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Buying Metal Gate Posts.


Ysatis
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Evening.

I've been looking at both Broco Depot and Leroy Merlin websites for gates and we are interested in one like this:

http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/node/1398591

Does anybody know if / where you can buy metal gate posts to go with them as I'm assuming they don't come supplied with the gate. I have seached both websites and can't find any.

Regards.

Ysatis

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The gates in the link are not much different to what we bought from them about 10 years ago except ours have the curved top.

They are heavy and to be honest they won't mount on a metal gate post. The type of mounting with these gates means you need concrete going between the gate posts. This is because they use 'pegs' to swing on. The bottom of the gate on which it swings has a peg sticking out which goes in to a hole with a tube in that is drilled into the ground hence the concrete. There is another for the top which comes with a bracket which is mounted in to the brick gate pillar when you build it.

What I did was to buy some black gate hinges then drill the gates and bolt them on. I then drilled the pillars to mount the other half of the hing, the pin piece, in to the pillar. We have electric gates so I then had to drill and mount the rams to open and close the gates. The pillar also holds the bell and intercom unit.

Hinge on gate.

http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/node/479546

'Pin' in concrete pillar (when you built it fron scratch).

http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/node/469477

Because of the weight I think the metal posts will bend in time is not almost immediately. By far the best way is concrete pillars. Fortunately they are not that difficult to build because the pillars come in square, hollowed sections which you simply 'stick' together until you get the required height. Once you have done that then you mount you door bell and or intercom unit, place some conduit inside for the wires and knock a small hole out the bottom of the pillar and run the conduit out.

Link for pillars.

http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/materiaux-materiel-cloture/parpaing-beton-briques/murets-et-piliers-beton

Next job is to fill the pillar with concrete, sounds a pain but there is not a lot actually. One and a half wheel barrows worth of concrete will usually fill a pillar. You need some reinforcement bar to put in first like in the link below.

Link for reinforcement.

http://www.bricodepot.fr/dissay/node/467528

Once done you can stick a 'cap' on the top.

A tip - When you fill the pillar make sure there is a hole in the bottom, about and inch and a half round. If you don't the concrete may not go all the way down because there will be air in the pillar. Make a bung for the hole before hand and once you get an airless flow out the bottom put the bung in. What comes out can be added back to the top. Make sure it is a 'wet' mix i.e. reasonably runny.

I can't remember the name of the 'glue' you stick the pillars together with. It's not sand and cement it's white stuff you mix just with water. Don't look at and think it looks naff because it sticks like sh*t to a blanket and its very strong.

DONT FORGET TO PUT THE HINGE PINS IN WHEN BUILDING THE PILLARS [;-)]

 

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Sorry Quilla, but as someone who's business was gate automation and who did all the installs his-self a lot of your thoughts are way off.

The ground tube can be welded to a steel post, no need to go to the lengths that you did, but hey we are all working in the dark the first time especially in another country! The rest of Europe (where a ground hinge is used) uses a raised pin on the ground and a corresponding socket on the gate, that way it cant fill up with water and wear prematurely, I still have loads of these bits in stock if the OP wants some.

The French pilier system is very strong but I must add that the re-inforcing rods must be cast into the foundation or the whole pillar will be weak at the point of maximum stress, the bottom, I have seen many cracked at this point which leaves a huge wobbly mass. The upper hinge fixing into the pillar must be done quite deep to engage in the concrete, chemical anchors are the best.

UK type brick pillars are the worst of all even when concrete filled, I would always use a steel post to support the gates either behind them on existing pillars or in the core for new ones so you see a steel pillar is actually the preferred method.

As for it bending over time, if it is so undersized that the material goes beyond its elastic limit then the permanent deformation will be apparent immediately, I can see that with your aircraft experience you would be concerned about fatigue but the frequency of operation of a gate is inferior by a magnitude in the order of millions.

A correctly sized post will have no discernible deflection when the gates are hung and that is how it will stay, an experienced fabricator/installer will often select a smaller size (more profit) and set them slightly bowed as he will know the amount of initial deflection when they are hung, a steel post inside a brick pillar backfilled with concrete can be even more undersized.

The biggest problem with gates is ground heave/movement and hinge wear, I always used adjustable hinges to counteract both of these, a lot of my gates were for utilities and in intensive use, they dont seem to be freely available in France, in places where ground heave was a real problem, and my area of France is one I would use steel pillars welded to a transverse RSJ laid in a trench across the gateway which would hold the whole lot rigid whatever the ground movement.

So to the OP, I have not seen pre-fabricated steel posts for sale here in France so you will have to approach a ferronier to make you some, I would advise you to first source some decent adjustable top hinges, the bottom ones can be fixed but if you use the concealed ground type then use the one where the female socket is in the gate not the ground, I am not sure if the féronnnier will have access to these or the adjustable hinges.

