The trash cans go out through it on Tuesday night and the mower on Saturday morning. The panels on either side just stand there. The gate takes the wear, so it deserves more of your attention than the rest of the run.
Walk gates, double gates and slide gates
A walk gate, or garden gate, is the one people use on foot. A wider opening, for a trailer, a boat or a car, takes a double gate or a slide gate. Family Fence in Bellmore builds chain link gates to size, from a small walk gate up to a slide gate with a 26 foot opening. Above All Fence in East Islip builds its cedar and spruce gates to order, matched to the sections.
Driveway gates, with or without an opener, are a separate job. This page is about the gates you walk through.
The posts decide how long a gate lasts
A gate hangs its whole weight off one post and closes against another. Bufftech’s printed instructions treat those two posts differently from the rest of the fence. They call it “critical” that the hinge and latch posts are solid for the gate to work, and give two ways to do it, an aluminum gate post stiffener, or two pieces of half inch rebar with the post filled with concrete.
The same instructions leave about 1-1/2 inches of clearance between the gate and the gate post and about an inch between the gate and the end post.
Hinges and latches
CertainTeed’s guide to Bufftech gates covers a wide spread of hardware. It lists stainless steel hinge, strike and latch sets for a wrought iron look, a nylon line with key lockable latches and self-closing hinges, LokkLatch and MagnaLatch magnetic latches, and TruClose self-closing hinges. It also says its gates are load tested to 300 pounds.
Ask for the hardware by name on the quote, because “hardware included” could mean any of these.
A gate in a pool fence
Every gate in a pool barrier has to close and latch on its own, a walk-through gate has to swing out away from the water, and a latch release that can be reached from outside has to sit at least 54 inches up. Those rules come from section R328.4.2.7 of the 2025 Residential Code of New York State. The pool fence page has the rest of the barrier rules.
Front yard gates near a corner
On a corner lot in the Town of Brookhaven, the fence diagram limits anything within a 30 foot radius of the corner to 2-1/2 feet. If the house is on a corner, check a tall front gate against your town or village code before you order it.
Questions to ask about a gate
- How wide is the opening, measured post to post, and which way will the gate swing?
- How are the hinge and latch posts reinforced?
- Which hinges and which latch, by name? Self-closing?
- Is the gate built to order to match the fence, or a stock size?
- For a repair: is it the hinges, the gate frame or the post?
Gate quotes that leave things out
- No mention of the gate posts at all.
- Hardware described only as “included.”
- A pool gate with no self-closing hinge or self-latching latch listed.
If you are pricing a whole new run, start with the vinyl, wood or chain link page.