Drive through gate with a walk through door ?

[someguy11]

I want to put a drive through gate on my back fence, between a tree and my garage. The trouble is that I want to keep the walk through door that is right where I want to put the gate. I want it pretty much as wide as I can make it, for ease of backing in a vehicle or a trailer.

Any ideas on how to best do this ?

Pictures attached below. Please excuse the mess in my yard !

 

[nmk_61802]

I do this to every fence that I have built for myself. Make the gates different sizes, one active, and one stationary (think french doors). First time that I did it I sunk a chuck of concrete under the inactive panel and used it to pin the bottom of that panel. I found that after awhile of use, the action of the walk thru gate closing eventually warped the other panel. Next time I sunk a 4x4x1/8 s.s. sleeve 3' in the ground. This sleeve gets a post set in it and pinned in place thru the sleeve (3" above grade). Both gates latch at this post. When I want to pull a vehicle thru, I pull the pin and post and drive right over the sleeve.

 

[bobbycos]

a yard

he has a yard !!!

 

[Elginz]

I am sorry but with that mess I could not even stand to look at the pics.

 

[TX63CONV]

Problem is you have a tree right in the middle of what I imagine would be your drive through gate. Do you want an automatic sliding gate or a manual double door type?

I would think that you switch the man gate to the far side where the wheel barrow is and use your existing opening and widen it for a drive through gate.

 

[Slow_Lane]

Did a similar thing at the in-laws rental. Used a garage door rail system. Was only a 36 inch tall fence. Had to offset fence to clear so it could slide. But gate hung on a 4x4 attached to the sliding portion so it could slide freely. You can open the walk in gate or pull a pin and an 8 ft section slides open. I can take a couple pictures but will not be in the area for a couple weeks. But think about a barn door design idea.

 

[someguy11]

I am sorry but with that mess I could not even stand to look at the pics.

Its called a construction zone. Just did a big project in the garage, brought 2 storage lockers home and am in the process of sorting and storing everything. Dimensional lumber and steel ended up in a stack beside the garage.

 

[someguy11]

I do this to every fence that I have built for myself. Make the gates different sizes, one active, and one stationary (think french doors). First time that I did it I sunk a chuck of concrete under the inactive panel and used it to pin the bottom of that panel. I found that after awhile of use, the action of the walk thru gate closing eventually warped the other panel. Next time I sunk a 4x4x1/8 s.s. sleeve 3' in the ground. This sleeve gets a post set in it and pinned in place thru the sleeve (3" above grade). Both gates latch at this post. When I want to pull a vehicle thru, I pull the pin and post and drive right over the sleeve.

Bingo ! That would be perfect. I can even keep the existing door.

How did you latch the big gate to the removable post ?

I'm undecided if the gate should be sliding or swung. I can see advantages for both. Anyone opinions or experience with this ?

The alley is about 10 feet wide behind the fence. The snow buildup isn't bad. I only have decent access to the alley from the tree end of the alley, so if the gate is swung, its going to need to be wide open swung 180 degrees when its used.

If the gate is sliding, I want to hide the hardware as much as possible, so it looks normal. I think I can do that by putting the track on the inside of the gate ?

I'm going to use a ground wheel no matter what gate I make ?

Comments welcome !

Fwiw, part of the impetus for doing this is to get a trailer into the back yard for a big excavation project.

 

[someguy11]

Did a similar thing at the in-laws rental. Used a garage door rail system. Was only a 36 inch tall fence. Had to offset fence to clear so it could slide. But gate hung on a 4x4 attached to the sliding portion so it could slide freely. You can open the walk in gate or pull a pin and an 8 ft section slides open. I can take a couple pictures but will not be in the area for a couple weeks. But think about a barn door design idea.

I'm not quite following this design. The barn doors I'm familiar with had an overhead track. Does the walk through door have a track over it ? And what keeps it from pulling away at the bottom ?

 

[Garageguy65]

What I did was this. I sunk in two pieces of chain link fence pole. I used "dq40". A thicker wall pipe. Sunk it in the ground a few foot surrounded by about 12" of concrete.

I used "cattle gate" as the framework for the gates and chain link fence hardware.

I welded tabs on one side of the cattle gate to allow myself to attach stringers.. I have wood on both sides

The pic is from the back. I use a pipe to keep the smaller gate closed as a security measure. As we have a pool in the backyard.

The large gate is 6'. The smaller 4' approximate. ( I can get measurements tomorrow ).

The large gate has settles a inch or so in the last few years. The 6' gate is tied into the corner post.

The pipe and cattle gates were pretty cheap. Any farm supply store has them.

I can fit a full size truck thru it no problem .

Sorry about the messy leaves and un stained fence.

 

[CNGsaves]

Think your situation will work better with a SLIDER. That does mean major change to heavy post you installed for the arched man door.

