Fixing a gate that drags or will not latch
On an older lot in Clarksville or Tarrytown, a gate that scrapes the ground one summer and clears it the next is telling you the soil has moved, not the gate. The running record gate installation austin three word wednesday holds shows the same pattern across gate installation jobs in Austin, TX: a dragging corner or a missed latch is a symptom, and the cause sits in a post, a hinge or the frame.
Start with the posts
A level held on the hinge post tells most of the story. If the post leans toward the gate, the leaf droops at the latch end, whether it is an aluminum picket panel or a galvanized swing gate with a heavy frame. If it leans away, the gate pulls open and the latch gap widens. Check the gap between the two posts at the top and the bottom, because posts that have drifted toward each other pinch the leaf and posts that have drifted apart leave it loose in the opening.
Hinge or frame
With the gate unlatched, lift the free corner by hand. If the whole leaf rises with a small clunk at the hinge, the hinge is worn or the pin has slid. If the frame itself twists and the top rail shifts against the bottom, the frame has racked, usually because the diagonal brace is missing, broken or running the wrong direction. A racked steel frame can sometimes be pulled square with a come-along and a new brace welded in. A bent hinge pin is simply replaced.
When a latch can just be moved
If the post is plumb, the frame is square and the gate swings freely but the latch bar sits half an inch above or below its catch, the fix is to move the catch. Slotting the mounting holes or shimming the keeper plate lines it up in minutes. In Hyde Park, where old fences settle unevenly, this is often all a latch needs, and it saves a lot of unnecessary digging.
When a post must be reset
A post that leans in any direction, or one whose footing has heaved so it sits higher than before, has to come out. The old concrete footing is broken up, the hole reshaped, and the post set again plumb with fresh concrete. A cracked footing in expansive clay near Mueller or Bouldin Creek will usually keep moving if only patched. Resetting is slower, but it fixes the cause.
Ground clearance after repairs
Once everything is true, ground clearance is rechecked at the low corner of the swing. Shims behind the hinge lift the leaf if the ground came up, and the latch is adjusted last, so the catch lands exactly where the bar arrives.