Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations The Entrance

We have shared many projects including house designs, docks, bridges, pond cabins etc. I thought I might open up a discussion of Entrance ways. Do any of you have or are planning to have a entrance that makes a statement about your little piece of heaven?

Here is the project that I am currently working on for my new pond property. I plan too build the gate using 14 gage 2x6 sq tubing and 1x1 sq tubing. Gate opening is 24 ft, height of gate 6'6". I am going to install 2 solar powered pumps and have waterfalls flowing directly out of the bottom of the sign onto sandstone boulders. I purchased four 12 to 14 inch diameter mountain cedar post last weekend which will be peeled of bark and clear coated with sealer. The fence on the frontage is planned to be 4 rails built also from peeled mountain cedar.


The Design



This is a pic of one of the stars cutout



If I had access to large timbers like you highlander folks I would construct one like this. You can't find Texas mountain cedar long enough to span very far because the timber tends to tapper down quickly from one end to the other.

I ran across this in colorado last year on vacation I thought it was awesome.



Check out these guys work impressive put a little steep for my budget.

http://www.trailswestgatecompany.com/gallery.htm

RT, If I am not misstaken, that CO gate is just outside of Pagosa Springs. My wife spotted it last month when we were up there and gave me permission to build one just like it.

I declined.

Sandbox you are correct, it is at the base of Wolfcreek pass just north of Pagosa Springs.

Wow, quite the grand entrance, Rocky-T. I really like it. Unfortunately for me, tho, I am more absentee and prefer to stay beneath the radar a little. This is particularly true WRT the locals. Maybe someday...
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Good stuff, RT!

Rockytopper,

That's a really nice play that you have there. It will be allot of fun to see you bring it into reality.

Near my wife's hometown is the little comunty of Edom, and this gate. It's about the most impressive one I've seen.

Eddie

My place is a little more subtle. I'm still working on the sign, but there's no rush. Same thing with the fence. In time, it will all come together. I'm on a State Highway with quite a bit of traffic, so teh white fence and sign really jump out at you.


This is my driveway in.


I'm building my own street lights. The bottom part is 5 inch sqare tubing to match my white vinyl fence. Then the rest is 4 inch tubing. I didn't want anything else to have to mow around, so I combined the fence and my lights into one.


Eddie

Eddie,

My place is only 2 miles from that gate. We call the place pictured "Jurasic Park" as it has lots of exotics on it. It has a matching gate(tad smaller) on 279 on the way into Edom. Pretty place!

Nice design Rocky. Please post photos of the completed project.

I should take photos of some of the gates around El Dorado, with all the vineyards we have some very impressive gates around the county. Obviously many of them have a grape or vine theme although with many oaks dotting the country side an oak tree theme is popular also. Me I have a plain old rusty looking steel tube gate that doesn't even hang straight. But I can chain it closed when I leave and like Brettski, I'm not living on the property now so I figure if thieves look at my gate they will probably figure there can't be much to steal on this property, poor guy can't even afford to straighten out his leaning gate.

Some day I'll have a nice gate. Probably by the time I get to it someone will have invented a force field laser gate that incinerates trespassers but lets the nice forest animals and my buddy DIED through (by the way Dave, I didn't intend to lump you together with the nice forest animals the sentence just sort of worked out that way).

Eddie, it is reassuring to see a fence on both sides of that gate. I don't know how many places around me have similar nice looking gates & gate posts ("columns"?) WITH NO FENCE!

I don't understand who they think they're keeping out that won't drive around the gate on the grass?

Eddie, thats a very nice drive. I'm with you on adding more stuff I have to mow around, it's a constant battle between me and the boss.

Can you get massive timbers in east Texas like the gate you have shown?

I have a simple entrance at my home place, Here's a pick not so clear.


My home place like yours has a lot of natural beauty "Trees". I'm spicing up the project place a bit because of lack of trees. I am also considering sub dividing into small tracks some day. Metro sprawl is knocking on our door step.

RT, I looked at the picture of the one in Colorado and thought "I can build one of those". I have some huge cedars that would work. Then reality set in. Nope.

Rockytopper,

I do have some massive pines and cedars. I'm keeping all the cedars I take out for posts on some buildings and gazebos I'm planning on building, but the pines are firewood. I have one right now that I'm gonna take out that's over 3 feet thick and might go 60 feet. We call them bull pines and they are massive. The biggest one on my land is 4 feet thick by 6ft 4in thick about two feet up from the ground. It's a big one!!!

I've thought about using those massive trees as it takes weeks to burn them. Nobody will come out to take them either. They are massively heavy and even in 20 foot sections, it's an effort to move them around with my 160 hp dozer!!! I usually make the burn pile where the tree falls.

Eddie

I thought I might give a little progress report on this project. The original design has changed a little, it's grown like every thing else I start.
Here is the current design inwork


I purchased these cedar post for the entry not bull pine size but about as big as I could find locally 20 inch at the base 14 ft long


one side support layed out


The gate fabrication under way


My guiding light for this project
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That's gonna be one nice looking gate Rocky.