I'd hinge your man door from post next to garage so it swings out (toward alley) so you don't have to keep area clear behind fence. The "arch" over top would need reinforced/hinged so it would only need held up by post next to garage. You'd flip up cosmetic arch when sliding open the gate. Man door also likely need shimmed out towards alley since slider gate would be farther out.

Cut off that 2nd heavy post at ground level and put wheel on bottom for section of fence that will become your sliding gate. You'll have to move gate towards alley by thickness of sliding section (ie slide in front of other fence section). Drill deep hole in that stub post that will have slider rod that drops in to lock gate.

Attachment of slider portion to rest of fence will take some creativity, especially if you want to hide the slider track. Unistrut could work with some MacGyver thinking. May need to make slider gate portion taller so U shape rollers go over top of fence to the right (ie this would enable you to hide slide on backside of fence).

/ .02 ideas for slider . . .

 

[someguy11]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[someguy11]

I'm giving this more thought. I'm probably going to go with a hinged gate and a removable post. By removable, I mean that I'll put a "ground" post about 4 feet deep protruding about 4 inches and then slide the real post into the "ground" post.

There are several ways to do this. Any thoughts on the following aspects ?

- square posts versus round posts ? The existing fence uses 4x6" wooden posts. If I could find or make a piece of rectangular tubing, I could paint it to look like the existing wood or possibly use a wooden post for the "real" post. I think a round post wouldn't look as good, but would be a lot simpler to implement.

- cement the ground post or hold it with coarse crushed gravel ? The soil its going into is a decent clay with a bit of sand in it.

- if one cements the ground post in, how do you prevent it from filling up with water ? Put 6" of crushed gravel at the bottom of the hole ?

- I want the real post to be as wiggle free as possible. There will need to be some clearance between the OD of the real post and the ID of the ground post in order to allow it to go in and out easily. Any thoughts on how one might securely attach the real post to the ground post ? Obviously a bolt could be used at the surface. But what could be done deep(er) in the ground post ?

Thanks.

-

 

[Slednut]

I've posted this video of my gate before but here it is again. The gate is opened by a regular garage door opener and can also be used as a walk through. There is a steel post in the center that is removed so the gate on the right can be opened.

 

[someguy11]

I've posted this video of my gate before but here it is again. The gate is opened by a regular garage door opener and can also be used as a walk through. There is a steel post in the center that is removed so the gate on the right can be opened.

I'm not a fan of having a long walk through gate. I grew up on farm with cattle gates like that, so I am familiar with them. I want a 3 foot walk through gate and a big drive through gate.

 

[Slednut]

I'm not a fan of having a long walk through gate. I grew up on farm with cattle gates like that, so I am familiar with them. I want a 3 foot walk through gate and a big drive through gate.

I don’t want to steel this thread, I thought it would be a pain also but the gate springs shut so it does make it easy to just hit the latch and walk through the gate. Once you’re clear, let go and it shuts.

If it is a pain for someone to use the gate manually there are four buttons at different locations to automatically open the gate. One is on the opposite side of the latch at that end of the gate.

If there was a building or fence running 90 degrees to the gate on the latch end it would make going through the gate a PITA.

 

[someguy11]

I don’t want to steel this thread, I thought it would be a pain also but the gate springs shut so it does make it easy to just hit the latch and walk through the gate. Once you’re clear, let go and it shuts.

If it is a pain for someone to use the gate manually there are four buttons at different locations to automatically open the gate. One is on the opposite side of the latch at that end of the gate.

If there was a building or fence running 90 degrees to the gate on the latch end it would make going through the gate a PITA.

i need the gate to basically go to the ground. With a long gate in the winter you have to move 12 feet of snow to get it open. PITA compared to shoveling 3' of snow for a walk through. Plus kids are going to use it. Plus its going to open into the alley in the opposite direction of what we normally go so you walk out going one way and then have to reverse around the gate and go the other way. PITA when you have a bicycle with a bike trailer. Plus you can't really park (lean) anything against the gate.

I'm sticking to the idea of having a 3' walkthrough in conjunction with a long gate, using a removable post.

 

[someguy11]

This is pretty interesting.

http://www.duralock.com/installation_guides/136_INS-C_ConcretePostSocket.pdf

 

[DC73]

I'm giving this more thought. I'm probably going to go with a hinged gate and a removable post.

I did this at a previous house using round pipe. I cemented the larger pipe into the ground at the required height. I then filled the larger pipe with concrete mix until I got it to the right level to act a stop for the upper pipe. I used bolts on the upper pipe at the proper height for each gate to use as a latch bolt. The bolts also worked as handles to lift the upper pipe out of the ground and were strong enough to support the weight of each gate. The only issue I had was that I had a fairly tight fit between the two pipes and water and debris would get into the lower pipe and either make it tough to slide the upper pipe out or the debris would fall back into the lower pipe and change the height of the upper pipe. I ended up solving that problem by cutting a piece of rubber inner tube and sliding it over the upper pipe near the bottom to act as a rain and debris cap.

DC