Installing a gate....need tips

[OnionPatch]

Our neighbor bought himself a nifty electronic, automatic gate for his driveway and he's given us his old one. I actually like the old one better. It's iron-look, some kind of light metal. We'll paint it black, it will look great. The problem is that it's 12 feet wide and our (concrete) driveway is 16-20ft. wide. (Somewhere around there.) It's a swing gate, (two side, opens in the middle) so it will need good, supportive posts. I say you take a buster and make a hole right in the concrete for each post and patch up around the bases of the posts after it's in. He says this won't work, that the concrete will crack. I don't know how else we could do it. Hubby's pretty good at fixing and making just about anything but he's never installed a gate and I think he's a little perplexed about this concrete problem. (He won't admit it, though.) How would you do it? Thanks for your thoughts.

[Jersey Devil]

1. Have a matching fence made to extend both sides and

then sink your posts into the ground outside the driveway, anchored in quick drying concrete. Either bring a pic of the gate to a welding shop or call in someone who does porch railings to make them. The posts on the inside of the gate extension will not be bearing the weight of the gates so they can simply be bolted into the concrete driveay, perhaps with a leg set on a 90 degree angle to the gate/fence to stabilize it in the other direction.

[OnionPatch]

2. Thanks!

Sounds like a plan. I think it would look nice, too. My husband knows a good welding shop. I'll tell him I got this advice from DU and he'll like that. He doesn't post but he loves DU.

[Longhorn]

3. If that first suggestion doesn't work

I consulted my husband, a remodeling contractor of 30 years who has seen it all. He says your husband is correct, that there is risk of cracking if you install the posts and pour new concrete that is tight with the driveway concrete. However, if you surround the new concrete with an expansion joint, it will work.

He suggests renting a concrete saw and cutting out a 12-inch square (assuming 4-foot posts.) Then jackhammer out the middle, dig the post holes, line the holes with expansion material available at lumber stores or concrete supply stores (he also mentioned some kind of special felt or redwood could be used), then set the posts in concrete.

Or you can hire someone to do it. Good luck!

[Stinky The Clown]

4. My only add would be the concrete saw

You may be able to find one with a small enough blade to limit the cut to 12" on a side, but maybe not. An alternative would be an angle grinder with a masonry blade. The blades are cheap, assuming you have the angle grinder. As angle grinders go, this is kind of the upper limit of the size wourk it can handle, so you may well eat up two to four blades doing it all. Of course, this depends entirely on the thickness of the concrete.

I might also suggest not using anything powered to 'jackhammer' the plug of concrete loose. Better to use a cold chisel and 5 lb sledge and breaking it into two or three pieces and lifting them out. It is not at all uncommon for concrete driveways to be poured without mesh or rebar (almost always without rebar). My fear in using a powered anything to break the plug would be causing cracks from the vibration.

Most of the big box home centers** carry at least fiber expansion joint (also made from plastic and maybe even teflon). Use expansion joint material as wide as your slab is thick so as to isolate fully the post infill from the existing driveway.

**Check BuyBlue .... Home Depot are the worst. Lowes ... not as bad.

[OnionPatch]

6. Don't worry

Husband is a do-it-yourself kind of guy and I'm a Buy-Blue kind of gal. No Home Depot for us. We usually go to the independent hardware store down the road.
Thanks for the advice on the saw, too.

[OnionPatch]

5. Thanks

for more ideas. Very cool. I'll have him read this thread because I'm lost. (Expansion joint? Is that something you smoke? :smoke:)

Hire someone?!!! That's blasphemy in this household. My husband is a do-it-yourself kind of guy. And he most always does an excellent job, so I won't complain.

[NMDemDist2]

7. we want pics when it's done! the side pieces sound like they'd look

nice though...