Gate Installation in Newport, WA and Priest River, ID

Walk gates and driveway gates

Walk gates are three to four feet wide, set into a fence line for the side yard, the garden, or the dog run. They get opened thousands of times, so the latch and the hinges matter more than the boards. Driveway gates are twelve to sixteen feet across, single or double swing, in wood to match a fence or in steel tube for a ranch-style entrance on acreage. We install manual gates. Where you might want an opener later, we set the posts and run conduit across the opening now, so adding an operator is a wiring job instead of a dig. We can also hang a gate in an existing fence, as long as the posts on either side are up to it, and we will tell you if they are not.

The post is the gate

A line post holds up a panel that does not move. A hinge post holds up a gate that swings out from it like a lever, with all the weight at the far end. So the hinge post goes deeper than the line posts, is a bigger timber or a steel post, and gets a concrete footing sized to the gate. On a driveway gate the hinge post is a different animal from anything else in the fence: heavy, deep, in a lot of concrete, and sometimes tied back to the next post so it cannot rock. Our ground makes this harder. In river sand near Newport the post needs a wider footing to keep from working loose. On the benches we dig the hole with the excavator through cobble and set it in a bigger collar. Frost lifts a shallow gate post a little every winter until the latch no longer lines up, so the post goes below frost like everything else we set.

Hardware, alignment, and sag

Gate hardware is where cheap shows. We use heavy-duty hinges rated well past the gate's weight, adjustable so the gate can be tuned after the first winter, and a latch that closes with one hand and stays closed in wind. Wide gates get a drop rod into a sleeve in the driveway and, where the span calls for it, a wheel at the free end. Sag is the common complaint, and it comes from two places: a hinge post that has moved, or a wood gate frame that has racked out of square. The frame gets a diagonal brace running from the bottom hinge corner up to the top latch corner, which is the direction that actually holds, or a cable and turnbuckle the other way that can be tightened later. We set the gate with clearance for snow and gravel so it still swings in January.

Driveway gates on a gravel drive

A driveway gate has to work with the driveway. If the drive climbs in the swing path, a swing gate scrapes when it opens and we would talk about which way it swings, a slide gate, or regrading the swing area. It has to clear the plow, and the plow driver has to be able to get past it. It needs a place for a car to stop that is not in the road. If the gate is close to the road, the county may want it set back from the right-of-way, and we will tell you on the site walk which office to check with. All of that is decided before the posts go in. Moving a driveway gate post later means digging out a lot of concrete.

What drives the cost

A gate is priced from its width, its weight, and what it hangs on. These are the factors.

• Width and type. A walk gate in a cedar fence is a small job; a sixteen-foot double driveway gate is a two-day one.
• The hinge post. Size, depth, concrete, and whether it is wood or steel, all driven by the weight of the gate.
• Ground. Sand, cobble, or rock at the post location.
• Hardware: hinge rating, latch type, drop rods, wheels, and cane bolts.
• Whether the gate hangs in a new fence, or in an existing fence where posts may need to be replaced first.
• Conduit across the opening for a future opener.
• Grade work in the swing path of a driveway gate.

What you get

• Hinge posts sized and set for the weight of the gate, below frost
• Excavator-dug post holes in cobble, with concrete footings to match
• Adjustable heavy-duty hinges so the gate can be tuned after the first winter
• Diagonal bracing or cable and turnbuckle on every wood gate
• Conduit across driveway openings for a future opener
• Swing direction, clearance, and plow access sorted on the site walk

How it goes

1. 1

   Call with the opening

   Tell us where the gate goes, how wide, and what it is for. Photos of the fence or the driveway help. We will ask whether it is going into an existing fence.

2. 2

   Site walk

   We check the ground at the post locations, the grade in the swing path, which way the gate should open, and whether existing posts can carry it.

3. 3

   Written quote

   The quote lists the gate, the posts, the hardware, and any conduit or grading, so you know what you are getting.

4. 4

   Set, hang, adjust

   Posts set in concrete and left to cure, then the gate is hung, braced, latched, and adjusted until it swings clean and closes with one hand.