and how easy it is to build these things. Depending on the size of the gate, you'll be getting pickets,
you'll be getting some rails, you're getting your end posts, and you'll get some diagonal
bracing and your U-channel. You're also gonna get four rail locks that's going in the top and bottom of each of your end posts. You're getting your hole plugs, you're getting your self-tappers, and you are getting two caps and that's what's coming in your kit. When you get these gate kits, it is not specifically one size. The cool thing about it is, you can customize it
for your gate opening. One thing you're gonna want to do is know the space between your posts. We're gonna stick with 70 inches. So we have a 70-inch opening, if you buy our hinges, our latches, I know the measurement for that, but it's always very important
to make sure you know, if you buy something else,
to get those measurements. I know that my latch is gonna be one inch. I know that my hinge is gonna be one inch. So I have a 70-inch opening and I need to subtract two inches, so that's gonna gimme 68 inches. So I know when I build my gate, my hinges are gonna be over here. My diagonal brace is gonna go like this. We do this because it puts
pressure on your hanging side, on your hinges, and on your post. That is the proper way to do it. So now we know what our
gate width needs to be. This is part of our routing process, you don't have to worry about this. This will be pre-routed when it comes. (upbeat guitar music)
(tools whirring) All right, so when you get
your kit, you open it up, you've figured out your math. One of the first things
you gotta do after that is distinguish between
the top of your post and the bottom of your post. These are gonna come ready to go for you. The top piece right here is
always gonna be two inches. We do that just kind of
as a decorative piece. And once you've distinguished that, you can go ahead and
put your U-channel on. You secure it with three screws. You put it in the center
of this rail right here and you just flush it up with the top and the bottom is gonna be
pretty much the same thing. And we're gonna put both these
on and then go from there. You can see when he is screwing these in, he's not going super fast. We do that because we don't
wanna strip the screw. If you just zip those things in, you're gonna strip the screw and it'll kind of just weaken it. There is no correct place
to put these screws. We put it roughly, you know, an inch or two up from the bottom, both sides here and then
just right in the middle, no specific place. So what we're doing is
we are cutting our rails. Now I set my gate at 68 inches wide, from outside to outside, and what I have to do is subtract the thickness of this post. So to do that, you can
subtract the quarter inch if you figure it out that each piece is, you know, an eighth inch,
and subtract your quarter. Or you can do it this
way, I like easy math. So whatever works best for you. So I'll cut two rails at sixty-seven and three quarter inches. (upbeat music begins) We'll do that real quick. So, we are gonna cut ours on a chop saw. We have one set up ready for us 'cause we do this on a daily basis. If you don't have a chop
saw, you can use a skill saw. You don't really want to
use a reciprocating saw or a chainsaw, you don't wanna
use that, not the right tool. (upbeat music continues)
(saw whirring) This extra piece you get here, you can just donate it to the trash 'cause we don't need it. So now, we've got two rails. We got a top rail and a bottom rail and it does not matter which one is which. You just put 'em in there, whichever one, however you wanna do it. (upbeat music continues) So, now you can see here, that we have a gate that's 68 inches wide. So after we do that, we
will put our rail locks in, that'll come in with your kit. So you put it down in here like this and it's gonna fit right inside that post. You're gonna push it and you're gonna take these quarter by one hex head self-tappers and
you're gonna put two in there. You're gonna push on it
and you're gonna put it in. (electric tool whirring) Put your other one on the other side. (electric tool whirring) Just like that. And then we'll do the top. We do one side first so that way when you go to start
putting your pickets in, that it's easier just to handle. It just kind of ties these
two rails to that end post. (jazzy music begins) All right, so now that we got
that in, we slide this out. Now we can put our pickets in. Well, you can start these either way, they're a tongue and groove picket. You can start it with
a groove or the tongue, does not matter because once you're done you're not even gonna notice it. Yes, once you start with your groove in, then you have to follow
the next one the same way. That way they tie together. So I like to get the first
picket all the way up and in. (jazzy music continues) All right, so now we're to this point. So if I put this in, it's too much. We gotta cut this picket down. So, we can slide this in here. (jazzy music continues) So, now we have to run
our rails back in here and we gotta do that because
we have to figure out this gap. I've got this little piece in here and I have to do the math
to cut that little strip. You will have to do
this, it is inevitable. So, let's see, we are going to put our
