Repairing gate

AliceW

My wooden gate has a big hole where the wood has rotted. I didn't realise  until I pushed my finger into what looked like a small a patch of  softened wood and realised how big it was. To repair it I think I should maybe paint some wood hardener on the exposed wood inside the hole? but then how do I fill it? Do I put paper or something in the hole and use wood filler on top of that or do I just  build up  layers of filler?  (I did try to get a handyman but didn't hear back so guessing the job was too small for him) Thanks for any advice.

ElephantBoy57

AliceW said:

My wooden gate has a big hole where the wood has rotted.

My initial thoughts were that if it is rotting, get a new gate. A standard gate would cost around £50

But if it is repairable, could you remove the diagonal piece and put in a new piece of wood above the verticle piece, then put in a new diagonal piece?

So that would mean the latch would be around 4" higher.

vw100

You may be better off getting wood filler, fill the gap, bit of sanding and then paint over it.  

Jackmydad

You can try the wood hardener and filler route, but if the gate gets much use I expect it won't last that long.
The gate looks as if it's "framed, ledged and braced" so there may well be a mortice and tenon joint in there that has rotted as well. That could be why the screws haven't held in the catch bracket.
For what they cost, I'd replace the gate.

AliceW

Thank you.  It's one half of a pair of tall double gates  at the end of my drive so could be quite costly to replace.