Entry Gate advice appreciated.

[tractchores]

I have two gates on my mile long driveway - an outer gate and an inner gate. Both are manual swingers - so we all know what that means when I drive to town. I've always wanted some kind of gate openers but foresee a problem. Both gates are far enough away from the house that they are not visible.

How do you handle visitors(friends) that do not know your phone # to call you and get the gate code and/or do not know the gate code and will show up unannounced.

BTW - I really like the way TxDon finished his gate. That's a great example of rural art.

You can get a telephone entry system. My gate is out of site of the house as well, so folks who don't have a code have to hit the 'call' button on the box. It rings the house phone with a special ring or calls my cell phone if I'm out. I can talk to them and open the gate with a key.

For emergency access many gates can be pushed open, manually opened with a key or a special opener can be installed to react to emergency vehicles. Practically speaking in a real emergency they're just going to push through it...

 

[ultrarunner]

We have a KNOX box that police and fire have the area master... it works pretty well but just last week a gate was forced... the fire department left the key ring at the station

 

[aczlan]

How do people with gates handle emergency access?

Often, you give the fire department their own code and dispatch will pass it on to the responding crew.

Aaron Z

 

[bcp]

If your house is on fire, you may not have power to a "wired to the house" gate.

Bruce

 

[Cat_Driver]

Thank you. My original plan was for a swinging gate. Because this is going to be a heavy gate, I was going to put a lot of effort into bracing the post to support the weight. Then I was at a house with a rather heavy, long, sliding gate that made me rethink things. I have plenty of room for either swing or slider. The driveway is fairly flat wide, shallow drainage ditches on either side. I was surprised when I measured it and found out my driveway is only ten feet wide. I'm planning on adding 2 feet to either side to bring it out to 14 feet. Maybe even 15 feet. If I go with a slider, I wont need to worry about sag, or bracing the posts to handle all the weight since the weight of the gate will be on the track.

I'm a little over 25 years with a HEAVY steel gate. I used perforated steel sheets to close off visibility into my property, high hedges on both sides. I've never had a problem with it. The chain gets worn out every five years or do, but that's it.
I laid a 3' wide cement pad that I put the steel track on for the steel wheels to roll on. I'm in a windy sandy area and never a problem with sand build up on the track. The cement keeps the track solid and level. I put in a asphalt apron before the gate.

I can open the gate with a remote and I also have a keypad to give out the code to delivery people if I'm not around.

With the keypad visitors / delivery people call from the box, I answer and hit a phone code to allow entry. I added a magnetic option on the inside so as a vehicle approached the gate from the inside it automatically opens.

 

[oosik]

Thanks fellows. This gives new hope to a gate opener for me. My gate openers would have to be solar - inner gate is 1/4 mile from house, outer gate is one mile from house. BTW - I still like the design on txdon's gate.

 

[RLWATSO1]

Tons of really good info here guys!

 

[EddieWalker]

I didn't think about firetrucks or ambulances. The strobe detector sounds like a great idea, but I also like the simplicity of either giving out the code, or the emergency button. I need to figure out how to keep animals in if the gate is open during an emergency.

The cantilever looks interesting, but my gate is going to be 8 feet tall and 20 feet long, so doing that would require twice the length, which doesn't appeal to me at all.

I'm planning on pouring concrete for the track. The angle iron rail type track seems to be the most common and the least obtrusive.

 

[tractchores]

I didn't think about firetrucks or ambulances. The strobe detector sounds like a great idea, but I also like the simplicity of either giving out the code, or the emergency button. I need to figure out how to keep animals in if the gate is open during an emergency.

The cantilever looks interesting, but my gate is going to be 8 feet tall and 20 feet long, so doing that would require twice the length, which doesn't appeal to me at all.

I'm planning on pouring concrete for the track. The angle iron rail type track seems to be the most common and the least obtrusive.

To keep animals in (depending what type) you could install a cattle grid Cattle grid - Wikipedia. My neighbor has one that has rollers on it and it seems to work well. With that they can leave the gate open much of the time without animals coming in or out. It's hard to walk on so you would need a person gate off to the side.

 

[Xfaxman]

We used a concrete cattle guard: Farm Products - SI Precast Concrete