First are pictures of my fence. Then are pictures of how neighbors have reinforced their fences (and this is how I'm envisioning fixing mine). Last is a spot of drywall that needs fixing if this is something else that you want to do. :)
MY FENCE
This is on the inside of the yard. You can see where the picket has split and the bolts are pulling out from the weight of the fence sagging.
Back side of the fence:
In the next 4 pictures, you can see these little short pieces that are bolted onto the left side of the metal post. These little short pieces are what the hinge-side of the gate are bolted onto. This is a major reason why the fence is sagging so much, because it's putting too much leverage on a small piece of wood.
Top hinge for the gate:
Middle hinge for the gate:
Bottom hinge for the gate:
This is the latch side of the gate from the alley. The frame of the gate itself could use some reinforcing as you can see the gap in the framing joint. This would be a good candidate for some of those metal reinforcement plates that we talked about.
There are some other spots along the fence line where the cross-pieces are cracked. I've angles screws into some of these spots, but they could use better reinforcement as will be shown below.
NEIGHBORING FENCE REINFORCEMENTS
The next two shots are how some other fences around here are reinforced with 2x4's bolted up against the cross-pieces. I would think we could use those metal reinforcement plates to help secure additional 2x4's instead of just angled screws which have a tendency to split the wood.
DRYWALL
The crack on this corner section of drywall has been slowly moving up the wall for years. The orange peel texture on it is very brittle and pops off if you push on the metal corner reinforcement that is under the spackle. Presumably it's because the house has shifted and settled. I'm not sure of the best way to patch it since the metal part itself seems to be a bit buckled. Maybe it can be better nailed into the drywall to flatten it out and then texture over it...? This is adjacent to the pantry door, and you can see the step-stool you made for me on the left so you'll know where in the house this is.
