Why the hardware matters as much as the timber

A timber gate lives a hard life. Every swing levers its entire weight against two or three small patches of metal, and the wood around those fixings swells, shrinks and shifts with every change in the weather. Choose the hinges and latches well and a decent gate will hang true for fifteen years with nothing more than the odd twist of a spanner. Choose them badly and you will be re-hanging it, planing it and swearing at it twice a year.

Three things should drive your choice: the weight and size of the gate, how exposed the position is, and how often the gate is used. A sheltered side gate opened twice a day needs far less than a coastal driveway gate that is swung open by every delivery driver in the county.

Choose hinges that can carry the load

Hinges are the part that fails first, almost without exception. Undersized hinges do not just wear out — they let the gate drop until it drags on the ground and the latch stops lining up.

• T-hinges and strap hinges are the workhorses. A useful rule of thumb is that the hinge should be roughly a third of the gate's width, so a 900mm gate wants something around 300mm. Light garden gates can get away with 200mm; heavy drive gates want 600mm or more.
• Hook and band hinges (also sold as band and gudgeon) fix the pin to the post and the band to the gate, so the gate lifts straight off for maintenance or storage. Look for a cranked version if the gate needs to swing back flat against a wall.
• Use three hinges on anything taller than about 1.5m or heavier than around 25kg. The middle hinge takes the strain that would otherwise pull the top one out of the stile.
• Adjustable hinges with slotted plates or a turnbuckle are worth the extra few pounds on a heavy gate. They let you correct a sag in five minutes rather than re-drilling the whole stile.

Match the finish to the weather

In a British garden, the finish on the metal matters more than the colour. Bare mild steel will be speckled with rust before the first autumn is out.

• Hot-dip galvanised hardware is the sensible default for exposed sites. The zinc coating is thick and sacrificial, so it keeps protecting the steel even when scratched. It looks grey, which suits oak and treated softwood well enough.
• Stainless steel is the right answer within a mile or so of the coast. Grade A2 copes with most gardens; grade A4 is worth specifying where salt spray is a genuine problem.
• Powder-coated black steel looks superb on a smart painted gate, but every chip becomes a rust point. Keep a can of cold galvanising spray in the shed and touch in any damage as soon as you spot it.
• Black japanned or self-coloured steel is traditional and inexpensive, but it must be primed and painted before fitting and repainted every couple of years. Fine for a sheltered town garden, hopeless on a hilltop.

One small trap: do not mix metals carelessly. Stainless screws in galvanised hinges are fine in practice, but plain steel fixings against stainless or aluminium will corrode quickly. If in doubt, keep the whole assembly stainless or keep it all galvanised.

Latches that suit the way the gate is used

A latch has to do two jobs: hold the gate shut reliably, and be easy to work with cold hands and an armful of shopping.

• Slide bolts are simple and near-indestructible. Choose one long enough that the bolt engages fully into the post — 100mm or more on a heavy gate. A padlockable version is worth fitting on a drive gate.
• Thumb or Suffolk latches are the traditional choice for a garden gate and are genuinely easy to operate one-handed. Insist on an adjustable keeper so you can take up the slack as the wood moves.
• Ring latches need a lift-and-twist action, which makes them a good choice where you would rather a small child or an ambitious dog could not open the gate.
• Gravity and self-latching catches drop shut behind you. Fit a handle on both faces if the gate is used from either side.
• Double gates need the first leaf secured with a drop bolt into the ground before the second leaf is bolted to it, otherwise the pair will work loose and rack out of square.

If the gate must close itself, add a gate spring or a self-closing hinge, plus a hook to hold it open when you are carrying things through.

Fixings, fitting and the small details

Hardware is only as strong as what holds it on. On any gate over about 20kg, through-bolt the hinges and latches with cup square coach bolts rather than relying on screws alone. M8 bolts suit most gates; step up to M10 for a substantial drive gate. Use a washer under the head, drill a clearance hole through the metal and a pilot hole roughly the shank diameter in the timber, then finish with a dome nut so nothing snags.

For lighter work, stainless or sheradised screws of gauge 10 or 12 and 50–75mm long will do, again with pilot holes to stop the stile splitting. Position hinges near the top and bottom rails and set the latch on the closing side so it engages the post rather than the hinge stile. Leave 40–50mm of ground clearance so the gate can swell in winter without dragging.

Keeping everything moving through the seasons

Timber moves, and your hardware has to accommodate that. Walk the gate once after its first wet winter and tighten anything that has worked loose.

• Oil hinge pins twice a year with a light machine oil or silicone spray. Avoid heavy grease, which collects grit and turns into grinding paste.
• Re-coat any chipped hinge or latch with cold galvanising spray or metal paint before rust gets a hold.
• Adjust the latch keeper as the seasons change — a quarter-turn on a slotted plate is usually all that is needed.
• If the gate starts to sag, an adjustable hinge or a turnbuckle fitted to a diagonal brace will often save you from re-hanging the whole thing.

Spend a little more on the metal than feels comfortable, fit it properly, and your gate will quietly do its job for years while everyone else is out there with a plane and a screwdriver.