Pick the Right Gates for Your Structure
You have to remember that if you are putting up a gate to go with a fence, you have to make sure that the gate goes well with your fence. This seems pretty straightforward. This almost seems like common sense. However, you’d be surprised as to how impractical people get when it comes time to picking out the gates for their security structure.
Make no mistake about it, your fence is a security structure. It sets the boundary between your property and your interior space and the outside world. It is a security structure, and any kind of security structure has to have a mechanism with which the external world can enter your internal world. This is called the gate.
This sounds so theoretical. It shouldn’t be. This is highly practical, but you have to look at it in a totally systematic and methodical way. Otherwise; you might pick the wrong gate, or you might pick the wrong fence, and all sorts of problems can take place. Either you don’t get the security you’re looking for or the structure looks bad. So here are some tips to help you pick out the right gates for your structure.
Works with your existing design
Gates are not standalone structures. They have to fit an existing design. Make sure that there is some sort of continuity between the gates that you are considering and the structure they are going to be part of. This is not big of a deal if the gate is going to be temporary. If you are just basically going to wall off a section, and you just need to get a temporary gate, then you shouldn’t pay attention to continuity unless the temporary period extends several years.
Functional
This is so basic that it’s tempting to leave this off completely. Unfortunately, too many homeowners completely miss this, and they end up picking a gate because it looks awesome.
Well, looks is definitely a great consideration, but you also have to pay attention to function. The gate must perform well. It must act like a gate. In many cases, when you look for gates that look a certain way, and you put it in a certain place or within a certain structure, a lot of its functionality are compromised. So there has to be a tight fit between function and looks and other considerations.
Versatile
Your gate must also be versatile enough because you don’t know what you would do with that particular opening. Maybe you might need to load really big objects into your inner space of your structure, or you might have to enter using a vehicle. Depending on your particular needs and depending on the foreseeable issues that you see in the future, you might need a more versatile gate.
Also, as part of versatility, you might want to look into how easy it would be to upgrade the grade. You have to remember, needs change. Something might look awesome now might now look awesome in the future. Also, you might have different plans for that particular section of your structure in the near term or over the long term. So always factor in some sort of flexibility because you don’t want to paint yourself in the corner. You don’t want to spend all these dollars putting up a gate only to tear it down in a relatively short period of time.