Composite Gates Dorset

We survey, manufacture and fit composite and metal gates across Dorset — Bournemouth, Poole and the harbour, Weymouth and the Isle of Portland, and inland through Dorchester and the chalk downland. Every gate is measured on site, made to those measurements, and installed by the same people who quoted it.

Coverage moves. We are always reviewing how the installers on our network are performing and taking on new ones as demand grows, so the towns below are where we work most consistently rather than a complete or permanent list.

Towns and cities we cover

The surrounding villages and suburbs of each are covered too. If your town is not named, send your postcode and we will confirm.

Dorset

• Bournemouth
• Poole
• Dorchester
• Weymouth

Also covered: Christchurch, Ferndown, Verwood, Wimborne Minster, Blandford Forum, Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Wareham, Swanage, Bridport and Lyme Regis.

What we make and fit

• Composite driveway gates Double and single leaf, hung or sliding, manual or automated.
• Composite garden gates Side gates, back gates and matching pedestrian gates.
• Metal gates Steel and metal-framed gates, made to measure.
• Electric gates Automation on new gates, or retro-fitted to existing ones.
• Composite fencing Matching fence panels and screens to tie the boundary together.

What Dorset asks of a gate

On the western coast, the ground is still moving

Between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, and in places along to Bridport and West Bay, coastal landslip is an active process rather than a historical one. The cliffs are a mixture of clay and unstable strata and they move — slowly in most years, sharply in a wet winter. Properties set back from the cliff are usually fine, but ground on a slope anywhere in that belt can be creeping imperceptibly, and a gate is one of the first things to show it: posts that were plumb stop being plumb, and the gap at the meeting stile opens on one side. If you are anywhere near it, a gate that can be adjusted — hinges with real range rather than fixed pins — is worth specifying from the start. It is the difference between a half-hour visit and a rebuild.

Most of the county is a National Landscape, and that is a different mechanism from a National Park

Worth separating the two, because people assume they work the same way. The Dorset National Landscape covers roughly half the county, and unlike a National Park it does not bring its own planning authority — your district council still decides. What it does is change the policy they apply, with more weight given to how a boundary treatment reads in the landscape and less tolerance for something that reads as suburban in a rural setting. In practice that usually shapes height and infill rather than ruling a gate out, and it is a far easier conversation to have before a gate is made than after.

Poole Harbour is sheltered water, and that changes the brief

The harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world and almost entirely enclosed, so the waterside plots around Sandbanks, Lilliput, Hamworthy and Rockley get very little of the wind that an open coast would throw at them — but they get salt more or less constantly, on still days as well as rough ones. It reverses the usual priorities. Wind load is rarely the constraint; the finish on the metalwork is. And the brief itself tends to be different, because on a harbourside plot the gate is frequently as much about privacy from the water side as security from the road, which changes where it goes and how open the infill can be.

What affects the cost

Gate prices move on a handful of variables rather than a fixed rate. The main ones are:

FAQs about Composite Gates in Dorset

I am near Lyme Regis. Should I worry about the ground?

It is worth raising. Coastal landslip along that stretch is active rather than historical, and ground on a slope can be creeping slowly even well back from the cliff. A gate shows it early — posts stop being plumb and the gap at the meeting stile opens on one side. Specifying hinges with real adjustment range from the start turns that into a half-hour visit instead of a rebuild.

Does the National Landscape designation stop me having a gate?

Almost never. It does not bring its own planning authority the way a National Park does — your district council still decides — but it changes the policy they apply, with more weight on how the boundary reads in the landscape. In practice that shapes height and infill rather than ruling a gate out, and it is a much easier conversation before the gate is made.

My plot is on Poole Harbour. Is it the same as an open coast?

No, and the difference is useful. The harbour is almost entirely enclosed, so wind load is rarely the constraint — but salt is there more or less constantly, including on still days. So the money goes into the finish on the frame, hinges and fixings rather than into heavier posts. The brief is often different too: on a harbourside plot the gate is frequently about privacy from the water as much as security from the road.

Do you cover the rural parts of the county?

Yes. Blandford Forum, Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Wimborne Minster, Wareham and Swanage are all covered, along with Bridport and Lyme Regis on the western coast. Send your postcode and you will get a straight answer either way.

Which Dorset towns have their own page?

Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester and Weymouth. The rest of the county is covered from this page, and more town pages will follow where there is genuinely something local to say rather than for the sake of having one.

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