Security Gates in Lake Los Angeles, CA

Welded joints are the point. A bolted kit carries its load through fasteners, and daily use, wind and blowing grit work each one loose. A frame welded from steel tube carries the same load through the steel itself. On a Lake Los Angeles lot a long way from anyone who could come and tighten a bolt, that difference shows up in how the gate holds square over time.

Height sets where the gate goes. A fence or gate at 3 feet 6 inches in the required front yard marks the line but stops nobody determined. Required interior side and rear yards allow 6 feet. So the layout that works on a big Lake Los Angeles lot runs the tall line behind the front setback, with the gate set in that line and room in front of it for a truck to wait off the road.

Section sizes step up with the job. On our drawings a panel up to 6 feet uses a 2.5 inch square post, and gate posts go up to 4 inch square as the leaf gets wider. The tube wall and the roller hardware grow with them. Posts in loose Lake Los Angeles ground go at least 36 inches into concrete, deeper under a wide leaf or a solid face, which is shop practice rather than a code number.

Infill decides the load and the privacy. A solid face hides the yard but gives the wind the whole panel to push on. Mesh or close picket shows the yard and passes more air, though mesh added after the fact puts sail area on rollers and hinges sized for less. We settle the infill on the drawing so the frame is built for it.

Motorizing brings in the standards. UL 325 sets the operator class by how the property is used: Class I for a home of one to four families, Class II once customers or tenants drive through, Class III for an industrial yard the public never enters.

On a slide gate, ASTM F2200 then calls for guards on exposed weight bearing rollers 8 feet or less above grade, positive stops at both ends, and screening so a 2.25 inch sphere cannot pass through the gate or the fence it covers when open, up to the top of the gate or 72 inches, whichever is less. Those slide gate provisions cover Classes I through III and do not apply to a Class IV gate.

Walk gates stay separate. A vehicular operator is never used on a pedestrian gate, so a person gate beside the drive is either worked by hand or put on hardware listed for that use. We weld the walk gate into the same line, matched to the yard gate.

This work runs out of our shop on Division Street in Lancaster. Read the full security gates details, or call (818) 220-8704 and we will come out.