Why timber gates give up on the wet weather

A wooden gate lives a hard life. It stands out in the rain, dries in a July breeze, soaks up another fortnight of drizzle, and does all of it while being leaned on, swung open by the wind and used as a scratching post by the ewes. Most of the failures I see on smallholdings are not dramatic. They begin quietly at the end grain — the cut face at the bottom of the hanging stile, the shoulders of a mortise where a rail enters. Water gets in, the fibres swell, a little grey rot appears, and two winters later the gate is dropping on its hinge and dragging along the ground.

The good news is that a traditional gate is an eminently repairable thing. It is a frame of stiles, rails, ledges and braces, usually held together with mortise and tenon joints, pegs or coach bolts, and each part can be inspected and replaced on its own. Catch the damage early and an afternoon with a few hand tools will buy you another ten years of service.

Start with a proper inspection

Work through this list before you take anything apart, and take a notebook with you so you only make one trip back to the workshop.

• Lift the gate at the shutting stile — the end furthest from the hinge — and feel for vertical play. More than a couple of millimetres means worn hinges, a tired post, or both.
• Swing it through its full arc. It should clear the ground by 50–75 mm at its lowest point and not bind at the top or catch on the post.
• Probe every joint with a bradawl or thin screwdriver. Sound timber resists the point; spongy, rotten timber lets it sink in with almost no pressure.
• Check in order of likely failure: the bottom of the hanging stile, the shoulders of the rails, the top rail beneath its weather capping, and any ledges on a braced garden gate.
• Look hard at the gate post. A rotten or loose post will ruin a perfectly sound gate, and a wobbly post is the most common reason a gate "keeps dropping".
• Test the ironwork. Hook and band hinges wear oval in the eye, and the gudgeon pin on the post can wear thin. Rock the gate gently and watch the strap for movement.

Sorting the hinges and the hang

If the frame is sound and only the hang is wrong, you have the easy job. Worn hinge eyes can sometimes be replaced on their own, but it is usually quicker and better to fit a new pair of the same size and pattern. Keep the originals if they are hand-forged — a blacksmith can often re-bush an eye for less than the cost of new ironwork, and it suits an old gate.

Where the post is soft around the hinge, cut out the decayed section and splice in a new piece of treated timber, or bolt a stout hardwood pad to the face and refit the hinge to that. If the post itself is gone, replace it: dig it out properly, set the new one in concrete with a gravel base for drainage, and brace it until the concrete has gone off.

Rehang with the gate propped on blocks at the right height. Tighten the bolts enough to hold, check the swing and the gap at the shutting stile, then tighten fully. A gate should latch with one finger's pressure, not a shoulder.

Cutting out rot and splicing in new timber

If a rail has gone, cut back to clean, sound wood with a fine saw, square off the cut, and splice in a matching piece of treated timber. Join the two with a half-lap or a scarfed joint rather than a simple butt, and fix with galvanised coach bolts or stainless screws. Two pieces butted end to end will open up at the first dry spell, no matter how many screws you drive in.

Where the foot of a stile has rotted, cut off the decayed section and scarf on a new foot, brushing preservative onto both mating faces before you assemble. Small pockets of rot in otherwise sound timber can be arrested with a boron-based gel or paste worked well into the fibres. A two-part epoxy wood filler will rebuild a chewed hinge seating or a damaged tenon shoulder, but it is a cosmetic and local repair — it will not hold a gate together on its own.

Soak every new cut end with preservative. End grain drinks the stuff up like a sponge, and it is always the first place rot takes hold.

Treating the timber and keeping it sweet

Treat on a dry day, when the timber has had a week or more to dry out. Sand back any grey, weathered surface so the coating can penetrate, dust off, and brush on two coats of a good wood preservative, working it well into joints and end grain. For oak and other dense hardwoods, boiled linseed oil thinned with white spirit makes a lovely traditional finish and feeds the timber rather than sealing it.

Match your fixings to the wood. Galvanised bolts suit tanalised softwood and larch; oak tannins will attack ordinary steel and leave black stains, so use stainless there.

Finally, take away the conditions that started the rot. Clear soil and vegetation back from the base of the gate and post, and lay a strip of hardcore or gravel about 300 mm wide along the swing so water drains away instead of pooling. Keep the gate well clear of the ground, keep the top rail capped, and check the whole thing once each autumn before the gales arrive. Twenty minutes with a screwdriver and an oil can in October is the cheapest repair you will ever make.