Loading…
5
My gate latch gave out on a windy Tuesday and my dog got out for 20 minutes
Last Tuesday the latch on my backyard gate finally gave up after about six years of slamming shut. A gust hit it around 3pm and the whole thing swung open, and my beagle made a run for the neighbor's yard before I even noticed. I chased him down the block in my socks and got him back, then zip tied the gate shut just to get through the night. The next morning I pulled the old latch off and found the screws had rusted almost all the way through the wood. Should I swap in a heavy duty slide bolt or just move the latch to a fresh spot on the post?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
irisg577d ago
Wait, the screws rusted through the wood but that doesn't mean the latch itself was the problem... wood rot is what actually killed your hold. If the wood around those holes is soft and mushy, moving the latch to a fresh spot won't help much because that new spot is probably the same age and same wet post. I'd poke around with a screwdriver first and see if the wood crumbles. If it does, you need to fix the wood before any latch will hold, like filling the holes with wood epoxy or bolting straight through the post. If the wood is solid, then a heavy duty slide bolt is a solid pick since beagles are escape artists.
6