Wood gates can be meant to blend into or stand out from your fence system. If meant to blend in, perhaps there is terrain and you desire a seamless look. If you desire a gate that stands out, you may desire a different style than the fence itself, so the wood gate can become more of an architectural element, perhaps even with a trellis or other unique asset to frame it. These desires, blending in or standing out, can both require a higher level of skill from an onsite fence contractor’s crew than may be available. There are design and architectural considerations as well as the structural. A fence crew may be able to satisfy the structural aspects charging you for and using an unattractive surface mount steel or aluminum frame, but they may not be able to satisfy the quality of the look aspect.

Gates are often treated as a simple “Diagonal Brace” upgrade from your fence and because they are produced by the crew in a similar way as the fence they are more prone to failure. Some onsite crew members can produce a high-quality gate, whereas others cannot but they still show up to build your fence.

With MyFence.com and the Fence Genius Software and Offsite Fabrication Technology, we can prefabricate your gate in a controlled environment, using proper floor based machinery and better fabrication methods & techniques. You have absolute clarity with your fences 3D Model of how your gate will look and how it will be fabricated. But before we discuss this further, let’s first review a couple of considerations.

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Considerations for my fences gate:

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• Choosing Gate Width: Choosing your gate width can require a different approach depending on the timing of your wood post installation. Namely, are they pre-installed for your new or replacement fence or are the posts yet to be installed to match the desired gate?

  • If the posts are pre-installed, they are of course not going to move to fit the gate you choose. Once hinges and a latch are selected, both of which have clearances needed, the wood gate slab width is the only dimension that can be changed to work with those pre-set posts, both in height and in width. In this case, each gate must have the ability to be unique when fabricated.

  • You may think to yourself, well, I just have a standard 36”X72” gate so I can order any common prefabricated gate. And yes, you may, or more commonly no, you may not…  Be careful to make sure by measuring and inputting into our Fence Genius Gate Fabrication Software. This nonstandard size issue is very common because many onsite fence builders literally build their gate as a fence panel to fit between two posts generally set to the desired size, building in place, simply adding a diagonal brace to the best of their onsite ability, and then cut off the necessary clearance width from the rails when they are finished adding the hinges. But where this brings ease of installation to the fence installer, it also often leads to a nonstandard gate opening and a gate that sags in a year or even less. Building gates like you build a fence panel and then installing a diagonal brace may not be a good long term solution. But now MyFence.com can use the Fence Genius technology to produce your custom width and height gates to order!

  • But what if the posts are not yet installed? You may find a prefabricated gate to buy and rely on your contractor to set the posts with proper, more precise spacing to enable that gate to be used. Some contractors will work like this, others will not. Perhaps it is because of the difficulty of assuring their crew will set those posts just right, or perhaps they cannot warrant the gate produced offsite not to sag or become inoperable over time. You as the customer need to understand how they construct their gates and compare that construction to how we at MyFence.com produce our gates using the Fence Genius technology and methods. Chances are good you will have more assurance our gates will not sag than you gain from their assurance they will warrant their gate in a couple years if it does.

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Using the Fence Genius Technologies, we design every gate using software to generate ever component size and cut angle. We use Floor and Bench mounted tools and equipment to cut each piece, pre-drill pilot holes and we fabricate each rail to vertical member with 2 pieces of 6” long, exterior rated screws. This results in 5 to 7 pcs, 6” long screws on each side of the gate. Those would all have to bend, or the wood would have to fail for the gate to sag, and that is not likely. Additionally, the diagonal brace would also have to fail.

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So before you choose your gate, consider looking at what MyFence.com can produce for you, even if you are a DIY or if you are having a different contractor install your fence. When thinking about "How do I want my fence to hold up?" Myfence.com is your solution!