Measuring a Driveway Before Ordering a Gate

The tape does one job before any steel is cut: it tells the fabricator what the lot really is, not what the plan says it is. Every teardown austin driveway gates the derek bordeaux group has logged shows the same thing on older streets in Hyde Park and Tarrytown: the driveway is rarely square, level or the width the survey claims. A gate built for a driveway in Austin, TX from the wrong numbers does not fit, and it cannot be bent to fit.

Opening width at three heights

A crew measures the opening between the posts or the fence ends at the ground, at the middle and at the top. Old brick and stone piers lean, and the three numbers rarely match. The fabricator builds to the smallest and fills the difference with hardware. A swing gate needs the gap between the hinge post and the latch post exact, and a cantilever gate needs the width of the opening plus the full carriage length behind it.

Grade across and along the opening

A level set across the opening shows the slope side to side, and a tape along the driveway shows the rise toward the house. Older lots near Clarksville and Travis Heights often sag in the middle where decades of cars compressed the base. The crew records the grade at the hinge post, the latch post and the center, since a swing leaf passes over all three.

Setback, swing room and track runout

A swing gate needs room to open inward or outward without hitting a car, a tree or the street. A slide gate needs a clear fence line equal to its length, plus a margin. The crew measures the distance from the pavement edge to the gate line, and from the gate line to the garage door, so a car can stop clear of the street while the gate opens. Mount Bonnell lots with steep fronts often cannot give that room.

Posts, utilities and the operator location

Existing posts, if any, get checked for plumb, depth and rot. The crew finds where power and communication can reach the operator, where a keypad pedestal can stand and where a loop detector or photo eye would run. A frame in galvanized steel or aluminum is cut to these numbers, so a mistake in the tape means a mistake in the weld. A second visit to check the lot is cheap, and a remade gate is not.

Drawing it all down

The crew sketches the lot with every number, the slope and a few photos of the posts. The fabricator gets that sheet, and the installer works from the same one. Powder coat color and picket spacing come after the geometry is settled, not before.