Tell me, just how can you install a gate upside-down?
- Trespassers won’t be prosecuted: do you have a right of access to the beach? - 25th March, 2024
- Why do boomers like minions? - 6th November, 2022
- Are you a true Isle of Wight local? - 30th October, 2022
The Ranger is normally a pretty rational being – well, he would say so – but just occasionally he has to share with his readers one of his more unusual opinions, trusting that they will not question his common sense. This, dear readers, is such a time. You see, the Ranger has had an issue on his mind for many years. Long ago, when he had to work for a living, he got to install quite a few gates in fields and on paths. It was simple, if laborious, and not unrewarding. One of the few ways in which it was possible to get it wrong was to install the gate upside-down. Yes, really. There is a right and a wrong way to many gates and doors. It’s to do with the diagonal bar that crosses the gate, making a triangle. The point of the triangle should point away from the hinge, and this stops the gate from dropping and dragging on the ground as it gets old, or as people sit on it, or the ground softens or whatever.
If you don’t understand, just trust the Ranger on this one. You really, really don’t want him to explain this one to you, unless your insomnia is out of control. So what’s this to do with the Ranger’s Blog? Read on. Ever since those halcyon days when pushing a mouse was something you had to do with a broom, the Ranger has scoffed with scorn at the examples of upside-down gates that still come to light. These are often seen on sets in films and TV programmes, as they are not built to last, but the more unforgivable ones are out there, in the wild, just waiting to drop, so the Ranger can crow ‘I told you so!’. This post is to introduce a series, in which the Ranger will expose this scourge. He invites you to do the same – keep your eye out for upside-down gates and doors near you! There are plenty online already – and yes, the Ranger is sad enough to have looked. If you’d like, even take a picture, put it on Flickr or something, and tell the Ranger about it with a comment below. Together, we’ll make the biggest collection of upside-down gates on the internet!
The picture of the gate is correct for a wooden gate, but not for a steel one ! A steel gate should have the stay coming down from the top hinge to the bottom corner. The reason being is wood can be used to prop from corner to corner and the steel gate prop being flat flex metal will be used in tension from top to bottom !