I bought a derelict garage in Wales. Thinking time...

Hi, The piece of land with no known owner is called CROWN land and belongs to the Queen. Rather than claiming it I think allowing a tree or bush of your desired variety to grow is a good way of defining the boundary without it encroaching on your property. She is then less likely to pitch up wanting to know why you're parking your vehicles on her land.

Colin

Gates were always going to be....not a problem, exactly, but not necessarily easy, either.

Because the entrance is so wide (6 metres plus a bit), on a relatively steep slope, without much room between the boundary and the building, I realised that one big gate wouldn't work. There just wouldn't enough space to swing it, and because the ground slopes down into the yard, when fully open the free end of the gate would be half a mile up in the air.

Two gates of equal length wouldn't be much better. At 3 metres long they'd still be cumbersome things, and they'd still need a lot of swinging room. Two unequal gates - say, one at four metres, one at two metres - wouldn't really help, because in order to make one gate small enough to be easy to handle, the other one would have to be awkwardly large.

That entrance in full, pre-gates. Awkward!





I even considered a sliding gate, but the trouble with sliding gates is that they've got to slide somewhere. In my case that would have meant putting a slide-track on some sort of elevated gantry (a bit like a miniature railway viaduct) across the lower ground of the yard.

I realised why nobody had installed gates previously. It just wasn't easy to find a sensible way of doing it...

It seemed the best solution would be a set of bi-fold gates, which fold in half as well as hinging inwards. Something like these ones, but without the sticky-up bits. This is a garage entrance, after all, so I don't want anything fancy.

There are various companies which build gates to your spec, but I suspected that they'd charge a lot of money for a fairly simple job. I thought I could make my own set of bi-fold gates cheaply enough. After all, in order to span my 6 metre gap all I'd need would be four 1.5 metre gates and two extra sets of hinges. How complicated could it be?



So I ordered four 1.5 metre gates from The Internet. These are symmetrical gates, with end posts of equal sizes. Not all gates are like this - some have a thick, chunky end post at the hinge end, and a thin post at the latch end. I made sure to get thick posts at both ends, because two of the gates will be supporting two lots of hinges.





Plus the hardware...some of which turned out to be unsuitable, but we'll come to that a bit later.





And I took the whole lot to my garage in another rented Transit.





I also ordered two massive gate posts, which were almost too heavy to shift around. But by employing traditional Scottish caber-tossing techniques, I managed to do it.





I initially bought four strap hinges (sometimes called butterfly hinges) for the inner gates, but in the end I decided not to use them. There was a bit too much slop in the hinges and I didn't want droopy gates...





Plus it would have been difficult to fit the hinges to the bottom of the gates, because the bottom rail is thinner than the end posts. I would've had to build up the level by inserting an extra piece of wood, and I could see it all starting to get a bit bodge-y.





So, a Plan B. I bought four stainless steel fire escape hinges, which are 'suitable for doors up to 150kg'. I'm not sure if that weight rating is per hinge, or for two hinges, in which case each hinge would be rated at 75kg. Either way, they're more than hefty enough for my gates, which weigh 32kg each without hardware, and perhaps a couple of kg more with all the metalwork attached. The butterfly hinges I initially bought don't have a weight rating at all.




Once all the hinges were screwed on, we have this. A bi-fold gate:




It proved impossible to get the gates to fold together with complete accuracy. One gate would always end up a little higher than the other. After a certain amount of panicking - I was convinced I'd put a hinge on in the wrong position, or something - I realised that the gates themselves were not made with any great precision. There's quite a lot of wriggle room in the way the posts and rails have been fitted together. I think this is normal for a basic farm-type gate. They're made with a certain amount of built-in wonkiness. I therefore decided not to worry about it. I will embrace the wonk!





Now all I have to do is wheel 'em out and plonk 'em on the hinges. Except it wasn't quite that simple. Putting up the gate posts was quite a saga in itself, so I'll tell that story in the next instalment.




