Hinges are one of the most obvious items required when swinging any type of gates. Yet they are often not utilised to their fullest potential. Some of the hinges you can see in this article have been made to brace out the corner of the #woodengate. Some gate designs don’t lend them selves from an aesthetic point of view to wooden bracing. So to assist the structure of the gate its essential that every thing else that can be done is achieved. Along with assisting the gate with its structural strength, the hinge can also be made to be fully adjustable to future proof any settling down of the gates that can accur.

The only draw back to this type of hinge is cost! We at Mitech Joinery LTD often use purpose made hinges to achieve the best level of gate swinging and manufacturing possible, but at a cost of between £40 and £100 each hinge. In the long term its money well spent. Cheep galvanised hinges that are used on farm gates are very cost effective but also are very ill fitting as they are made abroad and are designed to go on 3inch field gates. Purpose made wooden gates are often two and three quaters thick.

In 2014 we saw a handful of  companies fail misrably when ignoring a good and well thought out hinge design and the devastating outcome that could have been avoided. Certain wooden gate designs need the full assistance in the corner to ensure the strength is given where

Perhaps there isn’t a lot of mid rail strength.

If you are serious about your gates, using purpose made hinges that cover different aspects of gate structure and flexibility for adjustment is definitely the best root to achieve a long hassle free swinging set of hardwood gates.