garden gate is sagging

[Jupiter01]

I was quite impressed when I built this gate around 5 weeks ago:

However, several weeks on, it is becoming unusable. The top left is scraping against the wall and the holes for the bolts are misaligned.

It needs to be lifted up and slammed hard in order to shut.

Can I please have your advice on how this can be resolved. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bouy]

In theory a frame made like that in hangman gallows style should not drop if the joints a 100% fixed. But I assume the joints are screwed joints and with such a light frame its obvious that the weight of your slats have pulled it out of alignment. Only thing I would suggest (bar a new gate) is jack it up back into alignment from underneath the outer edge and then fix (screw and glue) substantial gusset plates out of 12mm ply at the joint locations. Another contributing factor may be that the hanging post has been pulled out of vertical?

 

[pcaouolte]

It would have been better if it was built to hang at 90 degrees to the way you have it now, so that the top of the gate was the piece of wood at the top of your first photo of it laying on the grass. In this way the diagonals would have been nearer to vertical rather than nearer to horizontal and would have offered more support to the frame.

Are the vertical slats of wood nailed to the diagonal braces? If not you may be able to jack the gate back into the correct position and nail every slat to both diagonals and the centre bar (preferably with two nails in each slat at every point where the slat crosses a frame member, a total of 10 nails in each vertical slat). This might be enough to stop it dropping again.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The post upon which it hangs/hinges has moved. Could the post be braced with a length of timber from it, back to the wall?