tape measure right here. You can stick it inside this U-channel. And from the inside of there
to my little notch right here, this corner, it is three and five eighths. We need to cut our picket
down to that width. We'll go to the table saw. Let's say three and five eighths. So one thing you need to remember is that, when you cut this picket down, so we want this to match here, we wanna be cutting this down like this. So we want to cut this at
three and five eighths, I think I said. We wanna do that, we want
to utilize this piece. I cannot use this piece 'cause then they don't match, they don't connect and it won't work. (jazzy music continues)
(saw whirring) All right, so I've found, over time, that the easiest way to
get this in is by yourself and only pulling one of the rails out. Now your piece down
here is gonna come out, don't worry about that. You wanna stuff this piece so your piece is gonna match here, when you tighten it in, we're gonna stuff this picket in. Best place to do it is from the top and you slide it down. Get it in there. So then you kind of gotta lift up on this and you kind of gotta push it in there. There it goes. Now once you're done with
that, all your pickets are in, and you can see right here where you don't even notice
where you started or stopped with your tongue and groove. Same with this side. It's like it's not even there. I do always like to double check and make sure my gate is
still at 68 inches wide, because if I do cut this
piece wrong right here, this little strip that I have to add, then it's gonna throw off the measurement and if I cut it too wide, it's gonna make my gate too
wide and we don't want that. It's not gonna fit. So now we get to put our
last two rail locks in. (upbeat music begins)
(tools whirring) What I like about these gate
kits and vinyl especially, is it's super easy to put together, it's a great way to do stuff by yourself. Now that we've got all
four of the rail locks in, you can see that our gate's
not gonna come apart, our posts aren't gonna come
off, it's all tied together. We are gonna go ahead and
do our diagonal pieces. We put these on here like an X. So let's go to the drawing board. And I'll show you why we do that. Oh, I need a marker. The reason we do these cross
braces the way I'm showing you is just for strength
and kind of for appeal. We do one this way, kind of like I was showing
you in the beginning, for your hinge post, for structure. Now, when you get to the other side, you wanna put it the other way. So it's gonna look like
this on the other side. So if you were to see through your gate and your pickets weren't there, your diagonal piece would look like an X. If you hang this gate
wrong, it doesn't matter, because no matter which
way you turn this gate it still has one of the diagonals that's serving as a structural purpose and the other one is just there for looks. So as long as you have
that one, you're good. We're gonna start on our diagonal piece. What we do is we lay it across the gate on top of the post from
top corner to bottom corner and we set it in here just like this so we can cut it off after we figure out exactly where it's gonna be. Get it at a rough spot and
then we do it at the top. Once we get it at the top
here, then we draw our line. Now this is our cut line. I use permanent marker
because it's easy to see and as long as you cut your marker off, it's not gonna be there. If you're worried about your cut mark, use a pencil, it'll come off easier. So now we're gonna go to
the chop saw and cut it. (upbeat music continues)
(saw whirring) And now we have our piece and you can see that we have a diagonal. So now we can come up
here, lay it in here. Now when we do this, we
always start at the top. So, this is where you're
gonna need a couple tools. You're gonna need a five-eighths hole bit, these paddle bits work really well, in my opinion, they work the best. And then you're gonna need your driver for your tek head screws
and it is a three-eighths. I always make sure that my two pieces are gonna be flush together. I don't want to do it like
this, I want it to be nice. So I always just lay it to where my line, my gap is always closed. I come up in this top corner and I go pretty slow just to start, and I just kinda let the bit do the work. (guitar music begins)
(power tool whirring) And you're gonna punch a hole. (guitar music continues)
(power tool whirring) So, I always like to put these first two right in line with this post, just so it's kind of straight like that. And then the next one, you can kind of do it however you want, but whatever you do, you
wanna match everything. You want to do all of
'em exactly the same. On these ones I like to come out and kind of make a long triangle. So I'll come over here and
put this one right here. (guitar music continues)
(power tool whirring) If you're looking at this, roughly you want to be at, you know, at least a quarter inch
away from that cut line. You get any closer and you risk splitting
that rail right there, and you don't want that. So now you got these little
plugs that we drilled out. You don't have to get
'em out, but I like to. So now I use my impact and I put these quarter
by one self-tappers and I try to kit it as flush
to the top of that rail as possible. (guitar music continues)
