Garden Enclosure Screen Door

The garden enclosure door is giving me trouble.  The posts holding it keep getting out of alignment.  Sometimes the top sticks.  Sometimes, the latch won't catch.

I've bought some additional pvc pipes to help hold it in place, but I had to get the frame in alignment first.  One post had to be raised 1/4", and that was trickier than I thought.  Since it is stuck in the ground 2', the idea was to pry it up 1/4" and then hold it there while nature lets the soil below it expand and fill in.

So the first part was to lift the post.  Easier said than done.  I dripped water in around it for an hour, and that did loosen the post.  But lifting the post isn't just pulling it up a bit.  There had to be something to hold it up the 1/4".  And I don't mean to suggest that I am strong enough to just pull it up that much.

I had the idea of screwing a 2x4" board to the post and prying on the bottom of that board.  That would work, but how would I hold it there?  I tried putting a 4x4" post against the top of the frame and then lifting it with shims.  I did that, but the frame didn't rise.

All I was doing was pushing the post into the dirt...

Arggh...

And if I put a board under the 4x4" post, that was too tight to make it fit under.  I had to re-think it.  And the 4x4" post I was using to raise door frame was the wrong length by 1".

AHA!  I set a scrap piece on board in the screen doorway and set the post that was "just" too long on the board at an angle.  Pounding that 4x4" post that was at an angle, toward the post I wanted to lift worked!

Look at it another way.  The door frame post and the ground made a right angle, with the bracing post resting on a board at the bottom making the hypotenuse.  By pounding the bottom of the bracing board with a small sledgehammer, I pushed the top of the door frame up the required 1/4".  Hurray!

But how to hold it up?  The bracing post prevented the door from closing...

Well, that baffled me for a few minutes.  But then I realized that if I screwed on a board near the bottom of the door frame post  on the opposite side, it would hold it up for ever.  Well, I didn't need "forever", just long enough for wet soil to settle below the door frame post.

SO...   I set a cinder block next to the door frame post, stomped on it a few times to settle it into the soil so it wouldn't sink under pressure, and put a scrap piece of 2x4" board atop the cinder block.  And I screwed that board into place.

So the post holding the latch side of the screen door (that I had just raised 1/4") won't settle back down (the piece of 2x4" is resting on a cinder block that won't settle into the ground and the 2x4" board is screwed solidly into the door frame post).

I can leave all that in place forever.  Its not in the way of the door closing.

But the latch doesn't "catch",  I can solve THAT.  A small piece of aluminum fill fix that.  Actually some would a plastic credit card.

Just accept that the door and latch will now work, and that the screen door closes as smoothly as silk!

The Garden Enclosure

The door is set in place.  Finally.  It was a struggle, and one I didn't expect.  I originally laid the door on the basement place and build a frame around it that seems accurate and solid.  The idea seemed so simple.  Build a frame around the door, measure the distances between the frame parts, and dig holes in the ground to put 4x4 posts to match so that the door frame could be attached to the 4x4" posts.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Reality intruded...  Even with screws every foot. the frame sagged as I tried to put it up to the posts.  And even 4x4" posts move some even when set 2' deep.  It's not like building a door into a house where everything is pretty solid.

I won't bore you with the details.  No, wait, I will.

First, I tried to just attach the hinge side of the door frame to the 4x4" post that had been set into soil and rocks crushed as tightly as I could get it, for 2 weeks.  Well, we've had a lot of rain lately and apparently the soil wouldn't dry deep.  I tried everything I could to keep that post level and packed.  I tamped the soil around it with a short 4' piece of 4x4" post, I stomped around, and I surrounded it with plastic sheeting to keep the rain away.  I clamped other 4x4" posts to it in 3 directions to hold it in place.  I gave it time to dry.

When I finally attached the door to the hinge-side post, I braced the door so it's weight wouldn't pull on it.  It finally seemed to be set in place.

So then I worked on the latch side.  I somehow had mis-measured the first time I dog the hole for the supporting 4x4" post on that side, so I pulled it loose and did it right.  I got it right the 2nd time.  Well, the "distance" was accurate.  But the squareness of the door frame was off.

ARGGGH!

I did some annoying unsquare connections to make the door frame fit the posts.  I had the door fitting properly, but the next day it wasn't.  The latch-side 4x4" post has settled a bit.  I wedged it up a bit with a board on the ground and shims pounded together using the ground board as a support) to raise that 4x4" post slightly (to square the frame).  That worked.  For 2 days...

Then it was out of square again!

There are times when I know I do not really have skills at this sort of thing.  But I can be obnoxiously persistent.  Sometimes dumb persistence and determination overcomes lacks of skills.

I FINALLY got the door frame solid with enough corner braces and screws so that, even if the posts shift slightly, they shift together as a unit.  The door latched.

And then it DIDN'T!

It was REAL close, barely catching or not.  Well, the latch may need some work.  But it was mostly just a matter of 1/16" between "sometimes" and "always" latching.  A professional would have taken some things loose and adjusted them to fit.  But I was at the limit of adjustments and would have had to a lot of filling and redrilling.  But I found some "give" around the metal door frame.

A shim stuck between the post and the metal door frame gained me that 16/th inch.  Hurray, the latch clicks closed with a simple swing of the door.  For now (after 2 weeks of fighting), it shuts and latches smoothly.  And I have a couple ideas to connect the door frame more solidly.

If it shifts more and refuses to latch again on its own, I will just put a hook&eye to hold it shut.

But everything seems to be working on the door a week later now, and I'll declare victory on that part.

It's not pretty, but it works...  And sometimes, that's the best I can do.

Next time, the inside of the garden enclosure...

The Garden Enclosure

Its not finished, but I did finally get the door set in properly today.  It doesn't sound like That Big A Deal, but it drove me crazy to the point where I just stopped about it for several weeks (and did other useful stuff). 

But I went back at it 2 days ago.  It not elegant.  The half-lap joints that fit so well on the basement floor didn't fit well out in the garden.  I'm guessing that there were fitting options that options that "from basement floor to reality" were not right.  Putting posts into holes in the ground is not quite like the frames sitting on a nice level basement floor. 

But with enough support (uprights, cross, and sideways), I got the door to close smoothly and the lath to connect.   I bet any professional would cringe at the work I've done.  But as long as it latches closed, it doesn't really matter.  All it has to do is stay solid.

And then its worth finishing the chicken wire.  All I have left of that is wrapping some corners where the 4' rolls didn't quite reach.  That involves some cutting and pacthing using leftovers, but I have enough of those.

It will be SO great to have this completed.  Pictures when it is really completely done.  But the "damn door" was 90% of the unfinished work, so I am about there.