More gate-related tales a bit later...

Well I can honestly say that I’ve never sat waiting for an update on gates before!!

Why not do a basic fit out indoors with a shower/ toilet and basic kitchen. If anybody asks it's so you can get clean after tinkering. Unless you start living there full time I doubt any body is going to bother with any potential breach of planning.
Has it got running water and a connection to the main drains?

I'm going to put a little overnight area in the building in the end, but that will follow later, after I've got a few other things sorted out....like making sure the parts that are at risk of falling down don't fall down.

It has a mains water connection, but there's a slight problem in that the previous owners couldn't remember their customer number. Without a customer number, Welsh Water say the connection doesn't officially exist - even though it's obviously there.

The easy solution would be to issue a new customer number. But apparently this can only be done if a new water supply is installed. And I've already got a water supply. So I can't have a new customer number. But without a customer number, I don't have a water supply.

It's a fine case of Computer Says No, basically.

At some point I'm going to have to talk to Welsh Water and find a way to sort all this out, but I've been putting it off because my brain hurts at the thought of it!

There's no mains sewers in the area, so all the properties have their own off-grid arrangements of one sort or another. I've got a cesspit...which somebody has helpfully filled with gravel. At some point, I'm going to have to dig it out...

Absolutely fascinating read thus far, truly living the dream of anyone with an interest in cars living inside the M25! Being the opposite side of London to you (South East/North West Kent) I know the joyless search for space that hasn't been ear marked for development. Buildings are just a no go as they are converting offices and anything small industry to housing.
I picked up a small plot of land last year (about 40sqm odd shape) for the opening bid at auction, about three streets away. Granted costs and fees added a couple of grand to the cost (I was naive about all that but had the money thankfully!!) but it is big enough to store my caravan and a car or 2. Being an odd shape it's unlikely to be developed and it is the access way to some garages as well.

I'm not sure I could be that far from my stuff tbh but having somewhere like that is pretty darn cool. I thought it was really isolated from the first pics, like middle of nowhere, but having seen the later pics and the proximity of neighbours i'd feel a little better knowing there are people near by who'd keep an eye out.

Also thought came to mind, do you have any rights over the stream and does it have a good fast flow? Any possibility of runnign a wheel or hydro turbine for your power?

I have stumbled on a couple of new to me threads this morning, yours being one of the them. A fascinating story and your writing style is very enjoyable to read!

Keep coming with the updates, I think anyone who lives in a built up area would be envious of what you are doing with this. I know I am and even the drive to get there is worth it to end up in such a glorious part of the country.

Andy

There definitely is a mains water supply - the stop tap in the road and the pipework into the premises are all present and correct. And it's definitely a Welsh Water installation. While I was working on the fence a while back, a Welsh Water maintenance crew came along, doing a routine check for leaks on all the water connections on the street (including mine).

The only problem is that without a customer number my connection can't be identified on the Welsh Water database, so it officially doesn't exist. They can't use the address of the property, or any other info - it must be the customer number, or Computer Says No. Reality takes second place to the admin procedures, unfortunately.

I don't have a septic tank. I have a cesspit. It's just a concrete box set into the ground, with no outlet. When it fills up, I have to get a tanker round to suck out the contents.

The local council is very keen to get all properties which are off the main sewage grid to install mini treatment plants, which seem to be readily available these days. These still need to be pumped out at intervals, but mostly they produce water which is clean enough to go straight into a watercourse. Something like this would do for me. But it's not an immediate priority. My cesspit won't fill up very quickly - it's not as if the property is a house, with several people flushing the toilet every five minutes. 

Having said that, at the moment I can't use the cesspit at all, because it seems to have been filled in with gravel. I think it's gravel, anyway - there may be other stuff lurking in there...

So there I was, trying to lift my gates onto the hinge pins...and I couldn't do it.

