I'm going to build a gate that will be about 160 cm wide. The gate will have horizontal slats.
How would you build it?
Some thoughts I have are whether I should build a square frame, with a diagonal brace and the slats on the outside of the frame. Where do I attach the hinges in that case? Is there a better alternative? I saw a picture of a gate like this online:
If you have the energy, please show with a little sketch. I'm feeling quite uncertain about which technique is the best to use for making a gate like this.
It will be a good ladder for those the gate is supposed to protect...
As it's done in the picture, it seems to work. The hinges are attached to the frame, it seems. To make it look a bit nicer, one could cover the hinge with one of the slats (which you would have to make a bit thinner, of course, and attach in some clever way...).
Remember to bevel the ends of the slats on the hinge side so that the gate and the fixed part don't touch each other when opening. Or do as in the picture where they have solved it by angling the hinge out a bit so that the fixed part of the hinge is flush with the outer edge of the slats.
160cm is quite a wide gate that will have a significant self-weight that could cause it to skew. The stability entirely depends on the diagonal brace. It must fit perfectly, so perfectly that it is wedged, screws will not hold it steady enough. It's a difficult balance; thinner material means less weight to support, but it also becomes more flimsy.
As useless says, it becomes a perfect ladder, which either allows children to escape or they "just" hang on the gate and make it skew.
