Composite Garden Gates

Side gates, back gates and pedestrian gates, made to the gap you actually have rather than trimmed down from a stock size. Composite panels in a powder-coated steel frame, measured on site and fitted by the same people who quoted it — including the awkward ones between a house wall and a neighbour's fence.

Side gates, back gates and pedestrian gates, each built to the gap it went into. See more of our work.

A side gate is a different problem from a driveway gate

They get treated as the small version of the same job. They are not. Almost everything that decides a side gate is different from what decides a driveway gate, and the differences are what make them go wrong.

One side of the opening is usually the house

A driveway gate hangs between two piers built for the purpose. A side gate typically hangs off the house wall on one side and a fence post, boundary wall or concrete post on the other — two completely different fixings on the same gate, carrying the same leaf. Getting that pairing right is most of the job.

The gap is almost never square

A passage between a house and a boundary narrows and widens, and the wall is rarely plumb. We measure top and bottom and at both ends, because a gate built to the widest point will not fit and a gate built to the narrowest leaves a gap you can see daylight through. On older properties a 15–25mm difference over the height of the opening is completely normal.

Width is decided by what has to get through

Not by the gap. A wheelie bin, a mower, a bike with panniers, a wheelbarrow — these set the clear opening you actually need, and clear opening is narrower than the gap because the frame and the hinge take their share. It is worth measuring the widest thing you own before anyone measures the passage.

Where the gate fixes, and what that costs you

Fixing into a house wall

Usually the strongest available point, but not always straightforward. Cavity walls need fixings long enough to reach the inner leaf without bridging the cavity. Rendered walls hide what is underneath, which might be block, might be brick, and might be insulation. We resolve that at survey rather than on the day, because discovering render over insulated block with the gate already made is how a job loses a morning.

Existing concrete posts

Common on estate boundaries and often perfectly usable. The gate is built as a framed unit sized to sit between them, so the posts stay and the gate fits the gap they leave. It is normally the cheapest good outcome available.

Wall one side, post the other

The most frequent arrangement, and the one that needs thinking about. A house wall does not move; a fence post does. Where the boundary side is a timber post of unknown age we would rather put in a new post than hang a gate that will be out of square in two winters — and we will say so at survey rather than fit it and hope.

Height, privacy, and when you need permission

Most side and garden gates need no permission at all, but the threshold catches people out, and it is not the same everywhere.

The height that matters

In England, a boundary gate, fence or wall generally needs planning permission once it goes above two metres — or above one metre where it fronts a highway used by vehicles, or the footway of one. Most side gates sit comfortably under both. Scotland and Wales set their own thresholds and any conservation area or listed building changes the answer, so where a gate is going to be tall or is on a frontage, check with the council first. It is a five-minute call.

Privacy against being able to see out

A solid infilled gate at 1.8m gives complete privacy and makes a narrow passage feel like a corridor. A gate with a screen top or an open section above the panel line gives most of the privacy back while letting light down the passage and letting you see who is there before you open it. On a north-facing side return the light matters more than people expect.

Screen tops and toppers

A screen section, a lattice panel or a decorative topper adds height without adding solid mass, which keeps wind load down and often keeps the gate under the threshold that would need permission. They are a frame job rather than a panel job, which is why they change the price.

Locks, latches and which way it opens

Latch side and swing direction

A gate into a passage almost always wants to open into the garden rather than out towards the street, both because an outward swing over a footway is a problem and because a gate that opens away from you is easier to get through carrying something. Which side the hinges go then follows from where the wall is.

Getting in and out from both sides

A rear or side gate is usually the one you come back to with your hands full. Key both sides, or key one side and a thumbturn on the garden side, is the usual answer — but a thumbturn reachable through a gap in a gate is not a lock, so on an open-topped or screen-topped gate the thumbturn goes where an arm cannot reach it.

Bolts

A drop bolt into a socket set in the path holds a gate still in wind and stops it being lifted off. On a single pedestrian gate it is often the difference between a gate that rattles all winter and one that does not.

Escape, not just entry

If a side gate is the only way out of a rear garden, it should be openable from the inside without a key. It is worth saying out loud at survey, because a gate specified purely for security can end up being the thing between a family and the street.

Matching a gate you already have

Same panels, same frame, later

Side gates are frequently ordered after a driveway gate, sometimes years later. The panel colours and frame finishes are a deliberately small range precisely so a gate made now still matches one made then. Tell us what you have and we will match it rather than getting close.

Or deliberately not matching

There is a decent argument for a side gate being plainer than the driveway gates it sits behind — it is a working gate that gets kicked open with a bin in each hand. A plain infilled panel in the same colour usually looks more considered than a scaled-down copy of the front gates.

What affects the cost

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

FAQs about composite garden gates

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