"DerbyDad03" wrote in message
...
On May 9, 12:09 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
I had a wood fence built and the fence gates are not lined up. The fence
was built six months ago and after some rain and sun now the problem
magnified.

There are two gates, one left and one right, 5' wide each with a total of
10' opening. Posts and gates are 6' tall.

The fence posts are plumb when you look at the gates from the front.

The fence posts are not plumb when you stand at the gate opening and look
left and right. One tilt forward a bit and one tilt backward a bit.
Therefore the gates are tilted in opposite directions. At the top the if I
measure the two tip of the gates where they are supposed to line up, they
are just a bit over 4 inches apart.

OK I know the proper thing to do is to pull the post up, break the
concrete
and redo the post and reattach the gates. But...

The way I constructed the posts, I knew the 5' gates would be heavy and
may
pull on the gates. So I had the fence post for the gate and the nearest
next fence post (which is about 3 feet away, anchored into the same
concrete. I dug a tench 4 feet long, and sank both posts into it, and then
poured solid concrete into it, with the intention to not let the fence
post
pull on the concrete at all, and I did a good job of it in one direction.
I
am really not looking forward to deconstruct the entire section of the
fence
wall and pull up that concrete on both sides.

So that leads to my questions. Are there other remedies to consider. Can I
shim the hinges? Can I somehow buy some sophisticated hinges that are
capable of adjustments inward and outward that would make it less
noticable?

Any ideas appreciated.

MC

I doubt you are going to fix a 4 inch gap with some shims or a special
hinge.

What has caused the posts to be out of plumb? Have you dug down along
the base to see if the concrete cracked or if the posts warped?

Maybe you could force the posts back into plumb and then use
"diagonals" on both sides of each post (perpendicular to the fence
line) with the ends buried in concrete to prevent the posts from
leaning in either direction.

Remove the gates and hinges. Fasten the two halves of the gate together
using a temporary stringer of a few 2x4 or 1x2 just to hold it in alignment.
Use additioanl scrap wood to position the gate on the posts temporarily
using screws. Now figure out where the hinges need to go. You might need
to switch from gate hinges (front surface mount) to regular door hinges or
whatever looks lik it will work (sorry no pictures, no precise advice).
You might even need to add some lumber to the gate to support a new hinge
location.

If I read you right then a front surface mounted hinge should be able to be
shimmed either on the door or the post. If you do this, shim all 4 hinges
so it looks intentional.

This should get the gates to align when closed but if the posts are so out
of whack, it might just result in the gate swinging open by gravity or
looking cockeyed when opened or binding when opening. You might not be
abole to make it look good in all positions. A spring loaded hinge should
help if it wants to open on its own. There are many kinds of gate hinges,
some are more forgiving of misalignment than others.