It wasn't just the sheer weight of the gates that was the problem. Now that they were assembled into their bi-fold form the outer section of the gate would flap around uncontrollably, and the fact that I was trying to do the lift on sloping ground didn't help, either. I could get the gates into the position in this photo - propped up just an inch or so away from the hinge pins - but the final manoeuvre, up and over the hinge pins, just wasn't going to happen. My puny human strength just wasn't enough.





I realised I would need some sort of crane. Like an engine crane. So I bought one.

I'm sure it'll come in useful. I might even lift some engines with it one day. But for now, it works very well as a gate crane. The only problem was the sloping ground. Engine cranes don't come with brakes, and the whole thing was in constant risk of rolling down the slope, gate and all. But the actual lifting operation went very easily. I should've thought of doing it this way in the first place!

My camera decided to go a bit wrong at this point, so unfortunately the only photo I've got of the lifting operation is this one, which is fairly terrible. But it shows the crane in action well enough. I could get the gate right over the hinge pins with no trouble at all, then it was just a case of letting the jib down a bit, and it all came together with a satisfying clunk.





This particular crane is marketed under the Switzer name, but like my Von Haus concrete breaker it's really a generic product made in China. It seems to me that I could set myself up as a tool brand, buy everything in from China, stick on my own brand (something European-sounding, like TECHNIK TOOLS), and make a fortune. That seems to be what everyone else does these days.

I did wonder how much it would cost to make an engine crane in the UK. After all, it's mostly just box-section steel. Any metal fabricator could do it. But I suspect you wouldn't get much change out of a thousand pounds. I bet the factory gate price in China is more like twenty quid.



It seems that the gate sits just off the base of the bottom hinge pin. I suppose I could shim the pin up a bit to fill the gap, but I don't think it matters. The weight is taken by the top hinge - the bottom hinge pin just locates the gate, rather than supports it. It may well settle a bit in time, anyway.

The clamp around the gate end post looks a little loose in this photo because I haven't give it a final tighten yet. It's possible to adjust the gates to a certain extent by moving this hinge in and out, but that's something to do only when both gates are on and basically lined up. Then you do the fine adjustment...





I know what you're going to say. I should have put the bottom hinge pin upside down, to prevent the gates being lifted off. Well, I decided not to do that - mainly because it would have made it more awkward to put the gates on in the first place.

But I don't think there's much chance of anyone lifting the gates off. When both gates are locked together you'd have to lift what is effectively a a 6-metre long gate which weighs something like 250 kg in total, and would move like a giant snake as soon as it's lifted off its fixing points. It would take a team effort by the All-Wales Olympic weightlifting squad to lift it while keeping it under some sort of control. Frankly, if anyone wanted to break in through the gates, it would be easier to unscrew the hinge pins and push the whole lot off the posts.

There are various devices which fit over hinge pins to stop gates being lifted up - collars which fit on to the pin with a grub screw, or which can be padlocked on - so there are options available if I decide to install a bit of extra security. But I think the sheer size of the gates is the best deterrent to anyone who fancies having a tamper.



So, after a certain amount of lifting and shifting, both gates were on. In this photo I have temporarily strapped them together with cable ties, and propped them in place with concrete blocks. I prudently parked my Land Rover outside the gate before I locked myself in...





The next stage is to install the hardware. The first thing I put on is this throw-over - a device that does exactly what it says on the tin. It straps the two gates together. This version can be padlocked down. Theoretically you could get around the padlock by undoing the bolt at the other end, but I think it would be quite difficult to knock the bolt out. It can't be pushed out by finger pressure.





Then I strapped long pieces of wood to the gates with cable ties, to keep the whole assembly straight while the drop bolts went on. The concrete blocks help to keep it all steady, too.





I had to buy extra-long drop bolts, to accommodate the sloping ground, which of course slopes away from the gates and means the bolts have to drop a greater distance. All the hardware is going on the inside of the gates, and I made sure that gates are all positioned so that the coach bolts which hold the gates themselves together have the smooth end outside, and the nuts inside.





Then it's time to get out the heavy-duty drill bit...




...and drill holes in the ground for the drop bolts to go into. I made sure to go through the Tarmac into the underlying concrete.





Slightly to my relief - because I did it all by eye, without measuring anything - the holes were in the right places, exactly under the drop bolts. This is the middle bolt, which can be padlocked down. I'm only installing 3 drop bolts. The gate section to the right doesn't have a bolt: it's fixed in place when closed by the throw-over, which locks it to the gate on the left, so theoretically it won't need a drop bolt of its own. However, if it seems a little wobbly I can always install a 4th bolt.





I could probably get away with just the plain drilled hole, but the kit of parts includes these little collars which fit into the top of the holes and keep everything neat. They're what is known in mechanical engineering circles as an interference fit, and in civil engineering circles as a bash-it-with-a-hammer fit.

There's also a little square top plate for the finishing touch. I think these are really intended for use on smooth concrete floors, rather than rough Tarmac, but I decided to fit them anyway.




And that's how it looks, when it's all fully installed. This is one of the inner, non-lockable drop bolts, although I could make them all lockable if I wanted, by adding the padlock holder. The trouble is, of course, if everything has a padlock on it, that'll make the business of opening and closing the gates such a faff that inevitably some of the locks will end up not being used.

By the way, it was raining on and off on the day I did all this, and you can see how dark the timber has become because it has absorbed so much water. The bottom parts of the gates were noticeably wetter than the top parts, which suggests the water was oozing down through the wood. I have no idea what sort of wood the gates are made of, but they certainly seem to absorb more water than the fences. They dry out quickly enough once the sun comes out, but I think an extra coat of preservative might not be a bad idea.





One little refinement I added were these straps to keep the two sections of each gate together when they are opened. After doing a few test open-and-close moves I realised that the gates were rather awkward to handle if the two sections were free to move independently of each other. These straps mean they move as one.





Here's how the left-hand gate looks, when it's folded in half, strapped together, and fully opened. You can see how little space there is between the entrance and the building - a full-length gate would definitely have got in the way.





I put in a couple of posts so that the gates can be hooked back in the fully-open position. The installation of this post got a little messy, because I was using Post-Fix (a kind of just-add-water instant concrete) and I lost control of my bucket of water at the crucial moment. But it'll all be tidied up and landscaped eventually.

There's no hook on the post yet because the local hardware store only had hooks in brass or black finish, and that would never do. It's got to be galvanised or stainless steel, to fit in with the silver/grey colour scheme!





And that's pretty much job done, apart from a few finishing touches. The gates are on, and work really well. The great thing about the bi-fold design is that they're so flexible - there are several different ways of opening some, or all, of the gates. By opening just this section the gate functions as a neat pedestrian entrance.





Having gates across that wide Tarmac entrance does create a definite sense of privacy and security. Even though it's possible to see over (and through) the gates, even though it would be possible for anyone to climb over them, the psychological impact of having an actual barrier across the boundary does have a real effect.





This is what passers-by on the road see. A very traditional sight, in a way - you would hardly guess the gates are brand new. They look like they've always been there. And it does visually tidy up the front of the building quite a lot. I particularly like the way it's not possible to see how the gates work at first glance. Because all the hardware is on the inside, it's not obvious that they're bi-fold gates.

The gap between the gates came out at 5cm, which was a little wider than I was aiming for - I wanted to make it 3cm or so - but I'm not going to quibble about a couple of centimetres. One of the finishing touches I plan to do is to add two strips of wood to the inner faces of the end rails, which will fill the gap and make the gates fit together like double doors.

I think I'll file the job under 'Not bad if I say so myself'.





In some of the photos you can see I've built a hoarding across the front of part of the building. Nothing fancy, it's really just to screen off what will become a building site fairly soon. Some photos of that under construction will follow next time...