How to Protect Your Wooden Gate this Winter
If you have a wooden gate within your household, you will know how important it is to keep it well protected, especially when winter is on its way. Wooden gates can especially suffer badly due to the harsh elements of winter weather compared to other seasons. To help keep your wooden gate in tip-top condition as winter approaches this year, read on for some helpful tips.
Maintenance
It is important to regularly check your wooden gate. By doing so, you can quickly find faults, and fix any damage before it gets worse and becomes a bigger issue. Especially remember to check over your wooden gates if there has just been a lot of heavy weather such as a storm.
Focus on Protecting the Wood
Some preservatives can be applied to the wood to help protect it against decay, mould, and fungi, but you need to select the correct preservative for the wood type of your gate and post. For example, wood that has already been pressure treated has protection against damp, mould and insects and would not require the same treatment as freshly sawn timber. Keep in mind that a pressure-treated wood that is more than a year old can be treated with a preservative but make sure it’s one that is specifically designed for pressure-treated woods.
Keep the Base of the Posts Dry
Make sure the gatepost does not make contact with any moist ground. This is because if water has collected at the base of the post-it can quickly rot. A top tip is to install a concrete or pressure-treated gravel boards which protect against moisture and rot.
Overhanging Plants Should be Pruned
Why is this? Quite simply, think about if overhanging plants fell due to heavy winds, they could cause a lot of damage to your gate which would be costly to repair, even just the branches of plants that overhang nearby, so trim them back to avoid the risk. Sometimes, the weight of snow gathers onto branches and pulls them down on to a gate, so watch out for that too. Keep an eye out for piled-up snow this winter.
Keep Checks on Your Gate Posts
This is another important point, and the posts supporting your wooden gate should not be overlooked at all. You must have sturdy, stable posts so you can help ensure the gatepost stays strong and upright, especially when facing the harshness of winter weather. Remember, as it rains moisture mixes in with the soil making the ground softer, and so those posts must be held secure and straight. After all, the posts have a very important task of supporting the weight of your gate in all seasons. If you notice some movement, a little tip is to add additional post mix to the base of the post if any movement is noticed.
Hopefully, you now have a few tricks up your sleeve to help ensure your wooden gates are kept safe and secure, especially during the winter season. If you have any questions please get in touch with us, we’re always happy to help.
