Gate dropping or dragging on the ground: what has gone wrong

Post, hinge or frame: telling them apart

Stand back and look at the hanging post rather than the gate. These three faults produce very different pictures.

• Hanging post leaning towards the opening: the ground fixing has failed or the timber has rotted at ground level. Everything else follows from this.
• Post upright but the gate corner dropped: hinge screws pulling out, or hinges too light for the weight.
• Gate itself out of square, corner to corner: the frame joints have opened and the gate has racked into a parallelogram.
• Only dragging after rain: the gate is swelling seasonally, or the ground itself has heaved.
• Latch missing by a small margin only: often the simplest of all, and genuinely just an alignment adjustment.

Why posts fail where they do

Timber posts rot at the line where they meet the ground, because that is where moisture, oxygen and soil bacteria all meet. Everything above may look perfectly sound while the section at ground level has gone soft. Push a screwdriver into the post at the base. If it goes in easily, no amount of hinge work will hold the gate.

Concrete that was poured tight around a post without drainage traps water against it, which is why some posts fail faster than the gate they carry.

What a repair that lasts actually involves

Doing this once properly is cheaper than doing it every second spring.

• A hanging post sized for the weight of the gate, not the width of the gap.
• Correct depth and setting, with the post kept clear of standing water.
• Hinges rated for the leaf, bolted through on heavy gates rather than screwed.
• The frame squared and braced properly, with the brace running the right way.
• End grain and cut edges treated, since that is where water gets in first.

Repair or replace

If the gate frame is sound and only the post or hinges have failed, repair is good value and quick. If the joints have opened, the bottom rail is soft and the gate has racked, you are rebuilding it piece by piece and a new gate is usually the better spend.

Driveway gates are their own case. Weight, span and wind loading all rise sharply, so the post and hinge specification matters far more than on a side gate.

Questions we're asked about this