# Forum Home Renovation Landscaping, Gardening & Outdoors  Wrought iron gate to hang on brick pillars

## dunk_c

Dear Forum Members 
I am desperate for some suggestions as I am starting to get depressed trying to come up with an answer to my problem. 
I have a wrought iron gate which I had made 5 years ago and have now only just finished the car parking area where the gate has to go (see blue garage in photo).  I did not ask to have any specific type of hinges made but guessed that anything that was normally used by the fabricator  would be fine.  Several years ago I made a pair of very heavy drive entrance gates and chose to use adjustable hinges - and they have been great for getting the gates properly hung in the first place and then readjusting as the timber posts settled in over the next 12 months. 
OK back to the current problem.   The pedestrian gate consists of a pair of wrought iron half gates each weighing approximately 30kg.  Total width approximately 1200mm.  I have the gates but need to build the posts and hang them - a&se about face for me as it would be easier to have had the gates made to fit the opening. 
I have made a massive step to put the gates and posts on, a threaded rod protrudes from the concrete on each side ready for a brick pillar to be build around and filled with concrete. 
I have not done much brick laying and the house bricks I intend to use are not exactly engineering-type bricks - sandstocks can be quite lumpy.  Given the materials and my brick laying skills I doubt my pillars will be spaced apart perfectly for the gates without the use of adjustable hinges. 
 I have included a picture of the hinges I have - non adjustable! 
I have thought of several ways to deal with these hinges but not sure which way to go:
- weld them to a metal frame (100 x 8mm flat bar for each side, supported by temporary braces), position the frame and gates on the step and build the pillars to suit, finally bolting the frame to the bricks;
-do something similar with a hardwood frame (100 x 75);
-cut the hinges off and weld on threaded rod to put through the gate frames (however, the gate has been galvanized and powder coated so a bit  reluctant to damage them);
-make and use brick-in type gate hangers
-use some other hinges;
-use timber or steel posts. 
What I don't want is to have the gate sit too far from the pillar.  This would happen if I bolted the hinges to the pillars with 8 threaded rods (chemset into the pillar) for adjustment side to side. 
The gap between the closed gate must be about 5-10mm so there is not much to play with. 
Would really appreciate some guidance. 
Cheers  :Annoyed:

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## jiggy

i like the idea of the flat bar,if the design was in keeping you could carry accross the flat bar to make a bracing header

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## Bedford

> I have made a massive step to put the gates and posts on, a threaded rod protrudes from the concrete on each side ready for a brick pillar to be build around and filled with concrete.

  Can we have a pic of the massive step?  
If it is substantial enough, I would dynabolt/chemset a steel post in the center, with two vertical flat plates welded between this and the hinges (so the gate can be hung as you want) and then brick up your pillars around the post.

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## dunk_c

The "massive" step consists of two 500Dx400Wx500L footings at each end and a 200mm full width slab has been cast on top of this (with reinforcing bar ties between the two).  We have reactive silt but it is probably overkill. 
It doesn't show it in the photo, but the top of the gates curve to a central peak so I'd have to have a top bar formed to match. 
I can post a picture of the whole job tomorrow so you can get the full picture. 
Thanks

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## dunk_c

Here is a picture of the gate propped up at its intended location.

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## jiggy

If you could weld a lug onto the bottom corners of the gates, with a pivot point in your slab ,  then it would be taking all the weight,the top hinge would have less stress and could probably be screwed or bolted

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## cherub65

Love those gates, Consider getting a bricklayer in. Small job wont take long and your right in saying there not the easiest bricks to lay, especially for DIY
If you lay them yourself you use profiles which can be as simple as a 50 mm square  section. Set up plumb and lay bricks to this can also have course marks on profile so joints are uniform from pier to peir. 
How much did you pay for manufacture of gates?

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## dunk_c

Gates made by a family member, cost $500 if my memory serves me correctly.

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## Farmweld

Looks like the hinges you have welded onto the gates are a commercially available weld on hinge/socket set.  I'm guessing the diameter of the pin is 20mm so you have several options available. 
There are rural gudgeons available that are fully threaded with a 16mm pin and a 20mm plastic insert that you could utilise in combination with a nut welded in a bit of pipe to make brick in adjustable gudgeons. You would have to make sure they were bricked in at the correct height (obviously) but this gives you fairly fine adjustability top and bottom 
Consider combining this with jiggys suggestion of a pivot fitted into the bottom socket (not sure how high it has been welded) running down into the ground leaving the top hinge/gudgeon adjustable to allow for movement/adjustment.  This will require more accuracy in setting up the bottom but will look better and the bottom pivot is more in keeping with this style of gate. 
Finally you can try welding the pins onto posts at the appropriate height and bolting them down to your slab, weld a couple of ties to cement into your pillars, set everything up square and brick away!

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## dunk_c

Hi Farmweld 
Thaks for the advice.  Welding a nut into a tube and building this into the brick pillar sounds like a good idea. The pins are 16mm but this makes no difference.  
I'd make a timber frame, with gudgeons and tubes fitted and then brick this in place.  Should help get everything close to spot on.  Fine vertical height adjustment could be achieved with washers, perhaps. 
The bottom pivot is also a good idea and if the pin plate had slotted Dyna bolt holes, some lateral adjustment would be available to help get the spacing correct.  However the bottom socket is 130mm from the bottom of the gate, this would require a long pin.

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## Farmweld

If you really want to go with the bottom pivot you could make up a 16 mm pin long enough to give you your gap under the gate and then weld a flat onto it that can be tech screwed onto the bottom of the gate to hold it in position. This saves your powdercoating and hides the ugly bits under the gate out of sight. 
Just had a quick reminder that if you are building freestanding pillars to hang the gates off then you may need some structural drawings.  Reason being http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/s...-1111117589030  It happened a while ago but is still worth considering in any project.

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