Installing reliable gates on your property is as important as building a good house, because the gates both protect your home and serve a decorative function, because the first thing people see when approaching your house is the gate. If you want to find the perfect combination of price and quality, choose wooden gates. They look beautiful and with proper care will last a very long time.
Which material to choose?
Wooden gates can be made from:
- pine trees;
- alders;
- ate;
- larches;
- birch;
- maple;
- oak
Each of these types of wood has its own advantages and characteristics. If possible, gates are recommended to be made from coniferous trees. They contain resin, which prevents wood from rotting and makes it durable. Natural resin is a good preventative against fungus, mold and insect pests.
Wooden gates and gates are often made from pine. This wood is very durable, but the main thing is that it has almost no branches. Pine is easy to process and you can make workpieces of the right size from it. The only thing is, if you want to make an antique wooden gate, you will have to abandon pine. This wood is more difficult to paint than others. The paint does not apply evenly to the surface, and the design of the wooden gate does not turn out the way it was originally intended.
Spruce has a uniform, beautiful color, so gates made from it can simply be opened with varnish. Forged wooden gates are often made from pine because the decorative metal elements look perfect against the background of this wood. You can also make a gate from pine: it will be strong and light at the same time. For a home, pine doors are an ideal solution, but it’s worth considering whether to make a country street gate out of them, because this wood has high porosity: during heavy rains, it quickly swells and begins to rot.
Gates made of larch will look good. This wood is very durable and strong. It has a less porous structure, so it rots less quickly. Beautiful wooden larch gates are usually varnished. This wood is beautiful enough to be painted with oil paint.
Deciduous wood is less popular among manufacturers. Alder, maple, and birch are easy to process; they hardly dry out, but have low moisture resistance. After a rainy autumn and snowy winter, the gates may become deformed and begin to rot. You can install wooden gates in an oak dacha. This wood contains special substances that prevent rotting and mold formation. It is durable and very beautiful. Oak has two disadvantages: it is expensive and difficult to process.
You need to decide not only on the type of wood, but also on the type of gate that will be installed in your dacha. The most common types of gates today are:
- sliding;
- swing;
- sectional.
The first two are a budget option. Sectional doors are more expensive and require experience and special tools to install.
Peculiarities
Wooden gates are a traditional option for Russia, and they can be made compatible with other types of fencing that are popular in this area. This way you can achieve the appearance of a fence that is similar to dozens of others. If you want to stand out and show your status, you can use tinting or wood carving.
To achieve harmony, it is enough to make a fence in the same style as the wooden house that stands on the site. Many masterpieces made of wood stand for centuries under snow, different temperatures and rain. If you do everything correctly, according to technology, the gate will last a very long time. It should be noted that for windy places, using solid sheets is not the best option.
The style design comes in different variations, for example, the lower part is solid, and the upper part is lattice or openwork. This way you can not only decorate the fence, but also reduce the wind load that constantly affects it. As a result, after severe storms there will be no need to raise a leaning fence.
Installing swing gates
The simplest and most affordable gates are swing gates. They are suitable for both a summer cottage and a country house. The width of such gates is about four meters, and the height is determined based on the height of the entire fence.
All components of the gate must be ordered from production. As a rule, they consist of a thick metal frame to which wooden boards are attached. Gate installation begins with digging in steel posts, which should be about half a meter higher than the main gates. When the pillars are dug in, the gate leaves are hung on the hinges.
If you want to save money, you can find information on how to make wooden gates yourself. If you make wooden gates with your own hands, do not forget that there should be a polyurethane canopy above them. Such a canopy will protect the ends of the gates from moisture, which means the gate will last longer, but install it taking into account that a truck with a high body can drive into the yard, so such a canopy for wooden swing gates should be at least 3.5 meters.
For swing gates, the leaves may be the same size, or there may be a leaf and a wicket. It will be very convenient to park the car in the yard and enter and exit using the gate. Wooden gates with a metal frame are suitable for installation at the entrance because they are strong and reliable. Wooden garage doors may not have this frame; an ordinary gate made of a picket fence, which is directed onto thick guide beams, will do.
