Driveway and Side Gates in Sydney: What to Know Before You Order

A gate is the part of a fence that gets used every day, and it is almost always the part that fails first. Panels sit still; gates swing, drag, get slammed, carry bins through and take the weight of children hanging off them. Getting the gate right is worth more thought than most people give it when they are ordering a fence.

Start with what the gate actually has to do

Before you choose a material or a style, it is worth being specific about the job. A pedestrian side gate that opens twice a day is a different problem from a double driveway gate that has to clear a sloping crossover and take an automatic opener later on.

• How wide does the opening need to be? Trailers, wheelie bins and wheelbarrows need more room than people expect.

• Does it need to be see-through or solid? Privacy, wind loading and security pull in different directions.

• Is it also a pool barrier? If so, the rules below apply and override everything else.

• Will it be automated now, later, or never?

Materials, and how they behave

Most Sydney gates are timber, Colorbond, aluminium or steel, and each has a different failure mode rather than simply being better or worse.

• Timber gates look the part on period and picket fences, but timber moves with the weather. A wide timber gate needs a proper braced frame or it will drop out of square within a couple of seasons.

• Colorbond gates match a Colorbond fence and stay light, which is easy on the hinges. The frame behind the sheet is what determines whether it stays straight.

• Aluminium is light and will not rust, which makes it a common choice for pool gates and for homes near the water.

• Steel gates, including powder-coated tubular and decorative styles, are the strongest option and suit driveway openings, but the weight has to be carried by properly set posts.

Swing or sliding?

Swing gates are simpler, cheaper and suit most residential openings. They need clear space to swing through, and on a driveway that falls towards the street they may foul the ground as they open, which is why gate leaves are often hung high or the ground is regraded. Sliding gates need a clear run of space alongside the opening, roughly the width of the gate itself, but they do not care about the slope of the driveway and they suit narrow frontages where a swinging leaf would open into traffic.

Posts, hinges and latches: where gates actually fail

Almost every sagging gate we are called out to has the same underlying cause. The gate post was not set deep enough or thick enough for the weight it is carrying, or the hinges were undersized. A gate post is doing a completely different job from a fence post: it is carrying a cantilevered load that swings. It should be larger, set deeper, and concreted properly.

The other common failure is hardware chosen on price. Hinges and latches on an exterior gate live outdoors in the weather for a decade or more, and near the coast a cheap latch can seize in a couple of years. Adjustable hinges are worth the small extra cost because they let the gate be re-squared later without the whole thing coming off.

Automation: decide before the gate is built

If there is any chance you will automate a driveway gate, say so at quoting stage. Automation changes the gate frame, the post size, whether you want swing or slide, and whether conduit needs to be run under the driveway before anything is paved. Retrofitting an opener to a gate that was never designed for one usually means rebuilding the gate. The conduit is cheap while the ground is open and expensive afterwards.

Pool gates have their own rules

If a gate forms part of a swimming pool barrier in NSW, it has to comply with the pool barrier requirements, not just look secure. In practice that means the gate must be self-closing from any position and self-latching, it must not be able to be propped open, the latch has to be positioned out of a small child's reach, and the gate should open away from the pool area. Gaps under and beside the gate are controlled as well. This is one area where it is worth confirming the current requirements with your local council rather than relying on how the old gate was set up.

Maintenance that actually extends a gate's life

• Check and adjust the hinges once a year before the gate starts to drag.

• Keep the latch clean and lubricated, especially near the coast.

• On timber gates, re-coat the end grain and the bottom rail, which is where water gets in first.

• Fit a drop bolt on double gates so the closed leaf is not taking the load of the other one.

What a good gate quote should spell out

A quote that only says "gate" as a line item is not enough to compare. Look for the opening width, the gate material and frame, the post size and depth, the hinge and latch brand or type, whether the gate is fabricated to suit the opening or supplied as a stock size, and whether automation provisions are included or excluded.

For general pricing context, our Sydney fencing cost guide explains what drives a fencing quote, and our front fence ideas guide covers gates in the context of street appeal.

A Cut Above Landscaping & Carpentry builds and installs timber, Colorbond, aluminium and steel gates across Sydney, including the Sutherland Shire, St George, Canterbury-Bankstown, the Inner West and the Eastern Suburbs. We are a licensed NSW contractor (Licence 484384C) based in Miranda. See our fencing services or contact us for a free onsite quote.

Read next: a gate that forms part of a pool barrier has to self-close and self-latch from any position, and the rules around it are stricter than for any other gate on the property. Our guide to pool fencing in Sydney sets out the requirements and the mistakes that most often fail an inspection.