Update: That time I messed up a gate latch in the rain

I was finishing a cedar fence in Tacoma last fall when a sudden downpour hit. I rushed to install the latch on the main gate, but my wet hands slipped and I mounted it about an inch too high. The homeowner tried it and the gate wouldn't close, just scraped the concrete pad. I had to pull out the drill in the rain, fill the old screw holes with wood putty, and redo the whole thing while getting soaked. Anyone have a better method for marking latch spots in bad weather?

2 comments

2 Comments

nina_hall23h ago

Last March in Bellingham I had the exact same thing happen with a driveway gate. The rain was coming down sideways and I was so focused on getting done that I pre-drilled all my holes before checking the swing. The gate sagged just enough to bind on the post. I ended up using a tiny dab of toothpaste on the latch plate to mark the spot, wiped it off after, and it saved me a second trip in the weather. Now I keep a dry rag and a pencil in a ziplock bag in my tool belt for wet days.

-1

ruby56115h ago

Toothpaste as a marking tool is genius! That's the kind of rainy-day hack you only learn after a few gates fight back. My version of that was using a crayon once, which just melted into a colorful, useless mess.