Automated gates
Electric gates for drives, yards and industrial entrances. We draw them, make them in our own workshop, fit the automation, wire the controls and set the safety devices, so the whole gate comes from one company that is accountable for all of it.
Free site survey. Bespoke or standard. Timber, aluminium, steel and wrought iron.
Who is the gate for?
For your home
A gate across the drive changes how the front of a house looks and how safe it feels. We make them to fit the opening you have got, in the material that suits the house, and we automate them so you never get out of the car in the rain.
For commercial and industrial sites
Vehicle entrances that open and close hundreds of times a day, carry traffic they were not originally specified for, and have to stay safe while they do it. We specify for the duty cycle rather than for the picture.
The gates we make
For your home
Wrought iron gates
Traditional bar and scroll work, made and finished in our workshop. The right answer on a period property, and the one people picture when they picture a driveway gate.
Aluminium gates
Light, will not rot or rust, powder coated in the colour you choose. Popular where the opening is wide and the motor has to work less hard.
Timber and clad gates
Hardwood or timber cladding on a steel frame, which gives you the look of solid timber with a frame that stays square.
Swing gates
One or two leaves swinging into the property. The simplest arrangement where there is room behind the gate and the ground is reasonably level.
Sliding gates
The gate runs sideways across the opening. The answer on a short drive, a slope, or where a swinging leaf would foul the cars.
Bi-folding gates
Each leaf folds in half as it opens, so the gate clears the opening quickly in half the space a swing gate needs.
For commercial and industrial sites
Cantilever gates
The gate is carried on a counterbalanced beam and never touches the ground, so there is no track to fill with grit, ice or water. Made for yards and heavy traffic.
Heavy duty sliding gates
Tracked sliding gates built for constant use, wide openings and vehicles that will not wait.
Speed gates
Faster opening and closing where a queue at the entrance is the problem, usually paired with automatic vehicle detection.
Industrial swing gates
Heavier sections, heavier hinges and heavier motors, specified for the wind load and the duty cycle rather than for the opening alone.
Gates we have made and fitted
A gate on the drive, and what it is actually like to live with
A gate at the front of a house does three things at once: it stops the drive being used as a turning circle, it makes a burglar pick a different house, and it keeps children and dogs off the road. Most people ring us about one of those and end up caring about the other two.
What it looks like
The gate is made to the opening you have, not cut down from a stock size. We measure the gap, the fall of the ground and the piers, and draw something that suits the house. If you want it to match railings or a side gate, we make those too.
How it works day to day
Most homes end up with a remote in each car, a keypad or intercom at the entrance for visitors, and an app or a fob for anyone else who needs to get in. You can add automatic opening on the way out so you never touch anything to leave.
Safety around children and pets
A powered gate is a machine, and it is the safety devices that make it safe rather than the gate itself. We fit photocells across the opening so the gate stops if something is in its path, safety edges where anything could be caught, and we measure the closing forces with a calibrated force tester before we hand it over. If you want to understand what that involves, we have written it up on the safety page: what the regulations require.
Entry for visitors
Intercoms, video entry and keypads are fitted at the same time as the gate rather than added later, which is tidier and cheaper. Gate access control.
The free site survey
Somebody comes out, measures the opening, looks at where the power is, checks the ground and the fall of the drive, and tells you what the job needs. It is free and there is no obligation at the end of it.
Cost
We do not publish prices, because a gate is made to fit and the ground it sits in changes the job more than the gate does. What we can do is tell you honestly what drives the number: what drives the cost of an automated gate.
Automating a gate you already have
You do not need a new gate to stop getting out of the car. If the gate you have is sound, it can usually be automated.
What has to be checked first
Whether the frame and hinges will take the extra work, whether the posts or piers are solid enough to carry a motor, whether the gate swings or slides freely by hand throughout its travel, whether the ground is level enough, and where the nearest power supply is. A gate that drags on the ground or drops on its hinges will drag harder once a motor is pushing it.
What changes
You gain motors, a control board in a weatherproof enclosure, a manual release so the gate can be opened by hand in a power cut, safety devices across the opening, and whatever you want to open it with. Sometimes the hinges or the posts get replaced as part of the work, and we will tell you that at the survey rather than on the day.
What we will not do
If the gate is not worth automating we will say so at the survey. Putting a motor on a gate that is failing only breaks it faster.
Specified for the traffic it will actually carry
The gate on a commercial site is a piece of machinery in daily use, not a feature. What matters is the duty cycle, the wind load, the traffic volume and how the gate behaves when something goes wrong.
Duty cycle
A gate cycling several hundred times a day needs a motor rated for it. Fitting a residential operator to a distribution yard is the most common reason a commercial gate fails early.
