Metal gates, made to fit your opening

Driveway gates: single leaf or double leaf

A single leaf will do an opening up to about 3 metres, though it needs a heavy post and a good hinge to carry the weight. Above that a pair of leaves is the better answer: each leaf is lighter, the posts work less hard, one leaf drops a bolt into a ground socket and you open the other for the car. We frame driveway gates in box section, typically 40 or 50 mm, with infill in solid bar or box, and make the frame stiff enough that the leaf does not drop at the latch end. Posts are usually 100 mm square, going up to 150 or 200 mm for tall or wide gates, and go into concrete footings unless there is a brick pier we have checked can take the load.

Side gates, pedestrian gates and security gates

A side gate is the one you use every day, so the lock matters more than the pattern. We fit key-operated gate locks with a handle both sides, slam locks that latch shut behind you, or a keypad lock so the gardener or a delivery driver can get through without a key. Standard side gates run 900 mm to 1 metre wide and 1.8 to 2 metres high, sheeted in steel for privacy or left open-barred for light. Where security is the point, we sheet the leaf, fit hinges that cannot be lifted off and a lock that cannot be reached through the bars. A pedestrian gate beside a driveway gate is made to the same pattern and bar spacing so the two look like one job. Self-closing hinges are an option where children or dogs are about.

Estate gates and wrought iron style gates

Estate gates are the low, plain gates you see at the entrance to a drive through fields or parkland: flat bar rails, round bar uprights, usually a hooped top and a matching run of estate railing either side. We make them in mild steel, which is what almost every gate sold as 'wrought iron' is today, and add scrolls, collars, finials and cast details where the house calls for it. Bar spacing on a decorative gate still needs thinking about. We keep gaps under 100 mm where small children could get a head through, the same rule Approved Document K sets for balustrades, and avoid horizontal rails at a height a child could climb. Traditional estate gates hang on round posts and are often left galvanised rather than painted, which suits a field entrance.

Automation-ready from the start

Motorising a gate later is straightforward if the gate was built for it and a headache if it was not. Building for it means posts sized for the extra load, a bottom rail and hinge stile an operator can fix to, a leaf stiff enough not to twist under the ram, and a duct through the footing so the cable can be pulled in without digging up the drive. We build driveway gates that way whether the operator goes on now or in five years. Powered gates fall under BS EN 12453 for safety in use, which is why an automated design avoids gaps that trap fingers, keeps the leaf clear of walls where it could crush, and leaves room for photocells and safety edges. Tell us at the survey if automation is on the cards.

Finish: hot-dip galvanised, then powder coated

For anything outside we have the gate hot-dip galvanised first. It goes into molten zinc and comes out coated inside and out, which is the only practical way to protect the inside of a hollow section. That needs vent and drain holes in the tube, which we drill where they will not show. On top of the zinc you can have polyester powder coat in any RAL colour; black, anthracite and dark green are the usual choices, and satin or matt hides marks better than gloss. Galvanised only is a fair option if you want nothing to maintain and do not mind the grey. Stainless steel and glass gates suit a modern house and need no coating at all, but use 316 grade near a road or the coast or the surface will tea-stain.

Survey, quotation and what moves the price

Send photos of the opening with a rough width and we will give you a written estimate within the working day. If it looks right, we survey for free. We measure the true opening and check how level it is, the fall of the drive behind the gate, whether existing piers will carry a gate or need new posts, where services run under the footings, and where the leaves will stand when open. From that you get drawings and a fixed quotation that only changes if you change the design. Price is driven by width, height, how dense the infill is, decorative work, sheeting, locks, automation preparation and how much digging the posts need. A gate on a sloping drive costs more, because the leaves need rising hinges or a raked bottom rail to clear the ground.

How long a gate takes

Once you have signed off the drawing, fabrication is measured in weeks rather than days, and galvanising and powder coating add time because the gate goes out to be dipped and then on to be coated before it comes back to us. We often set the posts first so the concrete has cured properly by the time the leaves are ready to hang, which also lets you see exactly where the gate will sit. Hanging a pair of driveway gates is normally a day on site, a side gate half a day. Ask when you enquire and we will give you a straight answer on the current workload rather than a date we cannot keep.

Straight answers on metal gates