Electric sliding gates for driveway

We’re just finishing off a house extension and the builders are about to start on re-laying the driveway and building the boundary wall. They question has come up about whether we’d like provision to be made for gates and whilst it’s not a huge priority, it’s tempting.

driveway is fairly large so we’re not particularly constricted on space but sliding gates seem like a no brainer as they maintain maximum useable space

id probably get the builder to fit the rail to the ground when they do the blocks and whatever metal work goes on the wall then if DIY the gate it’s self at a later date

has anyone done similar recently? Any suppliers to look at (or avoid) or any general gotchas I may have missed?

Did one recently which was a cantilever type rather than running on rails. 5 metre opening . Put a 3m x 0.6m x 0.6m pad in for the cantilever bits. Got the automation set from Brundles . Designed the gate myself and had it fabricated , galvanised and powdercoated. Cladded it with Cladco flush decking planks ( should have been cladco fence panels but someone sent wrong thing 🙄) . Was happy as they looked good and are a bit more robust. Got everything wired up by a sparky mate. Don’t forget to run some wires under the ground for the safety cells. Gate weighs around 350 kg , but I could open and close it easy enough ( if you didn’t want to electrify it) . All in all cost me £3k parts and materials (I’m in steelwork trade so got gate at cost price and £1k in Labour to do pad and fit everything )
I originally got a quote for £6k + VAT but that later turned out as a misunderstanding and thought I was supplying the gate !)
Cheapest quoted price all in was £9.5k + vat( aluminium gate) and most was £13.5k + vat

I looked at sliding gates but the slope prevented that option. I ended up buying a mechanism so that the gate folds in half as you open it. This means that even though it opens inwards onto the drive, the gate doesn’t need much space to do this.

And that reminds me, last year, perhaps the year before, I removed the old rotten gate, bought the hinge thing and put it in the garage. I wonder how hard it is for me to weld up some gate panels…

thanks Revs – cantilever looks a neat option, did you have some limitation that made you choose that rather than a rail?

brundels is a useful link thanks – useful to see what the components cost. still need a supplier fot the actual gate its self tho. im not mad keen on the steel frame with solid infill – i think our preference is for a traditional metal fence to match whatever railings we but on top of the boundary wall

WCA – surely you’ll be fabricating an elaborate gate in carbon fibre and foam next?

No real reason , other than at some point the driveway is going to get dug up and redone, so I’ve not got to worry about putting rails back in the correct place.
Plus I wanted a bigger engineering challenge 😂
If you are going for a lighter construction gate then the rail is probably a better option as you don’t need to have additional bracing etc in it.
You could drive into mine and I think you would be the one worse off 😎

DC Iron is another company who does the bits and bobs.