That is absolutely slick, Rocky-T! Who burnt the pentagram design for ya?-
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...you hang that Corona bug lite out there, you'll likely get a passel of SW Minnesota visitors.

B-ski I'm pretty handy with a torch, I cut them by hand myself. If you'll buy that I got some pond property in Florida for sale, it don't even need a dam to hold water.
Actually I was lucky my cuz works for a custom sign company I got the stars cutout dirt cheap.

Theo,
It is funny, to me, that you mention the gate with only one side fenced. I have a neighbor who recently started work on his place, he planted a couple hundred rubber trees and as he was finishing the planting he built a narrow but very tall fence with a small gate across the front (roadside) of the property, leaving the other three sides open. I waited a couple of weeks and he still had not finished the fence. I asked him when he intended to finish the fence, never, the fence was to keep his father out. Seems the old guy has dementia and cows to tend. The old man would go out every day and walk up to the fence, take a look and wander off to find another place to graze the cows.

Rocky,

Thanks for the updated on your gate. I have a bunch of cedars like you bought and I'm curious what they are worth. Could you share the price you paid for them?

I've found that if you let them dry out, the bark almost falls off of them. If you give the kids a flat blade screwdriver, they will spend hours peeling the bark off too. It became a contest with out kids when working on our porch posts on who could get the biggest piece off. Then we just sanded the rough spots off. I'm looking at stains right now, but haven't done anything to protect or color them yet. They have turned a grey color and we want a dark brown.

What are you going to use to stain your posts?

I'm not a gate builder, but from time to time I do some metal work and allot of work on homes. I've found that King Archetecual Metals in Dallas is about the very best source for materials out there.

www.kingmetals.com

You name it,they have it, and at very good prices. I ordered some stuff a few weeks ago on a Monday and it was here in Tyler on Tuesday. Shippped freight for very reasonable amount!!!

The guy who told me about them is a fence and gate builder in DFW, and he uses them for there barrel hinges and gate openers mostly.

Eddie

Eddie, I paid 45$ each for 12 inch tops 14 ft long. I paid 35$ each for 12 inch tops 12 ft long. I just purchased a high pressure gas washer with turbo head. http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=004365;p=1
I tried it on the bark and it cut's it like butter. Unfortunately for me my kids are grown and want do any thing. I plan to leave the post there natural color and put on an exterior Polyurethane. I haven't stripped them yet because I don't want them to weather before I seal them. I have a friend who use to strip post for money. He also made some furniture using cedar. He told me that the place he was contracting out the strip post was charging 100$ to 150$ for each post to custom home builders in the DFW area. He was getting 30$ a post to strip them. I'm not sure what brand of sealer he used but I'm sure you can find it at the local building supply.

I made a little progress on the project this past weekend. I started on the side supports for the gates. I rigged the waterfall prototype to see if it works as planned. The test I ran is based on a solar pump with a 80 GPH flow rate. I have found larger pumps with triple the amount of flow but the price goes up and the project needs two units so I'm going with the smaller ones. Here is some pic's and a video of the test. One of the pics has been doctored up to show the finished look. Enjoy






http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l179/rockytoppers/?action=view¤t=MOV05978.flv

Dang Rocky that gate is beautiful, you are really progressing with it.

Yep, that's gonna be the fanciest birdbath in all of Texas!
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Seriously...too cool. How does the water feature work?

Yep that's why I'm building it, to improve the dove hunting. Part of my wildlife management program.

The water feature is nothing more than a recirculating water system utilizing a solar powered pump to lift the water from the cast iron kettle catch pond.

Here are some pictures of my entrance. The gates are 2" * 5" aluminum box tube. The opening is 32'. The gates are a cantilevered system. I designed, developed and fabricated the whole system, except for the powder coating of the gates. I have 14 of these gates through out the farm. The entrance sign is pre cast concrete.

Ron

Hey Rocky & Eddie.
We cut and milled more than 180 cedar trees for boards and another 25ish posts for Lusk Lodge, Two. We tried the polyurethane for the exterior cedar and it lasted about four months before showing signs of weathering. That was with three coats. Someone told me about a product called "Sikkens" so we checked it out and bought it.
The polyurethane is clear and just makes the natural color "jump" out. We used it extensively on the inside of the house.
The Sikkens products (there are two kinds for each application) tinted the cedar a slight yellow color. It looks good.
The trees we milled were cut into 4"x 8" beams, 1"x 8" & 1"x 6" boards for the ceiling and trim. The posts on the inside of the house had the bark stripped, those that hold up the porch have the bark on them.
We found that stripping the bark by hand was faster than using our pressure washer. The pressure washer would take off some of the bark, but took longer than just peeling it off. But, we did it the same day we cut the trees, and we did it in the winter. The bark was wet and easy to pull.
Once the trees sat for a few days, getting to the white wood was a little tougher. Once the trees sat for a couple of months, termites made their way under the bark and left little "trails" of chewed wood and sawdust. Looks rustic, but it was even harder to get the bark off.
Overall, we love the cedar. We would do it again.