Electric driveway gates - cost & visitor access

[Ruralbliss]

Hi all

The house we are buying shares a long narrow driveway to a main road with its twin. Both new build houses built in neighbouring houses' back garden.

The house are buying owns the shared bit of driveway & I intend to put a driveway gate across it as I did for current property - mainly to stop our kamikaze puppy dashing out to the road but also for a sense of privacy.

We hated current driveway which bizarrely is similarly long & set back/behind other houses but with a non-electric wooden farm gate so someone has to get out of the car to open/close. It also has a pedestrian gate which I like.

For those who know more about higher end gate offerings could you pls give me a clue as to how much I'll need to budget for an automated gate system, how does it work - presume a button fob thing but maybe a control pad as you drive in too?
Approx cost to budget and how to handle pedestrian visitors/deliveries?

Thanks

How long is a piece of string! It totally depends on the type of gate, what material and how secure you want it.

We were quoted 7k to 12k for ours including a small pedestrian gate at the side. It has motion activated cameras so doubles up as an outside security system. We have an intercom system inside and a fob for cars. We got an extra one for when family are visiting. It’s a wrought iron dual open gate with panelling. I wanted the extra privacy so you can’t see the house from the road. We paid 10k.

You need to consider lots of things a friend had terrible trouble with their electric gate initially going for solid wood, but position meant in high winds gate always buckled, so had to switch to metal gates. Original area where car paused for exit was gravel and cars gradually dug holes results on near beaching so this had to be dug out and replaced with foundations and block paving.

I don't know about cost because they were already installed in our previous house, but we had solid wooden gates that opened like doors rather than a sliding across one. DH and I each had a fob, but we also had a panel where visitors could buzz for access or you could enter a code for access.
We never gave out the code because if people made it onto our property and we weren't in, the gates would like have closed before they got the chance to leave, and they'd be stuck on our drive due to the solid gates & boundary wall.
FIL has a wrought iron gate, so panel can be accessed by sticking your arm through the gate if you go round and he's not in.

For deliveries or couriers, most would just buzz and then walk to the door once I'd opened the gates. Some would buzz and then pop it over the wall behind where our post box was fixed.

Our house was spread over 4 split levels, so we had 2 intercom points to answer from - 1 outside the master bedroom and 1 in the downstairs hallway. I also had the bonus of being able to see who it was from the upstairs intercom, without them seeing me, so I could ignore if I wanted to

Woah so much to think about. Thanks for all the intel sharing!

Way more expensive than I would have thought & a bit tricky with deliveries when not home unless the pedestrian gate is non electric manual option.

Looks like there is lots of choice from wooden, wood effect, aluminium etc.

I'll have to consult with neighbours as to what their preferences are too.

Is it being hooked up to your electric supply as it is a shared drive? Will the other neighbour want this too? Think about power cut and a manual over-ride system.

@GetOffThatTable good points.

I'm going to park the idea until actually moved in but budget circa £10k and discuss with new neighbours. Might be we all agree a non electric gate would suffice.

My friend lives with a shared drive between 3 houses and they all pay a small amount into a kitty for maintenance. They have a pedestrian access and a keypad.

They did originally have wooden gates but found it a faff to keep opening and closing them with the car squeezed in front of the gate and next to the main road.

We've got electric gates and a separate, to the side, pedestrian gate with a normal slide - bolt. I looked for ages, without success, for a set if gates which had a 'door' embedded for pedestrian access but what we have is better. Had to remove a small part of the wall to do it.

I live on a gated road, the gate was already there when we moved in so I don't know how much it initially cost. We have a maintenance contract for the gate, which goes wrong at least once a year. I can't remember how much we pay for the maintenance contract but it's quite a lot, I wouldn't want to be paying it every year by myself. Although I suppose with only two houses there would be less use of the gate and therefore less wear and tear.

Meant to add, ours was £5k.

As to how it works, we have a fob in the car for the gate. We can also phone the gate to open it, but only from preset phone numbers. If someone buzzes our house from the gate then it rings our phones (mine first then DH's if I don't answer). There is also a keypad on both the gate and the pedestrian gate. It doesn't open automatically for cars exiting, you have use the code to go out the pedestrian gate, then use the code to open the gate if you don't have either a fob or the right phone. It feels like the entire world knows the code, for instance two bin companies, all the main delivery companies, regular food delivery drivers, the gardai, tradesmen and gardeners, so a bit less secure than you might think. It is brilliant at keeping out casual callers though, like junk mail and door-to-door sales and charity collectors. The gate was open for a couple of weeks a few years ago because they had to order a new part for it and I was surprise at how many people came to the door.

