Your Opnions or Experiences wanted

[tisdai]

Hi All

I need to build a Double Gate at the side of our bungalow which will be supported by 2 posts, one fixed to the bungalow and one fixed to the wall on the other side of the driveway. Taking the posts into consideration their will be an 8ft gap between the posts for the gates and they will be 7ft high.

In your experiences or opinions what would be the best wood to use, they will be looked after well, in that i mean they will be cleaned and treated if needed arround once a year .

Now the tight bit :wink: lol, I am on a budget due to health problems in me not being able to work and not being able to bring any money in, the money i have got for the wood is due to me selling some bits and pieces, and NO Not any parts of my body, mainly because they would be returned and a refund asked for because of the bad state they are in :lol: .

They will take a while for me to build as well because of the way i am, so i need the wood not to move much once i have prepped the various pieces before actually glueing them up because of the time it will take me.

Any ideas or experiences some of you may have after being in the trade or just being good at what you do will be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Dave

 

[xy mosian]

Dave, Sorry no quick answers to any of your questions, however.
As there is a height limit of 2m on fencing, is a 7ft. high gate permissable?
A long way down the line, when it comes to hanging the gates. Fasten the two together, with a gap, and hang as one. There are fewer chances of getting the gates skewed to each other. When fixing the two halves together make the gap at the top wider than that at the bottom, they will sag when released.
Perhaps not answers but hopefully helpful anyway.

xy

 

[mailee]

Well Dave, I have made many gates in my time and mostly in treated redwood. This is a good wood to use if cost is a factor. It should be good for at least ten years if treated annually. It will move as all softwood does but if you choose the timber carefully this can be minimal and not cause any problems. Now for Hardwood as I have just been looking into these, the choices are, Oak, Iroko, (very irritant to work) or Sapili. there are of course many more but the cost is much higher. HTH.

 

[tisdai]

Hi xy,

Yes 7ft is fine m8, the height difference between our bungalow and next door is arround 11ft :shock: when you look out of our kitchen window all you can see is a great big wall lol. The reason for the height is that our driveway slopes up the further back you go up it, so the 7ft mark will give us a bit more privacey and a wind block as well becuase we are on a hill the wind whips arround like hell. I undesrtaned about the difference with the gap at the top compared to the bottom, sounds a good idea will do that when ready.

Hi mailee,

Yes i know about Iroko, I found that out a while back the hard way lol,, . Red wood sounds ok for price wise, I will try and get down to the timber yard and have a gander some time this week, and at least it will give us time to save the money for hard wood to build a set later on.

Thankyou both for your help, i appreciate it.

Cheers

Dave

 

[greggy]

i made some gates from iroko 15 years ago, and they still look good.

 

[tisdai]

Hi greggy

Might be a bit out of my league at the moment m8,, I am going to try and get down the timber yard this week and will look at the prices to see whats my best option. If i can only get the red Wood like mailee mentioned, then it will give us time to save up for hardwood to make a set at a later date.

Thanks for the reply greggy i appreciate it.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Pond]

Dave,

No advice on timber type, but 7ft is too high, you can only put gates a max of 2m (6' 6") high without planning permission. If someone alerts the jobsworths (sorry Council) you could be in trouble.

http://www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/pdf/leaflet%209.pdf

Second paragraph from bottom, page 2. The link is from Norfolk Council but I'm sure it is a nationwide ruling, check your local planning laws.

HTH

andy

 

[Stoday]

There are no "local" planning laws, only the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The Local Planning Authority may differ from town to town over its implementation though.

You can try to get away with 7 foot gates. If you manage to do so for 4 years, you will be in the clear, the LPA cannot take action after 4 years. Someone may complain (within the 4 years). The LPA would then probably tell you to reduce the height or seek "regularisation" by applying for retrospective planning permission. The LPA might (unlikely) take action of their own volition. Same outcome as with a complaint.

After the initial letter, you could still refuse to comply with the LPA's wishes. They will then have to decide if they should issue a Notice under the Act, against which you can appeal (at no cost to you).

Personally, I got to the sending of a "get lost" letter to my LPA over a hedge dispute. After a year of my letter I got a response. The LPA climbed down. The letter was written by some underling in the planning dept who clearly wanted me "done" but his boss would have none of it, presumably because of the cost to them and the weakness of their case on a potential appeal.

 

[tisdai]

Thanks for the input guys, I have already been in touch with the council and the housing association. Because of the bungalow next door being arround 11ft higher than ours on the driveway side where I will be putting the gates, their will not be any problems with it.

We have only been here since august of last year so I got in touch with the planning department as well to double check everything.

Cheers and thanks for the info.

Dave