Side-gates

[jake]

As part of the endless renovation project, I get to do some woodwork hoorah.

Some side-gates between my semi (no sniggering at the back) and my next-door neighbours semi (no sniggering at the back). One of the last parts of big push to do our frontage (new roof, tick, repointing, tick, strip back and repair stonework, almost tick, new windows and door (thanks Jason) tick, decorating, almost tick).

So I have some wood for the battens - nice load of air dried oak from Scawton, lots of central-ish boards which are largely QS or near so, bought waney at about 600mm wide and after taking off the wane and the heart shake I have a bunch of planks which are between 190mm and 280mm in the sawn.

The ledges are ex-65mm, also largely QS, could get 240mm width out of them easily.

Plan is to treat with Sioo which is supposed to make it rapidly go an even grey, and nothing else (not quite leaving to its own devices, but no paint etc)

I appreciate this is not advanced joinery, but a bunch of questions from someone who has never built such a thing -

1. How wide can I sensibly go on the battens on an exterior gate? All the modern books say 4-5" but that must be aimed at shite softwood (as opposed to good softwood) not QS oak (but also acknowledging that oak is moderately not very stable). It seems a waste to go that low, and I am minded to do 4 battens with a 3-5mm gap. It is supposedly dried to 15-16%, is being stored outside.

2. This is an old-school castle gate with people with boiling oil to deter intruders. I don't want new-fangled 3 ledges with braces, can I get away with nice long 2' pintle hinges on top and bottom ledges, 4 ledges, no braces?

3. There seems to be disagreement about nailing patterns - obviously clench nailed, I have some very nice rose-head silicone bronze nails. Reading some places, the way to go is only nailing one side of the batten, reading others, it is two vertical nails at each outside edge, then triangular shapes across each batten from inside to middle to botton.

4. Ultra-trad seems to be lap jointed with a bead, I think I am going for beaded t&g to keep the battens flatter, but I suppose the advantage of lap jointing is that it is more open so less water trapping (but the frame around the gates will give these quite a lot of shelter).

5. Dunno, as far as I have got.

[jake]

Alright bollox I'll just do what I want. :p

[mtr1]

You've probably already finished them now! But I would have one diagonal brace in a line from the hinge side bottom up, and three ledges I think theres a pic on here or my blog if you can be arsed to look. I would lap and bead, water could sit there for longer than you want with t&g and possibly cause swelling then splitting. I could be wrong but at least I've answered...eventually.

[jake]

Hmm food for thought cheers Mark, no not even started yet on the gates themselves.

[jake]

Got there at last a few weeks ago










And a before and half-way through update mostly for Jason (cheers for the windows and front door and roof-prong!)

[mtr1]

Very nice like the details, the copper nails, the figured oak, hinges, lovely.

































Don't like the handles though

[promhandicam]

What a transformation on the front of the house - it looks fantastic. The gate looks good too!

[tusses]

?? I can't see the pickipcki ??

[jake]

Fecking Microsoft have crippled Onedrive apparently by changing it so it no longer allocates a static url to a document.

Will move them to imageshack or whatever I used to use.

[jfc]

Oooooooooo best house on the road pictures please .

[jake]

Should be back - Photobucket has been borked too over the last couple of days.

[tusses]

looking very very nice Jake !

[Jonathan]

Nice work, love the windows in black.

[jake]

oops duplicate

[jake]

Thanks for everyone's nice comments. Unlike usual, I can't take much personal credit for much of it apart from speccing and paying for it, and the gates. I did strip the paint off the stonework which was hideous (at the same time I was stripping some cornices inside, I never want to see Peelaway again in my life), and did a bit of work on the soffits and stuff like putting on waterproofer to protect stone and brickwork. Bits and pieces here and there.

All the big changes were by others. Roof by a roofer (with help from Jason who turned the prong on the bay cap off a photo of a neighbouring one which I had scaled up to life-size), pointing by a great pointer (Finelay Construction), and the stone repair works post-stripping by a succession of variable people, ended with two good ones! Oh and joinery by Jason. Even the finish painting on the joinery was done by a friend of the family who is in the that line.

I can't even take credit for the paint colour as that was my other half's suggestion (although I loved it as soon as I saw it, proper victorian gothic colour which is actually a dark blue-green so a bit softer than black).

Here's Jason's fine door (with glass from a great ebay seller oop north) and some ebay brassware.



New steps, path, railings, and the rest of the front garden/drive to do this year coming (alongside our living rooms which are in progress)... There's always more somehow.

[promhandicam]

Jason certainly does make very good doors

[jfc]

Sometimes i even make them the right size
Great job on the gates Jake and you did manage to blow up a machine during the work so that adds brownie points