Custom Size Driveway Gates: Why Sized-to-the-Inch Beats Stock, and How to Order One

Every driveway opening is a specific number of inches, and almost no gate catalog is. That mismatch is where a surprising amount of a gate project's cost and frustration hides: fillers, cut posts, shimmed hinges, and a "custom" surcharge for asking for the size you actually have.

This guide explains what sizing to the inch changes, what to measure, and how ordering a custom-size gate works from your tape measure to the crate on your driveway.

What a stock size costs you

A stock catalog sells 10, 12, 14 and 16-foot gates. Your opening is 13 feet 4 inches. The options:

• Buy the 14 and widen the opening. Move or reset a post, redo the concrete, maybe cut back the fence. Days of work to accommodate a gate that was the wrong size on the shelf.
• Buy the 12 and fill the gap. A 16-inch filler panel beside the gate, which never looks intentional and is a weak point.
• Pay a custom premium of 10 to 30 percent for the 13-foot-4.

None of those are the gate's fault. They are the catalog's. A frame built to 160 inches costs the same steel, welds and coating as one built to 168.

How a made-to-order gate is built

A custom-size gate is not a special process. It is the normal process with your numbers.

1. Your order carries the width and height in inches. Not "medium," not "14 ft nominal."
2. The frame is cut to those numbers minus the hinge and latch clearance the hardware needs, so the gate hangs on your posts with the right gaps.
3. Pickets are spaced to the width so the pattern is even across the panel and the end pickets are not half-width.
4. The panel split for a two-panel swing gate is centered on your opening, or offset if you asked for it.
5. It is welded, powder coated and crated with the hinge points on and the hardware inside, like any other gate.

The only difference from a stock gate is that it fits.

What to measure

Three numbers, and a photo.

Width

Inside face of one post to inside face of the other, at hinge height, in two places. Use the smaller if they differ.

Height

The finished height you want the gate to stand, from the ground at the closed position. Check your front-yard height limit first (the permits guide has the common numbers).

Ground drop across the opening

Run a level; the sloped driveway guide has the ten-minute method. A drop of a few inches means a swing gate wants a slightly larger ground gap, or a slider.

A photo from the street

With the tape in frame. It catches the things a number misses: a mailbox in the swing path, a curb, a post that leans.

If you do not have posts yet, measure the opening you want and order the gate to it; set the posts to the spacing on the instruction sheet.

The width guide has the clearances for trucks, RVs and trailers if you are deciding how wide to go.

Beyond width and height

Sized to the inch is the start of custom, not the end. On a made-to-order steel gate the same order can specify:

• Motion: swing or slide, built with the right hardware from the start.
• Panel layout: two panels meeting at the center, or a single panel hinged at one side.
• Top style: flat square, arched, or finials on the pickets.
• Picket pattern: single, double, a puppy pattern with tighter spacing low on the panel to keep small dogs in, or frame only.
• Ironwood: horizontal or vertical wood boards on the steel frame for a farmhouse or privacy look, or the frame prepped for you to add your own.
• Color: black or white satin powder coat over an anti-gassing primer, with custom colors on request.

Each of those is a decision the configurator shows you the price of as you make it. There is no separate quote step for "custom."

Lead time and shipping

Our made-to-order steel gates take about 14 days to build and powder coat in San Jose, California. Each one ships by LTL freight, typically three to five business days to anywhere in the US including Alaska and Hawaii, on a pallet or in a crate, curbside, and the carrier will call to schedule. Two people can unload it; a 14-foot steel panel is 150 to 400 pounds depending on the design.

Custom sizing does not add a day to that. The gate is built to your number from the first cut.

Ordering

1. Measure. Width and height as above.
2. Enter your size. Put them in the configurator. The price updates for your exact size.
3. Choose the details. Motion, style, pickets, ironwood and color, and watch the price change with each.
4. Check the rules. Setback, height limit and HOA rules, once, with the design in hand.
5. Order. The instruction sheet in the crate gives the post spacing that matches your gate.

The whole point of a custom size is that step five is the last time you think about fit. Price your opening below and see what your actual size costs, not the nearest one on a shelf.