STEEL-FRAMED GATES
Steel-framed gates that stay square
Walk and drive gates built on steel frames, so they do not twist, sag or warp.
Chapter 01
Why wood gate frames sag and twist
A fence panel is held up by posts on both ends. A gate is different: it hangs from one post and carries its own weight out to the latch side, so every pound of it pulls on the hinges and tries to drop the far corner. That lever is why gates are where fences give up first.
A frame built from wood answers with screws and nails, and wood moves. It swells in wet weather, shrinks in dry, and the joints work a little looser every season. Eventually the rectangle stops being a rectangle. The latch corner sags, the bottom edge drags the ground, and the latch no longer meets its catch. A double drive gate is worse, since each leaf is wide and the lever is long. Take the wood out of the frame and the problem goes with it, which is what the reviews below keep coming back to.
Cedar privacy fence with a black-framed double drive gate
What a steel frame and a solid hinge post do
Fence Pros NWA builds its gates on steel frames. The frame is a rigid rectangle that does not swell, shrink or twist with the weather, and the boards you see ride on it. It is the same idea as the rest of our work: a rigid frame first, with the wood fitted inside it.
A stiff frame only helps if the post it hangs from stays put, so hinge posts get the most care on any job. They are set deep and in concrete where the ground calls for it, plumb in both directions, and checked again once the gate is hung. One customer calls these steel frame gates and another calls them aluminum gate frames, and both describe the result the same way: no twisting, no warping. Ask Sean what goes into the frame for your opening.
Chapter 03
Walk gates, double drive gates and latches that line up
A walk gate is a single leaf for people, mowers and wheelbarrows. A double drive gate is two leaves that meet in the middle for trucks, trailers and equipment. Decide what the widest thing is that needs to go through, then add room, because it is much easier to plan the opening on paper than to rebuild a gate that is a few inches too tight.
A latch only works when the gate hangs where it was meant to hang. The clearance at the latch side and the gap along the bottom are set with the gate in its opening, not guessed beforehand, and the boards are matched to the fence around them, whether that is dog-ear, board-on-board or shadowbox.
Sean McLaren and his crew build gates from Tontitown and Springdale across Northwest Arkansas under Arkansas contractor licence 0466650427. If a gate you already own has started to drag, call Sean at (479) 871-3942. Before you order a drive gate, check with your city or HOA about any rules for driveway openings.
Fence Pros NWA builds every gate on a steel frame. The company is licensed and insured under Arkansas contractor licence 0466650427, based in Tontitown and Springdale. Call Sean at (479) 871-3942.
Two customers noticed
Nobody asked them about the frames
Both of these reviewers brought up the gate frames on their own, in Google reviews that were mostly about something else. The jobs below are real gates we built, and the fences around them are covered on the wood privacy fence page. A gate that already drags is a job for fence repair.
“They only use steel frame gates so you don’t have to worry about warping. The communication was fantastic, the price was fair, and the end result was beautiful!”
“the aluminum gate frames they use are so much better than stick built ones. No twisting or warping.”
