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Fence and Deck Building & Repair Experts
We are not putting a price on this page. A gate that needs its latch strike moved is a short visit. A gate whose hinge post has heaved or rotted is a post job first, and the post is most of the cost. The honest way to price it is to look at the post before anything else, which is also the order the repair goes in. A few photos of the gate, the hinge post at ground level and the gap at the latch are usually enough to tell which kind of job it is.
For most gates the repair is the whole story. A pool gate is different, because every Niagara pool by-law we have read says how the gate has to close and latch, and a gate that has sagged until it drags will not close by itself. These are the gate rules as each town wrote them. St. Catharines (pool enclosure and fence by-law page): fence and gates at least 5 feet above grade, no more than 2 inches clear underneath on grass or earth and 4 inches on concrete or asphalt, fence posts at least 3 feet below grade, and gates self-closing with a self-latching device at the top and inside of the gate, at least 4 feet above grade. Niagara Falls (Swimming Pool By-law 2014-58): every gate is "kept closed and locked at all times when the outdoor swimming pool is not under competent and immediate supervision" (s.4.3.1), hung on substantial hinges, with self-closing hardware capable of placing it in a latched position and self-latching hardware on the pool side (s.4.3.3). Section 4.5.3 says the enclosure is maintained so as to ensure, "at all times", protection against entry by unauthorized persons. Thorold (Pool By-law 27-2008): the same closed-and-locked rule (s.4.3.1) and the same hinge, self-closing and pool-side self-latching requirements (s.4.3.3). West Lincoln (Swimming Pool By-law 2017-48): no gate may remain "in a condition other than closed and locked" without immediate competent supervision (s.4.3.1). Self-closing hardware must put the gate in a closed and latched position, and the self-latching hardware sits on the pool side or inside the gate frame (s.4.3.3). Niagara-on-the-Lake (Swimming Pool By-law 5155-19): self-closing hardware, and a self-latching device at least 1.22 m (4 ft) above ground on the pool side. Any thumb latch or release on the outside face that works that latch has to be at least 1.52 m (5 ft) up (s.4.4.3). The enclosure must give maximum security "at all times" (s.4.5.3). Welland (Swimming Pool Enclosure By-law 2022-70): a self-closing device is one that returns the gate to closed "within 30 seconds" after it is opened (s.2.20). Every gate has a self-closing device and a lockable self-latching device on the inside face near the top. A metal gate needs a cover plate at least 0.3 m by 0.3 m and 6.3 mm thick over the latch from the outside. On a double gate, one leaf self-closes and self-latches and the other is held by a device fixed to the ground. Pelham (Swimming Pool and Hot Tub By-law 60-2023): gates of the same materials as the fence, with self-closing and self-latching devices on the pool side, "so as to prohibit entry by closing and latching at all times" (s.4.8(a)). Port Colborne (Pool By-law 4843/68/06): a self-closing gate with the latch on the top inside, and every gate kept locked when the pool is unoccupied. Fort Erie and Grimsby: we have not read their pool by-laws, so we are not stating a rule. Ask the town. What this means in practice: if your pool gate no longer swings shut and latches on its own, it does not do what your town's by-law describes, whether or not the pool is closed for the season. None of these by-laws gives a winter exception in the gate clauses quoted above. When we repair a pool gate, we fix the post and the gate first and then test that it closes and latches by itself from fully open.
A gate that worked in September and drags in December has usually not changed shape on its own. Something under it moved. A Canadian farm writer put it plainly in Grainews: "One of the main factors in gatepost failure is frost. In moist soil, frost will push the post out of the ground, and as the post rises the weight of the gate begins to pull the post over." A residential gate fails the same way, only lighter. There are two things to check, and the post comes first. The post: grab the hinge post and try to move it. In This Old House's repair walk-through, contractor Tom Silva says a loose or rotting post is often the main cause of a sagging gate. Dig a little below ground level and push a flathead screwdriver into the wood. If it goes in no more than about 1/2 inch, the core is sound enough to be re-set, by plumbing the post, bracing it, and filling around it. If it goes in further, the post is replaced. Check the latch post too. If it has moved, the latch will miss even on a square gate. The gate itself: measure it corner to corner both ways. If the two diagonals differ, the gate is out of square, and half the difference is how far it is out (49 and 47 inches means 1 inch). In almost every sagging gate the bottom of the latch side has dropped. It is pulled back up with a strap or long clamp run from the top hinge-side corner to the bottom latch-side corner, then held square with corner braces fastened into each corner. Only after the post is steady and the gate is square is it worth adjusting the latch and strike plate, or replacing rusted hinges. Adjusting a latch on a gate whose post is still moving fixes it until the next thaw. Farm gates are the same problem with more weight on the post. The Grainews writer hangs a 14- to 16-foot gate on a wood post six to eight inches across, or a six-inch pipe. He sets it with a concrete thrust block on the bottom 10 to 12 inches of the post, at least 30 inches down, in a hole about three times the post's width, braces the gate post back to the next post with tensioned wire, and builds a step block under the free end so the gate rests on it open or closed. Those are one experienced builder's numbers, not a code. Peter repairs gates, farm gates included, on top of building fences, decks, pergolas and sheds across Niagara. If your gate has started to drag or will not latch, use the contact details below, send a photo, and tell him which town you are in.
Usually because the post moved, not the gate. Frost lifts a post set in wet soil, and the weight of the gate then pulls the post over, so the latch side drops and misses the strike. Check the hinge post and the latch post before adjusting the latch.
Dig a little below ground level and push a flathead screwdriver into the post. In This Old House's repair guide, a post the screwdriver enters no more than about 1/2 inch is sound enough to be re-set. A post it goes further into is replaced.
Measure both diagonals. Half the difference is how far out it is. Pull the bottom of the latch side back up with a strap or clamp from the top hinge-side corner to the bottom latch-side corner, then fasten corner braces to hold it square.
In every Niagara pool by-law we have read, yes. St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Thorold, West Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Welland, Pelham and Port Colborne all require a self-closing gate with a latch, and Welland defines self-closing as shut within 30 seconds. We have not read Fort Erie's or Grimsby's.
It depends on the town. St. Catharines says at least 4 feet above grade at the top inside of the gate. Niagara-on-the-Lake says at least 1.22 m on the pool side, with any outside release at least 1.52 m up. Welland and Port Colborne say near or at the top of the gate on the inside.
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