(power tool whirring) And this one is also important
to remember to go slow, so you don't strip those out 'cause this is a structural piece and you wanna make sure it's good to go. So now we can go do the bottom. You want to mimic
everything you did up there. If you wanna get out your tape
measure and do it like that, you absolutely can. But if you're pretty good at, you know, eyeballing and getting
as close as you can, nobody's gonna know the difference and it'll look just as good. (guitar music continues)
(power tool whirring) So now if you look here, you can see that there's a
tiny bit of a gap right here. That's not really a problem,
it's pretty easy to fix. I just put my hand over here
and I just push up on it, that's all I'm doing, I'm just giving it a little push, just taking that extra step to, you know, make it look as nice as possible. (power tool whirring) And I make sure I hold
that where it needs to be for all three screws. That way I know it'll be where it's supposed to be when I'm done. (power tool whirring) So on the middle what you
do is you find center, 'cause you're gonna put
three screws in here just to kind of hold it to these pickets. These are all equally spaced pretty much. This one came out actually perfect, to where it's the exact
same width as all these, my little cutoff piece. So, I mean, I can just count. I can go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. So I know this is probably my center. What we don't want to do, is we don't want to screw
into this little groove. We want to be offset just a little bit. I can still put my hole right over that, (power tool whirring) and miss that groove. So, you're not gonna be able
to get those pieces out, they're just gonna have to stay in there. Yeah, so one thing you gotta remember too, is we got different screws here. We're not gonna be using
the hex head anymore. We have the Phillips head self-tappers. It's only three quarters of an inch and your picket is only
seven-eighths inch. So you use these smaller
ones for right here and this is, again, is just to hold this diagonal
brace to the pickets. I can go just to the left
or right of that line. I can go in nice and slow until
it stops and I'm good to go. When you're looking down at it, my hole's still gonna be right in line, it's gonna look pretty, but if you look in there, my
screw is off to the right. So now you can see there is
a picket from here to here, this is one picket. I want to now go into another picket. So from this point, I would
go however far you want. I usually just try to go 12 inches, but I also want to make sure I try to get it into another picket. If you're going too far,
it's not really gonna work because you don't want
to get too close to this. You really wanna stay in the
middle sections of your gate. So, I will just count two over and I'm gonna put one right
here into the next picket. (power tool whirring) If you wanna be completely accurate, you can take your tape measure. On center, we got 11 and a half inches. Now Jack, he can drill this other one at 11 and a half inches
and that way it matches. (power tool whirring) So, now this is where
your hole plugs come in. (clicking) Once they're popped in, it
looks nice, looks flush, you don't have any holes. (clicking continues) And that's one side. Now we have to do the other. (upbeat music) So, I've got a nice carpeted area here, I do not recommend you
sliding it like that on your concrete or, you know, your rocks or gravel or dirt or whatever you're gonna build it on. You know, try to find a nice, level ground maybe a piece of plywood, that
usually works pretty good, but not on the ground. And now we're gonna do our last picket and we're gonna do it the exact same way, because when we do it the
exact same way, it's opposite, 'cause when we flip it over, now my bracing on the
bottom side of this gate is going this way, so we wanna make sure
we make that X to match. You guys got the last step,
caps, don't forget that. It's what makes the gate. All you do, put a little glue
in a couple of the corners, at least two, you don't
need more than that. And then put it on. That's it. This is your end result. So you can see if you walk
around it, looks pretty good. Our hole covers, we've
got our diagonals on here. All looks pretty symmetrical. You know you got the top
of the gate right here because you got your two inch extra on top and you've got your three
quarter inch bottom right there. Pretty easy to put together. Really, one guy can do this. So this is our standard walk gate kit. We offer these in three
colors, white, tan, and khaki. And you can get different sizes. You know this doesn't have to
be an exactly six foot gate. No, you can cut it down
to whatever you want. You cannot make it grow,
but you can cut it down. This is a single walk kit. If you want to do a double drive, you will need to purchase two of these. That's the only difference
between them is just buying two. You will need the removal post sleeve that goes in the crown and then you get an extra
five by five vinyl post. So you'd have to buy double the latches, double the hinges, double the handles. That's all I have on these walk gate kits. If you have any questions, please call us here at the Cody Shop and you know how to get ahold of us. And you have a good dang day. (fire crackling)
