Fully boarded horizontal
200mm horizontal boards, fully boarded.
Model MH-200
For your home
Residential electric gates, railings and repairs
A gate that suits the house, makes a good first impression and opens as you arrive. Whether it's a new gate across the drive, automating the one you already have, or a repair when it stops working, our team makes them in our own workshop in Berkhamsted, fits them ourselves, and comes back whenever you need us.
Free site survey. Any make. You don't need a contract to get a repair.
How can we help with your home?
A new gate for the drive
Made to fit your opening and suit the house, in timber, aluminium, steel or traditional wrought iron, and automated so you can come home without getting out of the car. We measure, draw it, make it and fit it.
Automating the gate you already have
If the gate is sound, it can usually be automated without replacing it. We'll check the frame, the hinges, the piers and the ground first, and tell you honestly if it isn't worth doing.
A gate that has stopped working
We'll help, whatever the make or age and whoever fitted it. No contract needed. If the gate is unsafe or your car is stuck behind it, ring the emergency line on 07391 668114. Not sure what make you have? Have a look at the makes we work on, and ring us anyway if yours isn't there.
And two finishing touches
Railings across the front of the house or either side of the drive
A post or bollard to keep other people from parking on your drive
For the home
Gates, railings and access at home
Safety
Is an electric gate safe with children and pets around?
Yes, when it's set up properly. A well set up gate stops when something is in its path, thanks to the safety devices fitted to it: photocells across the opening that stop it if the beam is broken, safety edges that stop it on contact, a closing force that has been measured rather than guessed, and a manual release so you can open it by hand in a power cut.
On the legal position, accurately. HSE's guidance on powered gates says that health and safety law does not apply to owners of powered gates at privately owned homes, but that it is strongly recommended they are checked regularly. So it isn't a legal duty on you in the way it is on a business, and we won't pretend otherwise to sell you a service contract. It is still a heavy machine on your drive, and the standards exist because powered gates have killed children.
The duty doesn't disappear, though. It sits with us. The same HSE guidance says that those designing and manufacturing powered gates must comply with the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, and that where a gate is assembled from components the installer becomes the manufacturer in law, with a technical file to compile, a written Declaration of Conformity to issue and full user instructions to hand over. We make the gate and we fit it, so on your drive that duty is ours, and it's the same duty whether the gate is going on a business park or in front of your house.
Source: HSE, Powered gates: legal responsibilities.
We commission new gates with the closing forces measured, and we're happy to measure an existing gate for you, whoever installed it. If you're getting other quotes, ask who the responsible person is for your gate and ask to see the Declaration of Conformity and the user instructions. It's a fair question, and the answer tells you a lot.
Cost
Choosing the right gate, and what decides what it costs
The right gate for your home depends on the opening, the space around it, the ground and how you use the drive. We don't publish prices, because every gate is made to fit and the ground often changes the job more than the gate does. Here's what moves the number, so you can judge a quote from anybody:
The size of the opening
Wider means heavier, and heavier means a bigger motor and heavier hinges or a heavier track.
The material and the style
Aluminium, timber cladding, steel and traditional wrought iron each take a different amount of work.
Whether it swings or slides
That depends on the space behind or beside the opening, and what the ground will allow.
The motor type
Underground, ram, articulated arm or a sliding motor and rack, chosen to suit the gate rather than by preference.
Groundworks
Digging, ducting, drainage and reinstating the drive are often the part people haven't planned for.
The power supply
How far the nearest supply is from the gate, and what it has to cross to get there.
Access to the site
Whether a machine can get in, or whether it's all done by hand.
What you want to open it with
A pair of remotes is one thing, a video intercom you answer on your phone is another.
A modern aluminium gate for the drive
If you like a clean, modern look, our aluminium gates won't rust, rot or warp, and they come in 34 styles. Here are four that suit a home: boarded for privacy, open across the top, or finished with your house name.
Open top
Top half open with 65mm horizontal slats, 150mm boards below.
Model MHOT-65/150
Perspex panels
Horizontal Perspex name panel across the top, 150mm boards below.
Model MPOT-150
Stainless steel details
200mm horizontal boards, fully boarded, with your house name in stainless steel.
Model MSHN-200
How we work
We'll come and take a look before anybody quotes
The site survey is free, with no obligation at the end of it. One of our team comes out, measures the opening, checks the fall of the ground and where the power is, looks at the piers or posts, and talks you through what the job actually needs. If we think you'd be wasting your money, we'll tell you.
The warranty: two year parts and labour on systems held under a service contract with us. The service contract is the condition, and we'd rather say that plainly here than in small print later.
No obligation
The site survey is free
We measure the opening, the ground and the power supply before anybody quotes.
Coverage
Do you come out to my house?
Yes, if you're in our area. We're based in Berkhamsted and work across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London.
One honest caveat. Work at people's homes doesn't always travel as far as our commercial work, because a single gate at a house can't carry the same travelling time as a site full of them. If you're on the edge of our area, just ring and ask, and we'll tell you straight.
Recent work
Recent work for homeowners
