The Driveway Gate Buying Guide: Every Decision, in the Order You Should Make Them

Buying a driveway gate is eight decisions, and most regret comes from making them in the wrong order - choosing a style before checking whether the driveway can swing a gate at all, or buying an opener before knowing what the gate weighs. This guide puts the decisions in the order that avoids backtracking, tells you what each one depends on, and hands you the detailed guide when you need it. You can read it in ten minutes; it saves the four-week mistake.

Decision 1: swing or slide

Everything else hangs on this, so start here. A swing gate needs room on one side of the opening for the panels to travel through - about the width of the gate, clear of parked cars and the garage door. A sliding gate needs a straight run of fence beside the opening at least as long as the gate, and a level track or a cantilever.

Three things on your driveway decide it: space to swing, slope, and width. Flat, room to swing, under about 18 feet: swing, which is cheaper to buy, automate and install. Sloped up toward the house, cars parked close to the gate, or over 20 feet: slide. Uneven ground you do not want to regrade: cantilever. The swing vs. sliding guide walks you through five checks on your own driveway, and the sloped driveway guide goes deeper if the ground is not flat.

Decision 2: single or dual panel

A swing gate up to about 12 feet can be one panel. Wider than that, two panels meeting in the middle keep each panel light enough for ordinary hinges and posts, and each one swings through half the arc, which matters on a short apron. Two panels also means two openers on an automated gate. The trade-offs are in the single vs. dual swing guide.

Decision 3: size

Two numbers: the clear opening (post face to post face) and the height. Size the opening for the widest thing that will ever come through it - a full-size pickup with mirrors wants 12 feet straight-on and 14 or more on a turn; a trailer or RV wants 16. The width guide has the table by vehicle.

Then measure properly. A gate is built smaller than the opening to leave room for hinges and the latch, so what the fabricator needs is the post-to-post number, measured at two heights, plus the ground profile across the opening. The measuring guide is a fifteen-minute job with a tape and a helper, and a photo of the opening lets our assistant sanity-check your numbers before you order.

We build every gate to the inch at the same price, so there is no reason to round to a stock size.

Decision 4: material and construction

Steel, wrought iron, aluminum, wood or composite. For most driveways the honest answer is welded steel: it does not sag at width the way aluminum can, it takes an opener's forces without flexing, and powder-coated it needs almost nothing from you. The material comparison covers weight, rust, cost and looks side by side.

What to ask any supplier about construction: what size tube is the frame (ours is 2-inch steel), how are the corners joined (welded, not bolted), what is the finish (powder coat over a primer, not paint), and what is the warranty on the frame. Our answers are on the factory page.

Decision 5: style and infill

Now the fun part, and only now. Pickets in single, double or "puppy" spacing (tight at the bottom to keep small dogs in), square or arched top, finials or not, and wood infill - horizontal or vertical ironwood - for the modern wood-and-metal look. Style barely changes the price on a steel gate; infill and finish do a little. If an HOA has to approve it, the HOA-friendly designs guide shows what passes review the first time, and the permits guide covers setbacks and height limits before you fall in love with a design your city will not allow.

Decision 6: posts and clearance

The gate is only as good as what it hangs on. The hinge post carries the whole gate as a lever, so it wants a heavier wall, a deeper footing and the best soil. Plan the post spacing from the gate's hinge and latch clearance, the ground clearance from your slope and your dog, and the swing arc from what is parked nearby. It is all in the posts and clearance guide, and it is the guide to read before you dig anything.

Decision 7: opener and access control

Decide the opener after the gate, never before. An opener is rated for a gate's weight and length, and a swing gate takes a different opener (arm or underground) from a slider (chain or gear drive). Then choose how it is powered - mains or solar - and how it is told to open: remote, keypad, phone, intercom, vehicle sensor. The opener guide matches openers to gates, solar vs. electric settles power, and the access control guide explains what a keypad, an intercom and a "smart" opener actually do for you.

An automatic gate can hurt someone. Read the gate safety guide before you power anything: it is the difference between a gate that stops when it touches a child and one that does not.

Decision 8: who installs it

A steel swing gate on a flat driveway is a two-person weekend: set posts on day one, hang and align on day two. The DIY installation guide has the plan, tool list and the alignment mistakes that cause callbacks. Sliders, cantilevers, very wide gates and anything commercial are worth a contractor; the professionals page explains what we send them.

What it all costs

Put the decisions together and the budget writes itself: a middle-tier steel swing gate installed by a contractor runs roughly $4,500 to $8,000, a slider $5,800 to $10,500, an opener with remotes and keypad adds $800 to $2,500, and doing the install yourself turns the contractor number into the gate plus a few hundred dollars of posts and concrete. The cost guide breaks every one of those down by material, type, width and automation.

Two things about how we price that other suppliers do differently: the configurator price is the quote, updated live for your exact width, and freight is charged separately at the carrier's cost, insured for full value, and never buried as "free shipping". How delivery works is on the shipping page.

The order to do it in

1. Walk the driveway: swing or slide, single or dual.
2. Measure post to post and the ground, and photograph it.
3. Pick material and construction; then style.
4. Plan posts and clearances.
5. Price the gate in the configurator for your exact size.
6. Choose the opener from the gate's weight and length, then the access control.
7. Order, set posts while it is being built, hang it when it arrives.

If you have your post-to-post number, the configurator will give you a real price in the time it took to read this paragraph - and if anything above is unclear for your driveway, the gate expert on every page answers from the actual specifications.