Buy a fixer upper, they said. It'll be fun, they said. 😂
Well... ok so some of it's fun.
But mostly, it's a lot of work. And it could take up a lot of your time. And if you're an amateur-home-improvement-DIYe like me, it's also a whole lotta time spent researching all the things for each project. And by research, I mean watching a million YouTube videos on "How To Build x, y, z," Google searching, Pinteresting... just everything I could find on the World Wide Web.
When we first moved in last year, I was hoping we could get the new flooring and full kitchen done before moving on to the big projects outside. But since we don't quite have the budget to start on the interior projects right now, we decided to put all the interior projects on pause for a minute and work on some things we had planned for outside. Especially since we haven't really touched a thing outside since we moved in. Just kept it clean and maintained. But since the existing landscape/hardscape isn't exactly our style... we thought we'd get started on its transformation.
First up on the list of DIY's: Backyard Edition - build a wood gate for our driveway. A modern horizontal wood gate to be exact. And technically it's near the front of the house, but because we're going to focus on the backyard for a bit, this modern wood gate is THE project that will launch the domino effect of projects to come.
So here we go.
Please note: I have never built a fence before in my life and not sure if building a whole gate should have been my first big DIY project EVER, but... here we are! 😂
Let's take a look at what our driveway looked like before:
Like I said before, we have not done anything to improve this area since we moved in. Just keeping it clean and not letting it get overrun by weeds. We have plans to work on the landscape soon - new rocks, maybe some turf, more green plants - but that's a few projects down the line.
1. Setting Posts for Doors/Frame
As you can see, we started from scratch. There was no existing gate to work with. Just a long open driveway. So the first thing we needed to do was add some posts to hold up the doors and framing for the side fencing. This required digging so we made sure to contact 811 beforehand so that the utility companies could come out and mark where we shouldn't dig. Once we were cleared, we started on our project. The first thing we did was attach a 2x4 post to our house on the left side of the gate. The reason for this is because our main gas line runs very close to this are and we weren't able to dig to put a post in the ground. So attaching this post to house was our only option. I measured and pre-drilled 3 holes in the wall as well as the 2x4. And then we screwed the wood to the house using lag bolts.
Then, to make sure the gate was as straight as possible, we ran a string line from this post all the way to the brick wall on the other side of the driveway. We totally eyeballed this one. Once the line was in, we drilled 2 holes (top and bottom) into the 2x4 and the brick wall, and then used masonry screws to secure the post.
Once that was done, we marked the ground where we wanted to door posts to go, using spray paint. We wanted our door opening to be about 10 feet wide. So once the ground was marked, Daniel got to digging the holes. The holes were approximately 2 feet deep and about a foot wide. We poured some gravel at the bottom before adding the concrete mix. We used Quikrete from Home Depot because it made this process a whole lot easier for us - just pour the bag in the hole and add water and that's it! No buckets or wheelbarrows needed at all.
2. Door Frame/Fence Frame
Next up, was building the frames for the doors. Since we wanted the opening to be 10 feet wide, each door measured about 5 feet wide. We cut the 2x4s down to size with a miter saw. And then we used an anti-sag gate kit I purchased from Amazon to put the frame together. The kit came with heavy duty hinges and screws that is good for doors up to 6 feet wide. So... fingers crossed 🤞 that our gate holds up. Tip: make sure to take precise measurements or your doors will not open/close properly.
I added a 2x4 to the middle of each door going vertically so that I would be able to screw the fence boards in the middle as well.
Once that was done, we measured and cut 2x4's to run horizontally from the posts on the house and brick wall, to the 4x4 posts. I pre-drilled pocket holes on each end and then secured them to the vertical posts with pocket screws. Then I added 2x4's to the frame in the spots that I would need to screw the fence boards to.
3. Installing The Wood Planks/Fence Boards
After we got all the framing up, it was time to attach the wood planks. I would have loved to use tongue and groove planks, but with the cost of lumber these days, we used regular cedar dog eared fence boards that we cut down to size. Cedar is naturally resistant to most bugs and moisture and water damage. AND it's also lighter in weight, which I'm hoping will help keep the gate from sagging.
I learned that some metal screws would cause some discoloration to happen in cedar wood over time, so to prevent any kind of that nonsense happening, we used stainless steel screws just to be safe.
I didn't want a lot of space in between planks, but still needed to leave a little space to allow for any expansion or shrinkage when the weather changes. So for that, we used business cards as spacers. I call that being resourceful 😉.
4. Sanding/Staining Fence Boards
I actually did this BEFORE doing everything else because I wanted to make sure to get the front, back and the sides stained to protect the wood so it lasts longer. I spent about 2 days sanding all the boards. And then another 2-3 days were spent staining. And because it's been such a hot summer so far here in California, I was only able to really work on it for about 3 hours in the morning and some evenings.
I really wanted a teak wood colored gate so this is the stain we got from Lowe's.
I have seen some people stain before installation and I have also seen people do it afterwards. Obviously I am no expert and I can only assume that it's a matter of preference. I can't say one method is better than the other... I'll just say YOU DO YOU!
And there you have it! A horizontal modern wood gate for our Spanish styled home.
I am very pleased with how it all turned out! Did we do a good job or what? Let me know what ya think in the comments below!
Here's a list of everything we used:
MATERIALS
2x4 Douglas fir
4x4 redwood
dog eared cedar fence boards
Quikrete
TOOLS
masonry drill bit
drill bits/screw bits
paint brush
HARDWARE
masonry screws
lag bolts
stainless steel screws
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Tags: #DIY #modernwoodgate #homeimprovement #horizontalwoodgate #spanishstylehomes #spanishcolonial #spanishrevival #diy #diyit
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