Galvanized Hinges OK for Oak Garden Gate?

[John15]

I've bought galvanized tee hinges for a 6' x 3' garden gate recently completed. It is oak framed with vertical treated t and g redwood boards.
Does anyone know if the oak will cause the galvanizing to erode. Would powder coated hinges be a better choice?
I'm also unsure about what screws to use. I initially thought brass which is what I used to fix the boarding but wonder if corrosion will occur between the brass and the galvanizing. I'm obviously avoiding steel screws because of the corrosion problem.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

John

 

[woodfarmer]

Use bronze or stainless screws and slip a thin sheet of plastic between the hinge and oak. you can get thin PVC sheet cheaply from directplasticsonline and other places. it cuts easily with a a fine toothed saw working at metal cutting speeds and can be welded/glued very easily if you wish.

 

[rafezetter]

Or you could buy a black plastic lever arch file / tupperware box / just about anything clear plastic, from a pound shop.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Would DPC sheet offcuts work, or perhaps just painting the back surfaces* of the hinges with Hammerite or similar?

E.

*I'd guess you need to do the post end as well as the gate end of the hinge.

 

[Billy Flitch]

John the tanens in oak do slowly attack any steel fastenings made into it, add to this rain and you will have dark stain marks on the oak.Brass is not a good Idea you will get into a thing called the galvanic series where because your mixing metals up least noble metals will start to protect most noble metals. Brass is a mixture of copper and zinc and the hinge is galvanized with zinc, because zinc is a sacrificial metal the screws will start to dezincafy in other words they will start to rot.
If ever you need to do any work on the gate you stand a good chance of taking the heads of the screws
When you decide to use the galvanized hinges then use galvanized screws simple.

BTW the traditional fastenings for an out side gate are usually Japanned Tee hinges and japanned round headed screws,the screw holes are pre drilled and the screws turned with a very good fitting screw driver, have fun.

 

[John15]

Many thanks guys for your advice and suggestions. I should have bought black painted ones. I nearly did and then at the last moment changed my mind. I shall return them in the morning.
Thanks again.

John

 

[Eric The Viking]

Brass is a mixture of copper and zinc and the hinge is galvanized with zinc, because zinc is a sacrificial metal the screws will start to dezincafy in other words they will start to rot.

Wildly off-topic, but relevant: I was once sitting in a kitchen in Kathmandu, having breakfast (as you do), when the bib tap on the wall over the sink opposite me simply dropped off into the sink, with a fountain of water coming straight out like something from a Laurel & Hardy movie.

A thumb was applied temporarily by the housekeeper (she was on that side of the kitchen table and got there first), and much shouting in Nepali took place, which I couldn't follow.

I had to go to work. At lunchtime, there were two blokes digging at the wall. They'd made a crater about six inches across and three or so deep and exposed the end of the pipe. By the evening when I came back, there was a new tap on the wall, and the hole was patched. Apart from the shiny newness of the tap and the patch, you'd never have known.

The point: It was cast iron piping, which ought to have rusted very slowly, if at all, but the back thread of the tap was very close to or slightly below the wall level. When the room was plastered, someone had bridged the junction between the steel and the brass tap with lime plaster, creating an electrical circuit. This had de-zincified the brass completely, leading firstly to weeping (making it worse) and then the eventual fracture and failure.

I've had brass plumbing fittings collapse under a spanner, for the same electrochemical reason.

So not brass in oak then!

E.

 

[Max Power]

Get the galvanised hinges and paint them black . Problem solved and no rusting .