Italy is the place for all things relating to gates and their automation, if like me your Italian is non existant then try these people in the UK: http://www.bft.co.uk/jsp/en/azienda-dovesiamo/index.jsp

The hinges etc come under the range "rolling stock" or at least they used to, also consider buying one of their ground stops as the ones with the French gates are pretty useless and present a trip hazard.

 

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[quote user="Chancer"]

The French pilier system is very strong but I must add that the re-inforcing rods must be cast into the foundation or the whole pillar will be weak at the point of maximum stress, the bottom, I have seen many cracked at this point which leaves a huge wobbly mass. The upper hinge fixing into the pillar must be done quite deep to engage in the concrete, chemical anchors are the best............

The biggest problem with gates is ground heave/movement and hinge wear, I always used adjustable hinges to counteract both of these, a lot of my gates were for utilities and in intensive use, they dont seem to be freely available in France, in places where ground heave was a real problem, and my area of France is one I would use steel pillars welded to a transverse RSJ laid in a trench across the gateway which would hold the whole lot rigid whatever the ground movement.

[/quote]

Yes your quit right, the reinforcing needs to be in the concrete base when you pour the pad, sorry about omitting that.

I don't like the French system for exactly the reason you stated, ground heave and of course general uneven ground. By using the hinge system you can have the gates about 10cm off the ground to start with and any 'drooping' etc over the years is easily fixed by placing washers over the pins on the gate post. It means the tops of the gates are always level with each other when closed, I always think they look terrible if one droops a bit and is not level. The other problem with the French system is if you have paving and when it freezes if the paving is not laid properly. My friend has this problem, the ground rises a bit in freezing weather and the gates scrape across the ground. You can't lift them because of the top fixing bracket which is a pain. I suggested to him that if he replaces the gate he uses hinges.

Somebody gave a link to the Leroy Merlin post kit. Only one end users comment and it said it all. The price is for one post and doesn't include the nice fascia shown in the picture which when added to the cost makes them €272 each! Just the cost of one complete pillar is probably more than you would pay to do it yourself, the total price comes in at nearly €600 when you add all the other bits and bobs like laying the pad and 'stick' it all together.

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Yes the aesthetics of gates looks awfull when they start moving around, re the ground heave well it can and will happen with any surface, block paving at least moves with it and doesnt crack, see here some photos of the paving I did in my back yard, when we get the real frost it feels like you are walking on the surface of a hot air balloon, you cant see it in the first picture but look at what happens just under the surface in the 3rd one!!!

Sorry cant help you, the new and improved Photobucket that has been forced on me has now decided that all the photos that I have uploaded over the years no longer exist, or at least I cannot access them [:(]

A friend has just had some block paving done by a French contractor at an absolutely eye watering price, he first lays a concrete slab before laying the paviours on a very thin screed of sand, no jointing sand is used either, its contrary to all UK and European practices but half the guys over here do it that way and opinions are divided and polarised on the subject.

It is less likely to move with ground heave granted but when it does it will crack and become uneven, also there is no way fro the water to drain from it so the degel just under the blocks will wreak havoc, still it looks good which is all they seem to care about except when it comes to hanging gates.

The hinge system you have i did exactly the same with my garage doors, as you say you can raise and lower the doors/gates by adding or removing washers but what you cannot do is re-align the gates if you havnt got the hinges/posts absolutely spot on or more importantly when the hinges wear, that type wear very very quickly when the gates are automated unless they get very little use which was why I used hardened and sleeved hinges, with bearings for the really heavy stuff and always a laterally adjustable top hinge

Editted, if you have the gates 10cm off the ground then the gate stop will become a real trip hazard not to mention ripping out spoilers, bumpers and sumps of vehicles, I ripped the front bumper off my Skoda which is not exactly a lowrider when visiting an english builder.

Another problem is that if the driveway slopes up in the direction that the gate opens then you need a bigger and bigger gap or to muck around with offset rising type hinge geometry which can make the gates look very drunk when open.

I did once see a really slick cast iron gate stop with the minimum of projection, a little pin on the gate would engage with it when closing and it would pivot up to create a substantial stop

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Looks like I can access the photos now!

[IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Houses/CIMG2644.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Houses/CIMG0745.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Houses/CIMG2641.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff295/jr7man/Houses/CIMG2642.jpg[/IMG]

P.S. I used your type of hinges for the cellar trapdoors, cut down and welded.

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It will be a pleasure, at least in that trade things havnt changed a lot, I was reading on another forum about CCTV and realised that due to technological changes my years of experience are worth nothing at all.

Still it proves that I was right to follow my instinct and get out when I did.

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