Gated.

Don’t you hate it when a particular part in a kit breaks and you can’t buy that part separately? When I am working on a gate and installing a latch, I prefer the Everbilt latch kit… with the exception of the keeper bar. That rolled, welded, and stamped piece of rubbish might as well be a Tootsie Roll. I can’t tell you how many I see bent around Erie. I was winterizing sprinkler systems this week and came across another and it reminded me of a solution that came up with for my home since the keeper bar can not be purchased separately. Damn the man, I’m not buying another $20 latch kit for a part that is just going to fail again!

What was my solution? I found that round rebar stakes are just the right diameter, pre-drilled, and solid steel nothing like the tubular bar keeper from Everbilt. Why were the holes important? It made for easy work to enlarge the holes to accommodate one of my favorite structural screws.

The rebar stake was cut to the size that I wanted, the sharp edges were made smooth, and the holes were drilled to a larger diameter. Once that was done, it was installed onto the gate. The gate now latches with a solid feeling and has been that way for over 6-months. It's not pretty, but I expect the homemade keeper bar to outlast my gate.