John, it looks fantastic. Just make sure you seal those horizontal laid slate tiles well and repeat at least every couple of years, they like to delaminate themselves with the freeze thaw cycles, trust me I have been down this road. 

Upa thanks for the word of advice.  But these tiles although they appear to be slate are a composite man made product .  They are supppose to be made specifically for exterior application.  I still have the grout to add but it too is a relatively new product as well for the exterior that does not need to be sealed.   I have used the tiles before (interior and semi-exterior) but never on the extreme exterior so I will just have to wait to see what it does.

I like the pics of your porch posts.  I notice I'm not the only one with pencil drawings on the wood only mine say things like "CENTER">! No REALLY CENTER!<

You must have caught what I missed.  Don't look tooooo close. 

Well I think I may have finished the deck and stone work.  That is with the exception of the chimney repairs.   I got all the deck support piers stoned as well as the railings and benchs stained.  The stain although the same did not turn out on the pressure treated lumber as it did with the siding.  But it is toned down which is what I was after.  I left the floor untouched as it will eventually turn grey and I will sealed it once it has.  Although you cannot tell from the photograph I grouted the tile on the hearth as well.  Now ready to "test fire" it up and see what happens.  Here are a few pictures.

That deck is not finished young man!You haven't put out the tables,chairs,and porch swing.Oh and don't forget the meal with all the fixins.


Looks great.Impressive work. 

The stone work looks great John, as we have come to expect from you.

Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 25, 2010, 09:27:55 AM
The stone work looks great John, as we have come to expect from you.

He does set the bar rather high doesn't he ? 

Yes this is a first cabin deck... Not to mean a builder's first tentative cabin build, but the first cabin on the exclusive cruise ship!

Good thoughtful work!

Very nice work for sure! 

Thanks everyone for your admirable thoughts.  Haven't hit a lick on the cabin since last Wednesday.  Yeah I need to tie up some loose ends but life threw another curve in the road.  On Wednesday they found a blood clot in my fathers brain.  Fairly good size that necessitated that it be removed.  We have noticed that the last several months his thought process was a little confused.  Not knowing whether it was the early stages of Alzheimers or the need to start Kidney Dialysis.  I made a hasty trip to where he had been admitted and on Friday they surgically removed the clot.  On Saturday I walked into the room and right off the bat I could tell a 100% improvement.     His dialysis start has been postponed because he can not have the blood thinners for about 3 more weeks because of the recent surgery.  Now that I am back home the last several days have been spent rushing to get their house renovated.  Does anyone know how to tell a 85 year old that he has bought a house in the last 2-1/2 months for which he doesn't recall.   

Sorry to hear about your fathers troubles, but on the other hand it appears that things might be improving. Our best to you all.   D&K

great news! Wishing him well.

Got the entry to the driveway completed.  Not to say without problems.  Goes along with the saying  " measure twice and cut once".  Hit a very familar tune.  I will post the photos and see if anyone picks up.  I'll return and explain what that was.  I still have got a little tweaking to do to get them parrallel and level.

Roadside view



Driveway view

Wow! I am so jealous. 

I dunno John?    I'd say from what I can tell I'd be pleased if they were mine.


Well I might want an automatic opener/closer.   

I think the gates look fantastic.  can you come build one at my place next?   

Nice looking gate.I am planning on using the same style gates on my property.How do you keep the unsupported ends from sagging over time?All of the ones we had on the farm sagged real bad after a couple years.Yours look perfectly straight.

Quote from: ben2go on October 06, 2010, 08:08:58 PM
Nice looking gate.I am planning on using the same style gates on my property.How do you keep the unsupported ends from sagging over time?All of the ones we had on the farm sagged real bad after a couple years.Yours look perfectly straight.

I would say these will also overtime.  But there are two gate post bolts which can be adjusted later to bring them back into alignment.  The standard gate post bolts are sort of like 6" lag screws to be used in wooden post.  With mine they were gate post bolts which I had to modify by extending them to 20" instead of the standard 12" to travel through the 15 & 5/8" post plus the thickness of the stone veneer. I used a galvanized 3/4" power pole bolt welded to the 12" gate bolt giving me 20".  The only problem was that they had square nuits. To my knowledge they don't make a square nut socket.   OH a solution.  I welded a 1" hexhead galvanized guardrail nut to the ouside of the square head nut so that I could use a 1&1/2" socket later. In essence the actual holding power of the nut is the square nut with the bolt just passing through the 1" nut.  So if they sag later I can readjust the length of the lower bolt out and the upper bolt in to raise the outside end ( end away from the hinged end) up.  I can say that the majority of my gates that had sagged was from not supporting the post properly and the weight of the gate pulled the post rather than the hinge becoming weak.  Depending on whether your gatepost will be the active portion of a fence the gate post by itself will determine the best approach.  In a normal fence/gate there should be a brace post on either side of the actual gate post.  Kids hanging on the gate while it swings or using it as a gate/fence crossing doesn't help either.

