Custom Steel Gates

Every opening gets its own measure. We take the width from post to post and note which way the drive falls across the gap, because a frame cut to a round stock size has to be trimmed or forced to fit, and one cut to the measurement does not. The gate is then fabricated in the shop, where the tube can be clamped flat and square while it is welded.

Four kinds of gate come through the shop. A driveway gate closes a vehicle opening with one swing leaf, a pair of leaves, or a single slide. A walk gate is one leaf sized for people. An RV gate spans a wider opening and is often a slide where there is no room for a leaf to swing. A yard gate on a shop yard or equipment storage takes knocks from equipment as well as wind, so the tube wall goes up and the posts grow with it.

Choosing between swing and slide is a question of room. A swinging leaf sweeps an arc inside the property, and the ground in that arc has to sit close to level or the bottom rail meets it partway open. A slide gate sweeps nothing, but it needs a clear stretch beside the opening, about as long as the gate itself, to roll into when it opens. Where a drive rises from the street, a slide travels along the grade instead of swinging into it.

Width sets the post. A leaf is carried on one face of its post, so the post acts as a vertical cantilever, and the load on it is the weight of the leaf times how far that weight sits out from the hinge line. Widen the leaf and the load climbs faster than the width does. A single leaf puts the whole opening on one post and one pair of hinges, while a pair of leaves splits it between two. Our gate posts start heavier than a fence line post and step up with the leaf, to 4 inch square on the widest. Past roughly 16 feet, a swing opening is split into two leaves.

Infill changes the load as much as width does. Open pickets let most of the wind pass between them. A solid steel face has no gaps, so the whole leaf catches the wind and passes it into the hinges, the post and the footing. A fence panel rests on a post every few feet, but a gate leaf rides on hinges at one side, which makes a solid leaf the largest wind catcher on most properties. A solid gate needs a heavier post and a deeper footing than an open gate of the same width.

On footings, our recommendation is that a gate post go at least 36 inches below ground, and deeper under a wide leaf or a solid face. That figure is our shop practice. No code or published standard sets it. A shallow footing lets the post turn in the ground, and a post that has turned drops the leaf at the latch edge.

Inside the frame, the diagonal brace keeps a leaf square. Four tubes welded into a rectangle can fold at the corners under the leaf's own weight, and a brace running from the bottom of the hinge side up to the top of the latch side turns that rectangle into two triangles. Hinges, latches, drop rods and their receivers are welded to the steel, so there is no bolted joint to work loose.

Height and material rules come from the city or county that covers the lot, and they differ from one place to the next. Some codes rule on the face as well as the height. Palmdale Municipal Code 17.86.040 lists solid metal among its prohibited fencing materials, so a gate there is built open. The steel fences page explains how those rules vary and links the rules for each town we serve.

The finish carries the steel through years of sun. Hot dip galvanizing to ASTM A123 ties the zinc thickness to the thickness of the steel, so heavier tube carries more zinc. A powder topcoat over that zinc makes a duplex system, which the American Galvanizers Association puts at 1.5 to 2.3 times the combined life of the two coatings used alone. The pairing depends on prep: ASTM D7803 adds a thermal pretreatment that stops the zinc from outgassing pinholes through the powder. For the color coat, ask for an AAMA 2604 class powder rather than the basic 2603 class. Those classes were written for coatings on aluminum, so the number names a grade of powder, not a rating on the steel.

If a motor might come later, say so at the measure. The motor and its wiring are other trades, and we do not sell or wire operators. What we build is a gate ready to be motorized later, with the frame, hinges and posts sized for the extra load and a sleeve welded through the post as a path for the wire. Once a gate is powered, two standards apply to it. UL 325 covers the operator and calls for two independent means of entrapment protection in each entrapment zone, never both of one type. ASTM F2200 covers construction, including positive stops at both ends of travel on a slide gate and a leaf that cannot fall more than 45 degrees from vertical if it comes off its hardware. A manual gate is held to neither until a motor goes on.

Before the measure, have the opening width, the way the drive falls, the widest vehicle that has to pass, and anything close to the post lines, such as a meter. For a gate you already own, gate repair covers sagging leaves, torn hinge tabs and racked frames, and mobile welding brings the welder to work that cannot travel.