Does this gate construction look okay to you?

[berkeman]

I was helping with a disaster preparedness presentation at a local elementary school last night, and noticed this fence gate in front of the school. I'm not an ME, but it looks to me to have a small problem...?

 

[jerromyjon]

The diagonal reinforcing cable on the left gate is pulling it into the ground, not up like the right side gate...

 

[256bits]

The grass is not growing like on the right.
The handle is too high for a kid to reach -You have to be "This Big" to use this gate.
It's locked - is that to keep the kids in, or the cars out.
An asymmetrical look to the gate. Come on, the kids will think all gates should be like that after 6 years of being there.

 

[1oldman2]

The grass is not growing like on the right.
The handle is too high for a kid to reach -You have to be "This Big" to use this gate.
It's locked - is that to keep the kids in, or the cars out.
An asymmetrical look to the gate. Come on, the kids will think all gates should be like that after 6 years of being there.

Also the center locking rod is somewhat out of plumb, that along with the reinforcing cable jerromyjon noted totally blows the asthetics.

 

[jerromyjon]

Come on, the kids will think all gates should be like that after 6 years of being there.

I wouldn't have. And would have insisted my friends concur or beat it! (I was really picked on a lot for being too smart, go figure) My best friend and I were most vicious towards each other, it became common to act this way until I learned sympathy!

So now I ask the deeper and more intuitive question of what is the very first indication of illogical construction? I had to really dig deep and go back and remember thinking about it before I saw the conflict of asymmetry. Is there any other way to get the "tip-off" that anyone realizes?

 

[Bystander]

Hinge size.

 

[256bits]

I wouldn't have. And would have insisted my friends concur or beat it! (I was really picked on a lot for being too smart, go figure) My best friend and I were most vicious towards each other, it became common to act this way until I learned sympathy!

So now I ask the deeper and more intuitive question of what is the very first indication of illogical construction? I had to really dig deep and go back and remember thinking about it before I saw the conflict of asymmetry. Is there any other way to get the "tip-off" that anyone realizes?

Well, the left gate is not an exact mirror image of the right gate.
And it really is much too busy in the middle "locking" section, for an artistic merit award IMO.
As for a "tip off" - you will know a really good looking gate when you see one. to me this one looks like a rather than a .

 

[256bits]

I was helping with a disaster preparedness presentation at a local elementary school last night, and noticed this fence gate in front of the school. I'm not an ME, but it looks to me to have a small problem...?

View attachment 97927

Did you ask them to show you how it opens up? That centre seems to be connected to both gates, but difficult to tell since zooming pixelates the photo for me.

 

[berkeman]

Did you ask them to show you how it opens up? That centre seems to be connected to both gates, but difficult to tell since zooming pixelates the photo for me.

The hinges are on the outsides, and the center tie post just has a lock for both gates.

Yeah, the support cable looks wrong for the left gate. It should go from the top hinge corner down to the far corner, to help support the weight of the gate. Not sure how in the world the fence building company could manage to get that wrong, but it's been there for many years now. Luckily that gate hardly ever gets used...

 

[Dan S.]

The hinges also look weird, don't they? The top hinge doesn't seem to be taking any weight, the gate rests on the bottom one, while the top hinge is only there to keep it from falling. Or is this a standard arrangement for this type of gate (so the kids couldn't lift it off the hinges easily or something like that) ?.

 

[berkeman]

The hinges also look weird, don't they? The top hinge doesn't seem to be taking any weight, the gate rests on the bottom one, while the top hinge is only there to keep it from falling. Or is this a standard arrangement for this type of gate (so the kids couldn't lift it off the hinges easily or something like that) ?.

Several good questions about the hinges. I'll go take some better closeup pics tomorrow, and maybe try to find out what company the city used to build the fences. Dumb mistake, IMO.

 

[256bits]

The hinges are on the outsides, and the center tie post just has a lock for both gates.

Yeah, the support cable looks wrong for the left gate

Yes, jerromyjon, saw that right away.

I am wondering how by unlocking the gate it is still able to open up.
The clasp from the right gate seems to bolted around the tie post.
It could be just a matter of resolution of that mechanism

 

[jerromyjon]

The clasp from the right gate seems to bolted around the tie post.

That looks like it will just limit the distance you can lift the center pole, which probably only needs inches to clear the hole which retains it. It is really difficult to see with the limited resolution.

 

[gjonesy]

The turn buckle on the left gate is backwards, but the gussets are welded in so there isn't much you can do with that. If it functions as it is and isn't a safety concern then I'd say let if fly, if not then it will have to be modified or rebuilt.