour