Garden Gate

Calling Engineer Lou---we repaired the broken fence board on our garden gate yesterday, but the problem that caused it to crack in the first place is still there.

Yard Side of the Gate

That is, when the bolt is in place to secure that side of the gate, that board becomes rigid and pressure on the gate makes that board try to flex too much and it eventually cracks.  

We're trying to think of ways to spread out the pressure and keep the new board from cracking, too.

Driveway Side of the Gate

We both had the idea of putting a horizontal board along those boards at the bottom of the gate, hoping that would make the whole thing more rigid.  Cindy's solution would be to put the horizontal board along the very bottom of the boards, running from the catch to the end of the gate.  My idea was to put it up higher, just under the horizontal cross beam and run it across all the boards.

Any ideas?