Electric gate
openers & access
Operators, safety sensors and entry systems, sized to the leaf they actually have to move — and tested to UL 325 with you standing there at handover.
22 years
Same owner, same crew, since 2004
CSLB 952680
Licensed, bonded and insured
UL 325
Tested to ASTM F2200 at handover
Permits
LADBS & HOA review handled
The operator is sized to the leaf, not the driveway
An operator is rated by leaf weight and leaf length, and the two limits are separate. A light 20′ leaf can exceed a motor rated for far more weight simply because of leverage. Undersizing is the most common fault we are called out to fix — the gate works for a season, then the motor starts labouring, the board cooks, and the whole unit fails early.
Access control is a separate decision from the operator. Keypad, intercom, phone entry and a plain remote all bolt to the same gate, and mixing two of them is normal — a keypad for the gardener, mobile credentials for the household.
Slide, swing and cantilever operators are different machines
A slide operator drives a rack and pinion or a chain along the bottom of the gate, moving the leaf horizontally against a ground track. A swing operator is an arm — screw-drive or hydraulic — pushing and pulling the leaf through its arc from a fixed point on the post. Cantilever gates need a heavier operator again, because there is no ground track absorbing any of the leverage; the entire load runs back through the internal counterbalance and the drive.
Specifying the wrong type is not a small mistake. A hydraulic swing arm on a leaf that should be sliding will move it, badly, and burn out inside a season. We match the operator family to the gate type before anything else gets sized.
What a retrofit inspection actually finds
Most retrofit calls are not about the operator at all. We usually find a track that has silted up, hinges that have dropped out of plumb, or a leaf that has racked slightly and now drags on one corner. An operator fitted to a gate in that condition inherits the fault and fails faster than a new one would on a sound gate.
So the gate gets fixed first, even when the call was booked as an operator swap. It is a smaller job done properly rather than a bigger one covering for a fault that was never addressed.
The control board is where storms and surges do the damage
After motor wear, the control board is the single most common failure point, and it is almost always a surge rather than age — a nearby lightning strike or a grid spike travelling in on the AC feed. A board in a sealed, properly earthed enclosure survives what an exposed one does not.
We fit surge protection on the incoming power and keep the enclosure gasketed against the weather it will actually see, rather than the minimum the operator ships with.
Pairing with an existing intercom or access system
A new operator does not require replacing an intercom, a keypad or a property’s existing access system — most integrate through a simple relay contact, the same signal a remote would send. Where a property already has video entry or a managed access panel, we wire the new operator to trigger off it rather than duplicating the hardware.
The one thing that does need checking is voltage and signal type before we commit to a controller, since an older intercom system sometimes expects a different trigger than a current operator provides out of the box.
What voids a warranty before it starts
Sizing a residential operator to commercial-frequency traffic, or fitting one to a gate that has not passed the basic fitness checks — plumb, level, free-swinging, secure posts — voids the manufacturer’s warranty from day one, whatever the paperwork says. Most warranty disputes we get called into trace back to one of those two things happening before the operator was ever installed.
We size and check for exactly this reason: the warranty is only worth what the installation underneath it can actually support.
How people get in
- 01
Keypad
A code on a weatherproof pad. Simplest thing to give a gardener or a cleaner, and the code can be changed in a minute without anyone visiting.
- 02
Video Intercom
Camera and speaker at the gate, handset or phone inside. The right answer when the gate is out of sight of the front door.
- 03
Mobile credentials
Open from a phone, anywhere. Useful for deliveries, and the access log tells you who opened the gate and when.
- 04
Remote & loop
A handheld remote for the household, plus an exit loop buried in the driveway so the gate opens as you drive up to it from inside.
Electric gate openers we have built
-
Video Intercom -
Smart Lock, Mail Slot -
Keypad, Pedestrian Leaf -
Lit Numerals, Through-Bolted -
Slide Operator, 18′ Leaf
What decides the detail
- Sensors
- Photo eyes across the opening and edge sensors on the leaf are not optional under UL 325. A gate that traps a child is not a design problem, it is a liability.
- Mounting
- Latch and strike get welded to the frame, never screwed to the stile. A screwed strike can be levered off the gate with a pry bar in about ten seconds.
- Power
- The run to the operator is a permitted electrical job. We coordinate it rather than tapping a garden circuit and hoping the inspector does not notice.
- How it works
- A handheld transmitter sends a radio signal to a receiver mounted at the gate. The receiver passes it to the control board, which closes a circuit and drives the operator arm. The gate closes again on a second press, or on a timer you set.
- Will yours take one
- Before quoting an operator we check the gate is plumb and level, swings freely on its hinges, clears the ground through its whole arc, sits on posts set in concrete that do not flex, and has a horizontal cross member holding it square. A gate failing any of those gets fixed first.
- Sizing
- Type, weight, length and how often it will cycle. A residential operator on a commercial-traffic gate burns out, and the warranty will not cover it.
Questions we get asked
- How long do electric gate openers last?
- A correctly sized operator on a well-hung gate runs ten to fifteen years. An undersized one on a heavy leaf can fail in three. The gate matters as much as the motor: if the leaf drags or the track is dirty, the operator carries that load every cycle and wears out early.
- Can you fit an opener to my existing gate?
- Usually. We check the leaf weight, how square and how free it swings or rolls, and the state of the posts and hinges first. If the gate is sagging or the posts are moving, that gets fixed before any motor goes on — automating a bad gate just breaks it faster.
- Is a solar gate opener worth it?
- It is worth it when trenching power to the gate is expensive — a long driveway, a finished hardscape you would have to cut, or a detached entrance. On a short run with power nearby, mains plus battery backup is cheaper and more reliable in a wet winter.
- What is UL 325 and do I need it?
- UL 325 is the safety standard for powered gates: entrapment protection, sensors and control placement. ASTM F2200 covers the gate construction itself. Both apply to residential automatic gates, and we test to them at handover with you present.
Other things we build
Fence installationipe · redwood · cedar · iron · vinyl · mesh
Wood fenceipe · mahogany · redwood · cedar
Vinyl fenceprivacy · semi-privacy · picket · ranch rail
Aluminum fenceflat-top · spear-top · horizontal slat · pool
Chain link fence9 ga commercial · 11½ ga residential
Wrought iron fencesolid bar & square tube, welded
Driveway gatesslide · swing · cantilever · bi-fold
Where we build them
Ten neighbourhoods, one shop in Tarzana.
Get a real number
Tell us the length and layout for your fence, or the opening width for your gate, and we’ll tell you what it takes. Site visits are free inside the service area and take about forty minutes.
- Shop
- 18375 Ventura Blvd, #453, Tarzana, CA 91356
- Hours
- Mon–Sat 7:00–18:00
- Licence
- CSLB 952680