Gate Latch Not Catching: The Five-Minute Diagnosis

A latch that misses is almost never a latch problem. Here is how to work out what it actually is before calling anyone.

Check whether the leaf has dropped

Close the gate slowly and watch where the latch arrives relative to the keeper. If it is low, the leaf has dropped and the latch is fine.

Measure the gap at the top of the gate and at the bottom. If they differ, that is your answer.

Then check the post

Open the gate to ninety degrees and sight down the hinge post. Out of plumb means the post has moved and everything else follows from that.

Push it at the top. Any movement at the base confirms it.

Look for seasonal movement

A gate that latches in summer and misses in winter is usually swelling and ground movement rather than damage.

A latch with some adjustment in it absorbs that. A rigid latch fitted with no tolerance will always be marginal.

Hardware genuinely at fault

Worn keepers, bent latch arms and seized mechanisms do happen, particularly on cheap hardware in the Alhambra summer.

If the leaf is square and the post is plumb, then the hardware is the job.

The fix that lasts

If the post moved, reset the post. If the leaf racked, square the frame. Only then adjust the latch.

Adjusting the latch on a gate that has dropped works until the gate drops a little further, which it will.