How to Measure a Driveway Gate Opening: Photo + 3 Numbers

Why gate openings are never standard

The opening comes first. Someone builds two pillars, or a wall stops where a driveway begins, and the gate is fitted to what that leaves. Masons build to a mason's tolerance. Driveways are poured to drain, not to sit level. So the hole is the fixed thing, and the gate is the part that gets adjusted.

That is why non-standard is the normal case, not the exception. It also changes how price works. Custom work here is quoted by area: ¥800–2,000 per m² for gates, ¥150–500 per m² for railing, ¥1,500–5,000 per m² for a pavilion. At ¥7.2 to the US dollar, a gate is roughly US$110–280 per m². Because it is priced by area, an odd opening is priced the same way as a round one. There is no minimum order either. One gate is an order.

The three numbers

Clear width is the distance between the finished faces of the two pillars, at the narrowest point. Take it at three heights, near the ground, at mid-height, and near the top, and use the smallest. Pillars lean. Render is thicker at the base. Stone cladding is never flat.

Clear height runs from finished ground to the underside of anything overhead: an arch, a beam, a lintel, a lamp, a branch you are not going to cut. If nothing is overhead there is no constraint, so state the height you want instead, and label it as a preference rather than a measurement.

Ground fall is the number people skip. Lay a spirit level or a straight board across the opening, level it, and measure the gap at the low end. Note which side is low. This decides whether the gate can swing at all. If the drive rises away from the road, it is the inward leaf that catches — it swings uphill. An outward leaf on that site swings downhill and usually clears.

Two rules for all three. Name your units, millimetres or inches, not both. And do not subtract a clearance gap yourself. Send the hole as measured. If you deduct a gap and the drawing deducts another, the gate comes out small, and nobody finds out until it is in a crate.

What the photo has to show

One wide shot from the approach side, square on, far enough back to show both pillars, the full opening and the ground on either side. Then a close shot of each pillar face where the hinges would land, and one of the ground across the opening. Four photos beat one. One is enough to start.

That tells us what the pillars are made of, whether the caps overhang, whether a step, kerb or drain channel sits inside the swing path, and whether a wall or slope sits behind the opening. None of it shows up in a width measurement.

What a photo cannot tell us is what is inside the pillar. Render hides brick, hollow block, and sometimes nothing structural at all. If you know how the pillar was built, say so. If you don't, have the installer check before the hinges go on. Our gate frames are welded 6063-T5 with a 3.0 mm frame wall, and we buy the profile rather than extrude it. A leaf built that way is not light. The load lands on your pillar, not ours.

Swing direction, and the space it needs

Decide inward or outward before the drawing, not after. An outward leaf sweeping over a public footpath is not permitted everywhere, so check the local rule first. An inward leaf needs a clear arc: walk it, with the bins and the car where they normally sit, and watch for a drive that rises.

A sliding gate needs different space. A tracked slider wants run-back along the fence line at least as long as the leaf, on ground that stays consistent. A cantilever needs more room than the opening is wide, plus a foundation. Photograph the run-back as well.

Say now if you want an electric operator or an electric lock. Both are optional extras, priced on top, and they change what has to be prepared: post, conduit, clearances. Everything else ships with the full set of screws in the box, and a competent local installer can fit it.

Where shipping, not your driveway, sets the limit

One limit has nothing to do with your site. The largest single leaf we will build is 7 × 4 m, an upper bound almost nobody reaches. The limit that actually bites is the container. Anything over shipping dimensions has to be broken down and joined on site.

A field joint is a real thing, not a footnote. Ask where it falls before you approve the drawing. A joint that follows a frame line is easy to live with. One that runs through the middle of a pattern is not. The coating is rated 10–15 years without fading, so you will be looking at it for a while.

Freight is the other reason to measure carefully. A single set to Europe or Australia can run around 60% of the goods value in freight alone, so a remake is never just the cost of the gate. We sell EXW and DDP and prefer EXW, which means the freight decision, and the bill, is usually yours. Dealers work around it by mixing several series into one container.

What this method can't do

One photo and three numbers cannot tell you whether a pillar is solid. They cannot give a finished ground level if the driveway is about to be repaved. And they cannot be checked by us. Nobody from the factory visits your site. The number in the drawing is the number you sent.

So if the drive is being redone, measure afterwards, or send the finished level and flag it as a target. If the pillars are not built yet, send the opening you intend to build, and then build to it. That is the one case where the gate can come before the hole.

Send the three numbers with units, the photos, your swing preference, and whether you want a motor or lock. A simple CAD drawing usually comes back the same day and the quote is free. A large or complex drawing package may need a design fee, or a contract signed first.

For trade readers: we will appoint one dealer per country, but it has to be a signed contract. In a market where no contract is signed, the factory can supply end customers directly.