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.

How wide should a driveway gate be?

Two and a half metres is tight for a modern car, three metres is comfortable, and anything over four is usually a pair or a slider. We measure the actual opening and the approach angle, because a straight on entry and a tight turn in need different widths.

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.

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.

Is access a problem for driveway gates, sliding and swing around SG6?

It is planned rather than discovered. Deliveries come in off A505 / A1(M), and where a street near Letchworth Garden City (East Coast) is tight we arrange the offload and the carry before the start date so nobody spends the morning blocking a road.

Driveway gates in Letchworth Garden City

Letchworth Garden City Driveway Gates, Made to Your Opening

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.

From visit to handover

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.

Specification at a glance

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.

Local notes for Letchworth Garden City

Where a gate opens onto a busy stretch off A505 / A1(M) 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.

Most Letchworth Garden City drives we gate are shorter than the owner thinks, which is why the swing or slide question gets settled with a tape measure on the visit. The world's first garden city — Arts and Crafts cottages, planned terraces and consistent street trees typically leave a car length between the pavement and the house, and a swinging pair needs that space to be genuinely clear.

Letchworth Heritage Foundation design rules dictate fence styles, heights and finishes on most 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.

Driveway Gates, Sliding and Swing fitted in Letchworth Garden City, SG6 (1)

Driveway Gates, Sliding and Swing fitted in Letchworth Garden City, SG6 (2)

Driveway Gates, Sliding and Swing fitted in Letchworth Garden City, SG6 (3)

Who buys this and why

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.

Before you buy, the usual questions

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.
How wide should a driveway gate be?: Two and a half metres is tight for a modern car, three metres is comfortable, and anything over four is usually a pair or a slider. We measure the actual opening and the approach angle, because a straight on entry and a tight turn in need different widths.
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.
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.
Is access a problem for driveway gates, sliding and swing around SG6?: It is planned rather than discovered. Deliveries come in off A505 / A1(M), and where a street near Letchworth Garden City (East Coast) is tight we arrange the offload and the carry before the start date so nobody spends the morning blocking a road.

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: Bow top fencing, Galvanising and powder coating, Weld mesh fencing. Main hub: metal fencing and gates.

Nearby: Driveway gates in Hitchin, Driveway gates in Stevenage.

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