Security Gates in Leona Valley, CA

Security comes from how the gate is built, not from how much of the view it blocks. We weld the frame from steel tube with no bolt together joints, so there are no fasteners to back off or pull. The tube wall goes up for a yard gate, and the hinges, rollers and posts grow with it. On our drawings a panel up to 6 feet sits on a 2.5 inch square post, and gate posts step up to 4 inch square as the leaf widens.

LA County Code 22.330.060.B shapes the security plan on a parcel inside the Leona Valley district. Perimeter fencing has to be an open, permeable design, and solid view-obscuring perimeter fences and walls are prohibited, retaining walls excepted. The text does not name gates. An open welded leaf in that line avoids the question. A solid leaf in a perimeter line goes to county planning before it is built.

Height on a Leona Valley lot is the county's number. LA County Code 22.110.070 allows 3 feet 6 inches in a required front yard and 6 feet in an interior side or rear yard, taken from the highest average ground level within 3 feet of either side. A secured yard set in an interior side or rear yard sits under the taller fence limit. How the front yard figure reads for a gate and its posts out at the road, and where your required front yard ends, are for county planning to confirm.

If the gate gets a motor, UL 325 sets the operator class by use. A home for one to four families is Class I. Commercial use, or five or more units, is Class II. Class III is industrial ground closed to the public, and Class IV is guarded access with staff watching the gate. Tell us who drives through the yard, because the class changes the protection the gate carries.

Once motorized, a slide gate falls under ASTM F2200 for Classes I through III. Exposed weight bearing rollers 8 feet or less above grade are guarded or covered, positive stops sit at both ends of travel, and the gate and the fence it covers when open are screened so a 2.25 inch sphere cannot pass, up to the top of the gate or 72 inches above grade, whichever is less. On an open rail perimeter, clear that screened stretch with county planning.

An open Leona Valley ranch lot puts more wind on a gate than on the fence beside it. The leaf hangs off one post rather than resting on a footing every few feet, and solid infill hands the full push to that post. Open infill lets the air through. We set gate posts at least 36 inches into concrete, deeper under a wide leaf or a solid panel, which is our shop practice rather than a code figure.

Galvanized under powder is the finish for a gate that lives outdoors in Leona Valley. ASTM A123 sets the zinc thickness by the steel, ASTM D7803 covers the thermal prep that keeps pinholes out of the powder, and the American Galvanizers Association reports roughly 1.5 to 2.3 times the combined life of the two coatings alone.

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.