How Much Does it Cost to Fit Gates?

Job	Description	Labour
1	To fit a wooden garden gate, two concreted in oak posts and black steel furniture in the existing gap in your front wall. This will take 1 man 1 day.	£190
	Plus materials, tipping etc. for the above	£275
2	Same job with a metal garden gate hung on the front wall brickwork. This will take half a day	£95
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£100
3	To fit a pair of wooden driveway gates or a field gate, two concreted in oak posts and black steel furniture in the existing gap in your front wall. This will take 1 man 2 days.	£350
	Plus materials, tipping etc. for the above	£525
4	As job 3 but with metal gates and posts. This will take 1 man 1 day.	£175
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£185
5	To have an electrical gate closer fitted with the cables run underground and all made good again. This will take an electrician and a labourer 2 days.	£550
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£1000

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc). Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on Fitting Gates

I’ve just spent half an hour googling and spent the whole time on just one site and discovered there’s more to this gate malarkey than I thought. So sit back and let me tell you aaaaaaall about it!

First you must decide where the gate is going. If it’s at the end of the driveway, do you want a field gate, or a pair of estate gates, or a pair of driveway gates?

If it’s at the end of the path is it to be a side gate or a garden gate?

Field gates mimic the ones that farmers drive tractors through but they are fancier and far, far more expensive than any tight wad farmer would pay for.

Estate gates are the ones people with high walls have, They seriously keep out the poor people. After all, people with high walls are important, they have a right not to be gawped at by the likes of you and me.

I’ll assume you can work out what a pair of driveway gates look like.

Now you must decide on whether you want wooden or metal gates. We who know no better, think that metal gates are wrought iron but that’s what blacksmiths produce in a forge with a hammer and an anvil and sparks and big scary arms.

What we think of as wrought iron is in fact just bent steel. If you want to know the difference between iron and steel, go to my family tree, steel is what my dad did, iron is what my mother did.

Once you’ve decided on the material, you must decide on the design. There are lots for each type of gate, with names like the “Stoke Poges” and the “Chalfont St Giles”.

Then there’s the sort of wood you want both for the gate and the posts. The height and width have to be considered, what sort of hinges and catches (furniture) do you want and what sort of finish, stained, varnished, painted etc.

Oh yes, are you a physical sort of a person, the type who is capable of opening or closing gates all by yourself, or are you rich and just like to press a button to get things done, it’s so much more convenient after all and electric opening systems are actually a snip at around £1500 a throw!

I’ll tell you what I’m glad I don’t have to decide, I’ll just keep vaulting over the wall!