Home security is a major part of life these days, and the more secure your home is, the safer you feel. In fact, failing to have your home safely locked up is a dream for prying criminals and may even void your home insurance should your house get broken into.
That’s why you shouldn’t cut corners with home security and doing your research in everything from the cost of electric gates to the latest burglar alarms should be a given, and not something to leave for another day.
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Often home security is seen as a luxury item, but here at Loftera we’re going to give you the lowdown on electric gate prices and the technology involved. You might be even surprised at just how cheap they can be.
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Electric Gate Cost
As you might expect, there are a huge range of installers of electric gates out there that are available to either upgrade your existing gates or simply build some new ones.
Many are more affordable than you might think and although we tend to associate electric gates with mansions or stately homes, there are options for the average family home.
Here are the latest average costs and some information on what’s available:
| Task | Average Material Cost | Average Labour Cost | Time Taken |
| Fully automated swing gates, made of solid timber with hidden power supply and intercom | £5,900 | £1,550 | Up to 1 week |
| Customised swing gates, made of metal with a 24V electricity supply and intercom | £5,600 | £1,550 | Up to 1 week |
| Fully automated, solid timber slide gates with built-in power and intercom | £6,100 | £1,750 | Up to 1.5 weeks |
| Sliding customised metal gates with 24V power and intercom | £6,400 | £1,750 | Up to 1.5 weeks. |
What Effects Electric Gate Prices?
The obvious way to get a better understanding of what price your electric gates will be is to decide on their purpose and exactly why you would want them.
Essentially, this will determine the price as an electric vehicle gate will be a lot bigger and take longer to construct than a smaller pedestrian gate.
Here are a few examples of the different things to think about before deciding on what gates are best for you.
Electric Vehicle Gate
It’s the dream isn’t it? To drive up to your house with the gates automatically opening to let you in. It’s the kind of privacy that we all dream of and to get the ultimate security, a hardwood gate is probably the way to go. You’ll have no nosey neighbours poking their heads through the gate or more importantly, no intruders sliding their way through.
Of course, a solid gate made of meta would also do the same kind of job, although they can often be a bit ugly looking and make your home seem more like an industrial lock-up than the luxury pad you were hoping for.
Along with this, you need to decide on whether you’d prefer a sliding or swing gate. This will almost certainly alter the price with the sliding gate being that more lucrative option and the swing gate being slightly more affordable. The size of it will also alter the price, with a standard and oversized version, both popular in modern day homes and driveways.
At the cheapest, a standard size would set you back £800 plus extras, and could go beyond £10,000 depending on how big it is, the materials needed and construction time. Like most things in home improvements, the bigger you want something, the more expensive it will cost.
Walk Through Gate
Regardless of the size of your home, you probably don’t want to be opening a big vehicle gate everytime you want to head out for a walk or a run. That’s why it might be worth considering having a walk-through or pedestrian gate built into your electric gates.
This could even be electric itself or simply just a non-automatic gate alongside your bigger gates. It will add on some additional costs, but in the grand scheme of things, it will certainly make getting in and out of your home a lot more easier when you’re on foot.
Gate Technology
It’s kind of a given that an ‘electric gate’ is going to have some form of technology involved with, and like a lot of tech, you’ll find cheaper and expensive versions.
On the whole, spending more money on your gates will be better value as the cheaper versions often bring more problems and therefore become more expensive to maintain in the future. Buying an expensive motor with better installation is always the option to go for if you can afford it.
You should also think about including an electric opener for your gate in your price as well. That dream of driving up to your gates is a bit short lived if you’ve got to jump out of your vehicle and go and open them yourself. Many installers will offer a bluetooth or infrared control for each of your vehicles as well as a master switch indoors, while others have the ability to open and shut your gates from an app on your phone.
A back-up power source is another thing to speak to your installer about. Most electric gates now come with a backup battery as standard or even a solar-power charger, which will help if you have a power failure or electrical outage. It’s also worth having a manual version of the control pad built in, so you have the ability to open and shut the gates yourself if both the power and back-up battery let you down for whatever reason.
In terms of costs, the hardware and cables that are required can cost up to £2,000, but this all depends on the specifications and technology you want or require.