The cost is going to depend where you are in the country, and if you also need a new gate to be made....don’t underestimate the cost of having a gate made.

We had a couple of quotes done a few years ago to make gates (wood), and provide automation for the gate etc plus run power down our driveway. I believe they were all around £13-16k (excl Vat). We’re in the South East. I’m guessing post Covid this will have gone up now.

We’ve had gates in a previous house. The gates came with Fobs for the cars, and a keypad on the outside of the house. Plus an intercom system inside. They did require an annual service, forget how much this is now.

My drive extends beyond our gate but passes the neighbour. We had so many issues with Royal Mail and couriers driving up the drive to the house but causing endless damage as they reversed badly down.

We have a single electric farm style gate with a motor arm. To the side of this is a pedestrian gate that opens freely for access. We control it from a remote (family all have their own gate fobs) we keep in the bay window and it reaches the distance from the house with ease.
The main cost came from getting power down to the gate so we fitted a cable from the garage ourselves to cut costs.

It came in under £2k and that included the making of both gates, removal of the old, motors and slightly changing the angle of the fencing for the pedestrian gate. Never had an issue with it and I no longer have tyre marks across the front garden. Pic taken from front window to give you some idea.

Are you suggesting putting a gate across the shared drive so that your neighbours are forced to use it too? I’d hate that. Can’t you just gate off your own property?

Hi @PortMerrionCentre I don't think I can gate one and not the other due to positioning & the way the shared portion of drive is but totally agree it might be a bad start to a relationship to arrive and immediately get a gate installed so think a period of consultation & discussion more appropriate.

Here's a terrible diag. The red line indicates the ownership of the house I'm buying the green I believe is the house next door and the yellow is where a shared driveway gate might be installed.
Blue is the main road I don't want my kids or puppy ambling into hence gate. He's done a runner here once the one time I left the driveway gate open & legged it straight towards main road where huge tractors hurtle by.

Hi @AlanThePig really appreciate that knowledge and the picture. What a lovely setting.
So you had your gate installed to stop delivery drivers messaging up the drive but how are deliveries now handled if you are out? Presume they park behind the gate and use the pedestrian as mine does.

Family members had some fitted recently for around 20K.

If I was you neighbour, I wouldn't be giving permission. Lots of extra faff for your neighbour and potentially high maintenance costs.

@Ruralbliss

Hi *@AlanThePig* really appreciate that knowledge and the picture. What a lovely setting. So you had your gate installed to stop delivery drivers messaging up the drive but how are deliveries now handled if you are out? Presume they park behind the gate and use the pedestrian as mine does.

Exactly that. The drive carries on in front of neighbours house so they usually pull up there and walk up. We've had the odd driver who cant be arsed and just lobs the parcel over the gate, but for the most part it works well. We did have to have a reasonably large sign printed with an arrow pointing to the pedestrian gate though after one DPD driver complained about having to climb the gate.....

It's been in for two years now and has occurred no maintenance costs. It drops slightly sometimes (not helped by climbing DPD drivers!) but nothing we cant solve ourselves with a spanner. I think a lot depends on the type of system you have. This is a single motor arm to a control box with a couple of sensors so nothing to majorly go wrong.

How are you going to stop your puppy from wandering onto the neighbours property? Or from being on the driveway when the neighbour comes through?
I’d be very unhappy about the inconvenience for me & my visitors & deliveries - presumably your neighbour will need a postbox installed on the gate and have to go to collect letters rather than have them conveniently dropped through the letterbox on the front door.
It’s a big ask of a new neighbour as you say

I’d still be worried about the puppy - what if the neighbour doesn’t notice (or care about) the puppy escaping when they access their own property?

@PortMerrionCentre yes I think you are right. Dog won't be allowed out of the front door so a gate would be contingency.

Once I've moved (if all goes to plan I might take a look at fencing off a small portion of my own driveway immediately in front of the house as a puppy deterrent as an alternative plan to an expensive inconvenient shared gate if the next door neighbours are not into the idea at all. And keep training the dog not to dash off that he is only allowed to leave the house when we give our word. Maybe by the time we move this will have been achieved (but might get future pups plus have cats)

Appreciate your thoughts on all of this. I'll park it for now as a long purchasing process ahead before I'm moved in and at the introduce ourselves to the neighbours stage.

Shop around. We have just been quoted 5k for a hardwood gate with good quality intercom and fob system. Some of the quotes were outrageous though.