Traffic volume and queueing
If vehicles stack at the entrance, the answer is usually faster gear, automatic detection on the exit loop, or a barrier alongside the gate rather than a bigger motor.
Wind load
Infilled leaves catch wind. On exposed sites this drives the section sizes, the hinge specification and sometimes the whole gate type.
Integration
Gates rarely sit on their own. They are wired in with barriers, bollards, intercoms, readers and site systems so one entrance behaves as one thing. Gate access control.
Safety and the paperwork. On a commercial site the ultimate legal responsibility for an existing powered gate sits with the owner or manager, per dhf TS 013-1:2021. We commission to that standard and hand over the documentation. what the regulations require.
We make them as well as fit them
Most companies that fit electric gates buy the gate in. We do not. We have had our own manufacturing facility in Berkhamsted since 2014, with design, fabrication, finishing, project management and installation under one roof.
That is why a Mr Gates gate fits the opening rather than the nearest standard size, why a change or an addition years later is a phone call rather than a hunt for a discontinued product, and why we can hold a Factory Production Control certificate at all.
Our factory production control is certified to BS EN 1090-1 and BS EN 1090-2, execution class EXC2, certificate 2273-CPR-4271, valid to 21 August 2027. In plain English: the way we make load bearing and welded structural steel is audited, and the paperwork exists to prove it. Very few gate companies our size hold it.
More of the gates we have made and fitted
The makes we build with
We are not tied to one manufacturer. We specify the automation that suits the gate, the traffic and the site, and we work regularly with CAME, FAAC, BFT, Nice, Beninca, DEA, Roger Technology and Locinox.
Survey to install
Survey
Drawing and quote
Manufacture
Installation
Commissioning and force testing
Handover with documentation
Common questions
Do you make gates as well as fit them?
Yes. We design and manufacture in our own facility in Berkhamsted, which we have owned since 2014, and our own teams handle fabrication, finishing, project management and installation. We are a manufacturer and an engineering company as well as an installer, and our factory production control is certified to BS EN 1090-1 and BS EN 1090-2 at EXC2 under certificate 2273-CPR-4271.
Will you automate a gate I already have?
Yes, as long as the gate is sound. We look at the frame, the hinges, the posts or piers, how freely the gate moves by hand, the ground and the power supply, and then tell you what it needs. If the gate is not worth automating we will say so at the survey rather than take the job.
Do you work on any make?
Yes. We are not an approved dealer tied to one brand, and we work with CAME, FAAC, BFT, Nice, Beninca, DEA, Roger Technology and Locinox among others. That means we can specify whatever suits the gate and the site instead of whatever we happen to stock.
What is the difference between a swing gate and a sliding gate for my drive?
The gate itself is usually decided by the ground rather than by taste. A swing gate needs room behind the opening for the leaves to travel and ground that is reasonably level, and it is the simpler arrangement where you have both. A sliding gate runs sideways across the opening instead, which is the answer on a short drive, on a slope, or anywhere a swinging leaf would foul the cars. Where there is not enough room to swing and not enough width to slide, a bi-folding gate clears the opening in about half the space a swing gate needs. We look at the opening, the fall of the ground and what is behind the gate at the free site survey, and tell you which one the drive will actually take.
What happens to an electric gate in a power cut?
You can open it by hand. Every powered gate we fit has a manual release, which disengages the motor so the gate moves freely, and we show you how to use it at handover rather than leaving it in the manual. It is worth trying it once while nothing is wrong, so that the first time you use it is not in the dark with the car on the wrong side of the gate. If you cannot get the gate to release, or the gate is unsafe or blocking access, ring the emergency line on 07391 668114.
How long does an installation take, from survey to working gate?
We are not going to quote you a lead time on a web page, because a gate is made to fit and the honest answer depends on the gate and on the ground. What we can tell you is the order the work happens in, so you know what you are waiting for: free site survey, then a drawing and a quote, then manufacture in our own workshop in Berkhamsted, then installation, then commissioning with the closing forces measured, then handover with the documentation. Groundworks and the power supply are the two stages that most often move a date, and both are looked at during the survey. Ask us for a date at the survey and you will get a real one for your job rather than an average.
Related services
Gate servicing and repairs
Planned maintenance and reactive call-outs on any make, whoever installed it.
Gate servicing and repairsGate access control
Intercoms, keypads, fobs and readers, wired into the gate.
Gate access controlRailings
Matching railings and side gates, made in the same workshop.
RailingsCommercial and specifiers
Uptime, compliance and documentation.
commercial and specifier enquiriesHomeowners
Gates for the drive, automation and repairs.
gates and repairs for your home