How to hang a side gate

Video by Wickes. This walk-through is based on the Wickes video "How to fit a garden gate", which covers hinge placement, clearances, and latch fitting in a clear step-by-step format. Worth watching in full before you pick up your drill — the section on shimming the gate to the correct height off the ground is particularly useful.

1. Check the opening and choose the right gate size

Measure the opening width between your posts or piers at the top, middle, and bottom — they are often not all the same, especially on older brickwork. Take the smallest measurement and buy a gate a little narrower, allowing roughly 10 mm clearance on the latch side and a similar gap at the hinge side once the hinges are fitted.

For a standard timber side gate, pressure-treated softwood is fine. If the gate will be in a particularly exposed spot or gets battered by wind off the fields — which is not unusual around Sandwich — hardwood or a well-braced frame will last considerably longer. Check the diagonal brace runs from the bottom hinge corner up to the top latch corner; that is the direction that stops the gate dropping over time.

2. Mark out and fit the hinges on the gate first

Lay the gate flat and mark hinge positions at roughly 150 mm from the top and 200 mm from the bottom. These positions suit most standard side gates up to about 1.8 m tall. Taller gates or heavier hardwood gates benefit from a third hinge in the middle — it makes a real difference to how the gate hangs after a year or two.

Use heavy-duty tee hinges or reversible hinges with a minimum 300 mm strap for a gate this size. Drill pilot holes before screwing to avoid splitting the timber, and use stainless or galvanised fixings throughout — standard zinc-plated screws will be rusting within a season in the British weather.

3. Set the gate at the right height in the opening

You need a gap beneath the gate — typically 50 mm above a hard surface, or up to 75 mm above gravel or an uneven path. Cut timber offcuts to the right thickness and use them as packers to hold the gate at exactly the right height while you work. Do not skip this step. Getting that ground clearance wrong is one of the most common causes of gates that drag and stick after six months.

With the gate propped at the correct height, push it up against the hinge post and check it is plumb with a spirit level on the face. Adjust the packers until both the height and the vertical are right before marking anything.

4. Mark and drill the hinge fixings into the post

Hold the gate in its final position — this is much easier with a second pair of hands — and mark through the hinge fixing holes onto the post with a pencil or bradawl. Take the gate away, drill pilot holes, and fix the hinges to the post with the appropriate fixings for the material. For a timber post, coarse-thread screws work well. For a brick or stone pier, you need wall plugs and bolts.

If you are fixing into a brick pier, use a masonry bit and check you are hitting brick rather than mortar joints. A fixing into mortar alone will not hold the gate weight for long, particularly once the gate starts swinging in a breeze. That said, solid brick is perfectly adequate if you plug and bolt it properly.

5. Hang the gate and check the swing

Refit the gate onto the hinges and let it swing freely. It should open and close without binding or dragging. If it drops slightly on the latch side as it opens, the hinges need adjusting or the top hinge needs packing out fractionally to tilt the gate back to vertical. Small adjustments at this stage are easy; ignoring them means the gate will wear the hinges unevenly and start sagging within a year.

Check the gap on the latch side is consistent from top to bottom. A consistent gap of around 10 mm is what you want. If the gap is wider at the bottom than the top, the post may be leaning — worth sorting out before fitting the latch, otherwise the latch will never sit right.

6. Fit the latch and make final adjustments

Position the latch at a comfortable working height, usually around 1 m to 1.2 m from the ground. Fit the latch keep to the receiving post and check the gate pulls shut and latches without you having to lift or push the gate to engage it. If you have to lift to latch, the gate is dropping — tighten the hinge screws or add a third hinge.

Once everything is working smoothly, apply a coat of exterior wood preservative or paint to any cut ends you have made during the job. End grain is where moisture gets in and rot starts. Mind you, even well-treated gates in East Kent tend to need a fresh coat every couple of years, so it is worth using a decent preservative from the start rather than the cheapest tin on the shelf.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the existing gate post is leaning or rotten and needs replacing before a new gate can go on, if the opening is in brickwork and you are not confident drilling into piers, or if the gate keeps dropping no matter what you try and you suspect the post is moving. Single-handed gate hanging is also genuinely awkward — having someone hold the gate plumb while you mark and drill makes the whole job quicker and more accurate. Get in touch and Richard can come and sort it in a morning.