Quote from: muldoon on October 06, 2010, 05:56:21 PM
I think the gates look fantastic.  can you come build one at my place next?   

I thought you drew up a set of plans for an entry gate post once. 

Quote from: MountainDon on October 06, 2010, 05:19:47 PM
I dunno John?    I'd say from what I can tell I'd be pleased if they were mine.


Well I might want an automatic opener/closer.   

Well Don it would have to be solar operated. Yes they make them but I am not sure that I have enough sunlight to operate one and I definitely know that I don't have enough $$$ to buy one.   

Quote from: Redoverfarm on October 06, 2010, 09:18:26 PM

Quote from: ben2go on October 06, 2010, 08:08:58 PM
Nice looking gate.I am planning on using the same style gates on my property.How do you keep the unsupported ends from sagging over time?All of the ones we had on the farm sagged real bad after a couple years.Yours look perfectly straight.

I would say these will also overtime.  But there are two gate post bolts which can be adjusted later to bring them back into alignment.  The standard gate post bolts are sort of like 6" lag screws to be used in wooden post.  With mine they were gate post bolts which I had to modify by extending them to 20" instead of the standard 12" to travel through the 15 & 5/8" post plus the thickness of the stone veneer. I used a galvanized 3/4" power pole bolt welded to the 12" gate bolt giving me 20".  The only problem was that they had square nuits. To my knowledge they don't make a square nut socket.   OH a solution.  I welded a 1" hexhead galvanized guardrail nut to the ouside of the square head nut so that I could use a 1&1/2" socket later. In essence the actual holding power of the nut is the square nut with the bolt just passing through the 1" nut.  So if they sag later I can readjust the length of the lower bolt out and the upper bolt in to raise the outside end ( end away from the hinged end) up.  I can say that the majority of my gates that had sagged was from not supporting the post properly and the weight of the gate pulled the post rather than the hinge becoming weak.  Depending on whether your gatepost will be the active portion of a fence the gate post by itself will determine the best approach.  In a normal fence/gate there should be a brace post on either side of the actual gate post.  Kids hanging on the gate while it swings or using it as a gate/fence crossing doesn't help either.

That is some good forward thinking on the adjustment set up.You're right about people hanging and climbing the gates.Our posts never moved the gates were bent downward.I never gave the cause much thought until now.Thanks for the idear.

I guess that no one picked up on the width of the gates.  Very minimal difference but the left gate although looks similar is 4" shorter than the right.  When I laid off the footers and built the block columns I used the measurement of the gate width which was a combination of 23'10" outside hinge to outside hinge.  I didn't allow for the thickness of the stone face.   So in essence I was too narrow by about 3-4".  Moving the gate post was not an option.  Changing the location of the hinges was one option to gain 3" but would not allow any adjusment later.  So I took the left gate to a friend of mine that has a repair shop.  I cut the right side panel ( opposite from hinge side) tubes from top to bottom.  Using his muffler machine I expanded the short cut off tubes 4" to accept the tubes on the remaining portion of the gate.  Slid the expanded tubes over the longer tubes. Squared them up and tack welded them in place.  So in essence the right panel looks like a blacksnake that swallowed a mouse. 

I guess it is now water under the bridge.  Today I cut and split a "topple pile of biscuit wood".  

Great fix.  Gates like that can be so hard to figure for some reason.  Our hole was too big so we added a pipe fitting to the hinge and it looks like it was planned that way for adjustment.  Ours are not like yours at all.  Ours is plan old railroad ties.  And I did have to buy them and I do keep the receipts because Union Pacific as most railroads does have their own deputized police force.  Moving ours would have been a lot simpler but man I hate re-digging holes, come to think about it I hate digging holes in the first place.      

Firm believer that anything can be fixed except "old age".  I had a city slicker put up a gate to his cabin near mine.  He had dug and set the post too far apart.  A double gate.  I looked at his and told him to just add another 6X6 to the inside and use the 12" gate bolts.  Worked out just fine.  Didn't set the inner two post just lagged them onto the existing ones at a little below ground level. So in essence he ended up having a post that is 11" wide viewing from the front.  Looks better than the standard 6X6 as well.

I often wonder what type of hinge or support some of those massive wooden timber gates have with the large stone piers.  Maybe I will have to stop and take a look at one of those someday.