Walk Gate Installation and Repair

The walk gate is the gate you use every day: to the backyard, the garden, the dock, the pool, the side yard where the trash cans live. It is also the gate most often built as an afterthought, nailed together from leftover pickets and hung on a line post, which is why so many of them drag within a year. We build walk gates as part of the fence from the start, braced to stay square, on their own gate posts, with hinges and a latch that will still work when the kids are in high school.

Walk gates by fence type

• Wood. Built to match the fence's pickets, height and rails, with a diagonal brace from the bottom hinge to the top latch corner, or a steel frame under the wood on a wide or heavy gate. See privacy fence and picket fence.
• Chain link. Welded or assembled from the same coated pipe and fabric as the fence, with fork latches or self-latching hardware for pools. See chain link fence.
• Ornamental and aluminum. Matched to the panel style, with adjustable hinges and gravity or magnetic latches. See ornamental gates.
• Farm and ranch. Small tube gates or wire-covered frame gates at the barn, the garden and the house yard, hung so they do not sag into the mud.

How we build it

The hinge post is set deeper than the line posts and in more concrete, because it carries the gate. The latch post is set to match so the gate closes square without forcing. The gate frame is built braced, with the diagonal running the right way; on wood gates wider than about four feet or taller than six, a welded steel frame goes under the wood. Hinges are sized for the gate and mounted with through-bolts or lag screws into solid wood, never into a picket. The latch goes at a comfortable height, lockable if wanted, and self-closing and self-latching on pool gates. Clearance at the bottom is set so the gate swings over the grass and the high spot of the ground, not into it.

Repairs

A dragging walk gate is one of the most common small repairs we do. The fix depends on what failed: a brace or a steel frame for a racked gate, a reset or new hinge post for one that has leaned, new hinges for ones that have worn, or a new gate built to match when the old one is past saving. We repair gates in fences we did not build. See fence and gate repair.

What affects the price of a walk gate

Material and width, mostly. A chain link walk gate is the economical one; a wood gate matched to a privacy fence costs more, and one built on a steel frame more again; an ornamental or aluminum gate is priced with its fence. Lockable or self-closing hardware adds a little. A new gate cut into an existing fence costs more than one built with the fence, because the posts have to be set separately. We price it on site, usually alongside the fence or repair it belongs to.

Frequently asked questions

How wide should a walk gate be?

Three to four feet. Four feet lets a wheelbarrow, a mower or a wheelchair through comfortably and is what we build unless the fence line does not allow it.

My wood gate drags on the ground. Can it be fixed?

Usually. A gate that drags has either racked because it had no diagonal brace, or its hinge post has leaned. We add a brace or a steel frame, reset or replace the post, and rehang it square. Sometimes a new gate is cheaper than straightening a badly built one, and we will say so.

Can a walk gate lock?

Yes. Lockable latches, hasps for a padlock, and keyed or keypad latches are all options. For a pool, we use self-closing hinges and a self-latching latch mounted high.