sagging wooden fence?

Question

I just put up a new Ceder woodfen fence that Katrina blew down. The fence looks great. The problem Im having is the double gat doent always align. Its starting to Sag. Is there anything I can do to make this gate straight?? Thanks!

Answer 1

remove the hinges from the gate and drive a dowel into the hole where the screws were with a hammer. If you have to you can drill out the screw hole then drive in the dowel. re-align the gate and put the hinge screws back in in the new location where the dowels are

Answer 2

If it is only the gate that is not closing you can try this. I will assume that the fence extends to either side of the gates with at least 2 more posts. You have to first see if the post for the gate are tilting in because of the weight of the gate. If this is NOT the case then the gate contruction is your problem not the fence. If the posts are tilting then you can replace post as in answer 1 above with deaper holes and concrete (at least 3 ft deep). Or if you want to cheat here's how the farms do it. At the top of the post that is tilting, screw in an eye hook on the flat side facing away from the gate about 3" down from top of post. Take braided wire cable 1/8" (hardware store) secure through hook. Ask your hardware store guy for the clamps to secure cable much like an old fashion clothes line. Then run cable to the BOTTOM of the next post, it will running diagonally down from the top of the tilting post to the bottom of the next post. Secure to another eye hook you installed 6" up from bottom of that post. The hardware store guy can give you what is called a turn buckle to allow you to tighten (ie shorten) the wire. This will cause the tilting post top to be pulled back from the gate therefore lifting the gate. This will only work if the fence has some slack in it's construction. Test this theory by grabbing the post top and pulling it back. If the gate stabilizes you know it will work.
If you find your posts secure the gate is the problem. You can cross brace the gate the same way as above with wire but it may be cheaper to build a new gate properly. Search "gate design" on the net and you will see the cross bracing needed. hope that helps.

Answer 3

Our dog hits our fence running after squirrels and it 's sagging too.We got more boards and put them in behind the fence no more sag and the fense is reinforced.