How to make wooden gates with your own hands. Basic design.
For each sash we will need two blanks with the end cut at an angle.
We will also need a beam of the same size with straight tenons at both ends. We will make grooves in the above blanks later.
How to make a thorn
The connection using a straight tenon and groove significantly increases the rigidity and strength of the structure. It also allows you to increase the gluing area, which also has a positive effect on the strength of the product. This connection is not difficult to make, but you need to be careful. Mark the workpiece with a pencil and make cuts at a distance of 5-6 mm from each other.
Then remove the excess wood with a chisel.
Repeat this procedure on the other side and the tenon is ready.
How to cut a groove
Again, the main thing here is accuracy and precision, so start with the markings. Then drill out the groove.
If you do not have a machine, then the same work can be done using a feather drill and a regular drill.
Remove excess wood with a chisel and check that the groove is the same depth along its entire length. If necessary, adjust its depth with a chisel. We need three such grooves on each of the two workpieces.
Next, we pre-assemble our sash, but do not twist it or glue the joints yet.
The top crossbar for the sash will be the blank on which we made the tenons. The other two crossbars are ordinary boards inserted into grooves. But we also need to ensure the rigidity of the sash so that it does not warp under its own weight, so we will add a diagonal. But for it we need to make a cut on our workpiece with tenons. This is why we assembled the sash - to mark the workpiece.
Now the work on the blanks is completely completed, and we can finally assemble the sash.
All connections should be glued and fastened with self-tapping screws.
And the connections in the groove can be additionally tightened with bolts.
Drill through holes so that they go through the tenon. This will give the gate even more strength and extend its service life.
Repeat the entire process from the beginning for the second sash, and the hardest part of this project will be behind you!
We also sawed off the sharp ends of our vertical supports a bit - for purely aesthetic reasons.
Sliding gates to save space
To open swing gates, you need additional space. If you don't have one, you can install wooden sliding gates. Without special tools and experience, it is unlikely that you will be able to make such a wooden gate with your own hands. They are a metal frame into which a picket fence is inserted. This frame rides on metal rails installed along the fence. These gates can be opened with one movement of the hand, but not in all areas they can be installed: on the right or left, the fence must have a width equal to the width of the gate leaf.
If you don’t know how to make a gate of this type, it’s better not to start making it at all. Only a person with extensive experience can build brick pillars for such gates and install this entire complex mechanism. Wooden garage doors also cannot be of this type, because there will simply be nowhere for the door to go.
Sectional doors
These options are more expensive and can only be installed by professionals. Garage doors made of wood can be not only swing, but also sectional. They consist of thin panels that are connected by hinges. In one motion, the gate rises and assembles at the top, and it closes just as easily.
Wooden sectional doors are often installed in underground garages. They are very convenient: they are easy to move, hermetically seal the room, and when assembled they do not take up much space.
However, such gates also have disadvantages. They are much more expensive than swing and sliding ones. These gates are difficult to install, and if used incorrectly, the hinge mechanism can quickly fail. These gates should only be attached to a concrete wall - they cannot be installed in a room with plasterboard walls or in a garage made of thin metal.
Decorated or carved wood for cladding
Carved wooden gates can become a work of art
Gates lined with wood are not only good protection for a private area, but also a unique decorative element. The beautiful structure of natural wood allows you to use a variety of techniques for its decoration:
- pine door panels can be covered with stain, giving it the appearance of cherry, oak or other wood of your choice;
- technically aged surfaces will make the doors look like an ancient castle gate;
- if you are good at drawing, you can paint the gate yourself or carve an ornament on it;
- you can simply arm yourself with a jigsaw and start cutting boards, using all your imagination. The shape of the fence in the form of a wave or a beautifully broken line will become unique;
- One of the design options is to attach carved overlays of various shapes. For example, you can attach beautiful corners or curtains to the doors;
- Volumetric carving is also quite popular. From planks with a figured edge, you can assemble a three-dimensional design and attach it to the canvas. The result will be a unique bas-relief composition that will look different depending on the angle of view.
The house against the backdrop of such a gate will always look cozy and representative at the same time.
