Making a Sliding Gate w/ Lattice Design

[josef]

Hi everyone,

I’m not a fabricator—just a DIY enthusiast—but I’m working on a fairly complex project for my new house and have run into a challenge I need to sort out before moving forward. One if the image below shows the final look I’m aiming for.

The outer perimeter will be built from 40×40 stainless steel square tubing with several vertical supports. To give it a wood appearance, both the perimeter and the supports will be clad in wood-finished aluminium square tubing. For the lattice design, I’m planning to use full lap-joint connections.

My main question is: Is it a good idea to join these square tubes using a full lap-joint? My biggest concern is water ingress—do you think coloured silicone will be sufficient to make the joints watertight?

 

[Kaizen]

So 22 feet long? Do you have a forklift?
If you want the wood look why don't you just use wood on the infil? Even nicer wood is cheaper then what you are proposing. Plus lap joints can be just glued. Sorry but using steel and trying to make it look like wood sounds like a maintenance nightmare. Yes i'd fully weld all lap joints and leave the bottom open if you can. Instead of using lap joints you could just use flat stock to get the look.
I'd recommend you start at whatever sliding mechanism you are going to use and go from there. I used canteliver sliding and i had to pour a couple thousand pounds of concrete just for like a 12 foot opening. I had to order the base piece of steel as its a specialty item and pay for it to ship freight. ridiculous price 5 years ago. Can't imagine it now.

 

[Old tool guy]

there are several manufacturers that make aluminum extrusions that look just like wood. A couple if years ago i was researching them for a building reclad project, it’s amazing how realistic they look. Seem to remember a lot if the product came from Australia. Knotwood is one brand. You could weld up the frame and clip the “boards” in place.

 

[gahrajmahal]

I used square aluminum and 2x4 pressure treated cross bars on our south facing deck. The square bars use plastic connectors to put them together. Shortly, the wood twisted creating loose connections with the square tubes. I replaced most of the pressure treated cross bars with new and covered with plastic covers made for the purpose. Every joint was caulked well. The additional stiffness of the plastic covers help with the wood twisting plus the wood stays dry. In a few short years the tube surfaces facing south faded along with the plastic, so it looked much older than it was so I painted it with the exterior latex I must use every 8 or so years on the house siding. That has held up well.

 

[Jacko264]

Like the idea but it will be heavy. Also it’s not very good to stop kids / People climbing over all them holes to put feet in
Graham