Intercom
If having electric gates at your home has always been your dream, then having an intercom to speak to visitors as they arrive, probably hasn’t been too far behind. They practically come hand in hand, which is why having an intercom with your electric gates is certainly a good decision.
At the end of the day, you don’t want visitors turning up at your house and having to shout over the gate to let them in. An intercom takes all that hassle away and modern day versions mean you can choose between having audio, video or even the two combined. There’s even a choice of colour and HD video.
Whichever you go for it will be a worthwhile investment with the basic setup costing around £200 and over £1000 for the most advanced kit.
Installation
Perhaps the biggest variant when it comes to price is electric gate installation cost. This will depend on a few factors, but it will be down to the individual installer or installation company to put a price on how much they charge for the hours and labour that’s involved.
Of course, this will all alter on exactly what you want and how difficult a job that will be. On average, you’d be looking around £300 as a daily rate, with that being considerably higher if you decide to choose for a more complicated set-up on your gates.
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Which Electric Gates Are Best?
As well as working out the purpose of your gate, you’ll also need to decide what type of gate you want. There are quite a few different options, but the most popular tend to be either swing gates or sliding gates, which do exactly what they say in their name.
Swing Gates
These are probably the most common gate on the market and can be hinged down one of the sides with one big gate, or you can opt for two gates that are hinged on either side and will open down the middle.
There are different types of swing gates that you can choose from including ornamental swing gates, palisade gates, balustrade gates or even welded mesh gates. Just speak to your installer about the different options that they have available.
Whatever you choose, swing gates always create a grand opening to any home and are fully customisable, which means you can add any creative style that you want.
Sliding Gates
Although they aren’t quite as fancy looking as the swing gates, the sliding gates are certainly more secure and much harder to break through. With less vulnerable points, they are considerably more rigid, which is why we tend to associate them more with commercial premises or lock-ups.
Often, you’ll see this in the format of one big sliding gate, although some installers do have the option of using two gates that will come together in the middle. If you do decide to go for that option, bear in mind that it might not be quite as secure as one bigger gate that slides across all together.
Electric Gates FAQs
Can you make normal gates Electric?
Yes, it is possible to make your standard gates become electric. This can be done by installing an automated system which will give your standard gates the ability to be opened and shut via a control pad.
The cost of doing this can vary widely based on the technology you want to install, but we estimate this to be somewhere between £1,000 and £2,000 depending on the equipment you choose.
With a power source needed in order to complete this kind of work, we’d never advise doing this on your own, unless you are a trained electrician. To be completely safe, we’d always recommend getting your installer to either do, or source, this kind of work for you, as mistakes can be life threatening with electricity.
How much electricity do gates use?
When it comes to running costs, the truth is that electric gates don’t cost much to run at all. When your gates are on standby, they will only use around 100W per day. When they are in operation, this will go up 700W, but don’t forget they only tend to be in operation for around 30 seconds for opening and 30 seconds for closing.
On average, this converts to about £15 in electricity per year, which for the luxury of electric gates, is fairly cheap in our opinion.
How do you install an electric gate?
Firstly, we’d recommend using a trained professional to install any type of electric gates. At the end of the day, you are working with electricity, so it’s best not to get involved if you don’t know what you are doing.
However, if you are trained in the area or simply want to know how it’s done, here’s a brief explanation of how the gates are installed.
First, a trench must be dug in the ground in order to lay down the electricity supply and create an area for the gate posts. Unless you are trained, you’ll need an electrician to install any kind of electricity and control box, which usually require a 230/240V 10A electric supply, which will be run down from your main source of power. Of course, the length of your cables will be determined by how far away your gates are from this electricity box.
Then the gates can be erected in the ground with the electricity attached to them. How they are constructed will depend on the gates you have, and if they are higher than 2m and next to a public road you will need to get planning permission from your local council before they can be built.
Advice and Help on Electric Gates
As we’ve already mentioned, adding electric gates to your home or property is a life-long dream for many, which is why it’s crucial to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want. Looks are important, but electric gates are there for your security, so it’s vital that they keep you safe as well as looking good.
From reading our guide, you’ve probably worked out that there’s plenty to consider before going ahead and buying your gates, so feel free to use our expert help to get exactly what you want.
Our team has decades of experience in home improvements and are more than happy to offer you unrivalled advice and help.
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