Most people searching for wrought iron gates want the look: scrolls, finials, bars and a black finish that suits a period frontage. True wrought iron is rarely made today. What we fit is wrought iron style steel, with the same detailing, made to measure and protected by galvanising and powder coat.
We say this plainly because it matters for upkeep. Old iron gates rust from the inside and need regular painting. A galvanised steel gate with a powder coated finish needs little more than a wash.
Where wrought iron style gates suit
They are not the right choice where you need privacy. Bars do not screen anything, so for a rear garden or a side gate you want to be unseen behind, a timber or metal and timber gate is the better answer.
- Front garden paths on Victorian and Edwardian houses
- Side returns where you want security without a solid wall of timber
- Driveways where the frontage should stay visible
- Replacing a single lost gate in a run of original railings
Detailing options
Detail is chosen to suit the house and the street. Ball tops and spear tops are the most common on front boundaries. Decorative infill panels, scrolls and collars add weight to a driveway gate. Flat top and bow top suit a simpler frontage. Where original railings survive either side, we match the bar spacing and head detail so the new gate does not look like a repair.
How they are made and finished
Each gate is made to measure from the opening, with frames commonly in 50 by 50 square hollow section and bars to suit. After fabrication the steel is hot dip galvanised and then powder coated, usually in black, dark green or anthracite. Treating the steel after it is welded is what protects the joints, which is where cheap ironwork fails first.
Matching railings
A gate often sits in a railing line. Railings can be fixed onto a sound dwarf wall, with uprights core drilled and resin fixed, or set in concrete in the ground. Front boundary railings are typically between 600mm and 1200mm, and anything over a metre next to a road is worth checking against permitted development limits first.
Posts and hanging
Gates hang from square steel posts set in concrete, or from brick piers where the masonry is sound. Hinges are sized to the leaf, and double gates get drop bolts. The gate is adjusted through its full swing before we leave, and the old gate is taken away.