Sliding and Swing Driveway Gates for Barnet Frontages
Metal driveway gates made to the opening, hung on posts that can carry them, swinging or sliding to suit the ground.
A driveway gate is the heaviest single thing most people ever hang on their house, and almost every failure we are called to is the same failure: a good gate on posts that were never sized to carry it.
The first decision is not the pattern, it is swing or slide. A swing pair needs room to open and reasonably level ground. A sliding gate needs a clear run alongside the opening but almost no space in front, which is what makes it the answer on a short drive that meets the pavement.
Everything after that is measurement. The opening is surveyed, the fall across it is checked, and the leaves are made to those figures rather than trimmed from a stock pair on the morning of the fit.
What it suits
- Drives where the frontage needs closing off and the ground is level enough to swing a pair
- Short drives that meet the pavement, where a sliding leaf avoids swinging over a public footway
- Frontages already carrying railings, where a matching gate makes the line continuous
- Replacing a timber pair that has dropped and dragged for years
If the drive slopes up sharply from the pavement, a swinging pair will ground before it is halfway open and no hinge fixes that. Either the ground gets levelled, the gate opens outward with the visibility implications that carries, or it slides. We will tell you which on the visit rather than after installation.
Doing this job in Barnet
Where a gate opens onto a busy stretch off A1000 Great North Road we look at pedestrian visibility and whether an outward swing is sensible at all. On those frontages a sliding leaf is often the safer specification and we will say so before quoting.
Across Barnet Council we fit matching gate and railing sets more often than gates alone, because on EN5 frontages a gate that does not relate to the boundary either side always looks like an afterthought.
Shared-boundary disputes are common on the older terraced streets, and that is a post problem before it is a gate problem. Gate posts here are sized to the finished leaf weight and concreted deep, because a leaf that heavy will find any weakness in a foundation within a season.
The numbers that matter
- Configurations
- Single leaf, double swing pair, or sliding on a track or cantilever
- Typical width
- Two and a half to five metres for a domestic drive, wider as a sliding leaf
- Posts
- Steel posts sized to the leaf weight and concreted deep, not bolted to a slab edge
- Ironmongery
- Galvanised heavy duty hinges, adjustable where the ground is uneven, drop bolts on a pair
- Automation
- We build gates prepared for automation and work alongside your automation installer. We do not carry out the electrical installation ourselves.
Ironmongery is where cheap gates give themselves away. Hinges, drop bolts and keeps are galvanised throughout, because a rusted hinge pin on a heavy leaf is not a cosmetic problem.
How the job runs
1. Survey the opening
Width, the fall across the opening, the pavement line and where a car actually stops are all measured, because those four figures decide the configuration.
2. Posts first
Posts are sized to the finished leaf weight and concreted, and where automation is planned we set the ducting at this stage rather than digging the drive up twice.
3. Hang and adjust
Leaves hung, drop bolts and stops set, and the swing checked through its full arc with the gate loaded, not empty.
Questions we get asked
- Can new metal gates match my existing railings?
- Yes. Where there is an existing railing run we match the bar centres, the head detail and the powder coat colour so the gate reads as part of the boundary rather than as a later addition.
- Do I need permission for driveway gates?
- Gates next to a highway have height limits under permitted development, and a listed building or conservation area changes the picture. We flag it at quote stage so you can check with the council before anything is fabricated.
- Can you automate the gates?
- We build gates prepared for automation, including the post sizing and ducting, and we work alongside your automation installer. We do not carry out the electrical installation ourselves and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
- Should I have swing gates or a sliding gate?
- Swing if you have level ground and space in front to open into. Slide if the drive is short, meets the pavement, or slopes. A sliding leaf needs a clear run alongside the opening, so the deciding factor is usually what is beside the drive rather than in front of it.
- Why did my old gates start dragging?
- Nearly always the posts rather than the gates. A timber post moves in the ground and a leaf that is a hundred kilos amplifies a few millimetres of lean into a gate that catches. That is why we size and concrete steel posts to the leaf.
- Do you cover the whole of Barnet?
- Yes, driveway gates, sliding and swing across EN5, N20 and the surrounding boroughs, including new barnet, potters bar, finchley. The site visit and the written quote are free wherever you are in that area.
Not sure whether it should swing or slide?
Send a photo of the drive taken from the pavement and we will tell you which configuration actually works before anybody quotes you for the wrong one. Call 07885907880.
Related metal work: Vertical bar fencing, Railings and estate fencing, Bow top fencing. Main hub: metal fencing and gates.
Nearby: Driveway gates in Potters Bar, Driveway gates in Finchley, Driveway gates in Borehamwood.
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