"-MIKE-" wrote in message
...
On 7/31/10 3:36 PM, Leon wrote:
Sounds heavy. Maybe I'll need a more heavy-duty gate roller. But what
the
heck - it's for the grandkids. The older of the two (5) is a pretty
amazing artist for her age.


You may not need any roller, since you can use it to square the gate.
We expect pictures of the art, btw. :-)


Dont depend on fiber cement panels or boards to be structural or to aid
as
support bracing. It tends to be more of a veneer than anything else.
Screw
or nail holes will wollow out in it if there is any stress added.


I would say that's good general advice, but it depends on the thickness,
really.
The stuff on my shed is at least 1/4" and it won't budge.

The doors are probably 7'x3' and comprise of full sheets of cement board
cut down to that size.
Their wood "frames" are screwed directly to the cement board and have to
mechanical fasteners or glue holding them to one another. In other
words, the cememnt board is doing *all* the heavy lifting and it solely
responsible for keeping the door square and up. Standard gate hinges
hold the doors to the shed and they haven't sagged in 10 years.

I have replaced a majority of the Masonite siding on my home with Hardi
planks and built a store room about 7 years ago and used the same product.
Used the same product on a neighbors patio to close it in.

I used cross bracing to stiffen the studs on my store room, it wiggled like
crazy until I did that. Knowing that cement fiber board will wollow out I
was not going to trust just the Hardi and was advised also by the supplier.
They agreed that the fiber board is mostly for appearance.

My neighbors closed in patio did still wiggle a lot with the cement fiber
board until we added plywood paneling on the inside.

Your mileage may vary with local conditions but I live in hurricane country
and thankfully my shed held up wonderfully during Ike, 2 years ago, my fence
did not. ;~0