After spending much of my summer repairing fences and gates, it should be no surprise that the East Gate, which separates the Zen Garden from the Stroll Garden, also needed some maintenance.
The cedar embellishments were removed, sanded, and re-stained.
I also removed the bamboo screens that had been installed in 2018. Time and weathering left them looking unsightly. These were then replaced with cedar boards, similar to the rest of the fence structure within the Zen Garden.
The bottom supports for the screens had to be replaced, stained, and installed. For this repair, I used steel brackets to hold the bottom rails.
Re-staining the remainder of the gate green was straight forward, with the exception that this gate is large and requires more time and effort to re-stain than the Middle Gate restoration.
I hesitated to re-stain the panels on the doors, but finally decided to take them down, sand them and re-stain them.
The difference between the old stain and the re-sanded boards was dramatic.
It was odd seeing the gate absent its panels. They were first installed in 2014.
I was initially concerned about disturbing the stability of the gate structure, but the frame held up well.
Re-inserting the newly stained panels was relatively easy to accomplish. Once done, the gate looked brand new.
Now that this gate is complete all of the garden fence and gates features are uniform in color and design. The only problem is that when the next cycle or maintenance occurs, all of the gates will need to be addressed at the same time - another long summer of fence and gate repairs.
