The artisanat

It was November when an errant driver slammed his car into our gate, knocking down one of the posts and flinging the gate a short way down the drive.  The gate lost a few panels in the process, and a bit of the wall was taken down too.

There was no problem in principle with the driver's insurance paying up, but it was, apparently, up to us to get the quote.  The first guy we contacted couldn't come around for a few weeks, so we waited.  On the appointed morning he phoned up, said he couldn't make it, and asked if we could send some photos of the problem.  We did.  He came back to say that it wasn't the sort of thing that he did.  Back to square one.

The second guy we contacted is well-known in the area for doing good work.   He came around, took a look and promised a quote, that we got after again, a few weeks, having chased him a bit.   Nearly €1,000, taking the Mick in my view, or perhaps I chose the wrong career.   Anyway we sent it off to the insurance company, who rejected it, no surprise.

It's now April, some 5 months after the accident, so on Monday I decided to fix it myself.  I painted the bottom of the post with black protector paint, and hammered the bent hinges back into their proper positions.  I dug the hole out the next day, and got the gates aligned.  I set some concrete into the hole, and had to borrow some more from Leo to make it up to the right height.  Anita ordered a new gate stop to replace the one that had been broken in the crash.

The most time-consuming part of the job was breaking up the broken part of the wall into its constituent concrete and stone parts.  The stones I put on the wall (now a dry stone wall) and the concrete bits I'll use as a hardcore foundation for some steps I will be building soon.

Today I put the slats back on the gate, by straightening out the old nails and hammering them back in.  The gate is currently leaning against the post.  In a few days when the concrete has set a bit more, I'll hang the gate again, and then I'll be able to concrete in the new gate stop, once it arrives.

Cost:  One bag concrete, say €10, some black protector paint, say €2 worth, a gate stop €50 including VAT and delivery (not here yet) and about 7 hours' labour, say €100.   Yep, I chose the wrong career if I missed out on margins like that.