New gate motor installations, done to a standard you can inspect

Motor selection is not a catalogue exercise. The weight and length of your gate, whether it's sliding or swing, the terrain gradient, how frequently you use it, and the reliability of your power supply all influence which motor is genuinely right.

For most Sandton and Randburg driveways with a sliding gate up to about 500kg, a Centurion D5-Evo is the reliable default. Heavier commercial gates step up to a D10 or a BFT industrial motor. For swing gates, ET Nice and Centurion swing motors dominate for good reason — quiet, weatherproof, and repairable years down the line.

If you're not sure what you have, book a free on-site assessment and we'll spec the right motor for your gate.

Every new installation includes the motor and controller, a pair of infrared safety beams, two coded remotes, and all mounting hardware.

Cabling is run in trunking or conduit — never exposed. The controller box is mounted at a serviceable height, oriented so water can't sit on the seals, and earthed properly. Limit switches are set with the gate at full open and full close, then re-tested under load.

If you're pairing the installation with an intercom, keypad or app-based access, see intercom systems and access control.

This is where cheap installations fail first. A gate motor wired without a working manual release becomes a barricade the moment Eskom takes the block, and half the households we visit have never been shown where theirs is. We fit one, we label it, and we make somebody in the house operate it before we leave.

For sites that lose power for extended periods, we can specify a controller and wiring layout that copes with it. Ask us about it during the site assessment. Anything that genuinely cannot wait is handled as an emergency gate repair, at any hour.

An installation isn't finished when the gate moves. It's finished when we've coded your remotes, tested the safety beams by physically breaking the beam, confirmed the manual release works, walked you through operation, and left a written invoice with warranty terms.

The commissioning day is also the right time to add extras — a wireless keypad, a video intercom, or a spare set of remotes. See gate automation for full driveway automation options.

New installations happen daily across Sandton, Randburg, Midrand and Centurion. High-volume suburbs include Bryanston, Fourways, Kyalami and Irene.

If you're on an estate with specific installation rules, let us know upfront — we're familiar with most Sandton and Midrand HOA specs and will match cabling and finishes accordingly.

The single most common reason a gate motor fails early is that it was never right for the gate. A unit chosen on price for a lighter gate spends its life at the edge of its duty cycle, and it fails in eighteen months rather than ten years.

So the specification starts with the gate: its weight, its length of travel, whether it is timber, steel or aluminium, whether the ground is level, and how many times a day it will cycle. A four-metre aluminium slider on a level run and a six-metre timber gate on a slope are not the same job, and they do not take the same motor.

Cycle count matters more than most people expect. A family of two with one car is a different specification from a household of five with a domestic worker, a garden service and a gate that opens forty times a day. The second one needs a heavier unit even if the gate is identical.

The motor and controller, matched to the gate rather than to a price point. A pair of infrared safety beams, aligned and tested — not fitted and left. Coded remotes, with the number issued written on the invoice. Cabling run in conduit rather than draped, and terminated where rain cannot reach it. Where the fault turns out to be the motor itself, that is ordinary gate motor repair work rather than anything exotic.

Civils that will still be there in ten years: a level, properly cured mounting pad rather than a slab poured in an afternoon, and a rack bolted along the gate to spec rather than tacked on.

A manual release that works, is labelled, and that somebody in the household has operated before we leave. Half the homes we attend have never been shown theirs, which is how a power failure turns a gate into a barricade.

And a written warranty covering the workmanship, alongside the manufacturer's cover on the hardware itself.

An older manual gate can usually be automated, and the assessment is mechanical rather than electrical. We look at the frame for square, the wheels and track for wear, the hinges and posts on a swing gate, and the ground for level along the whole run.

Where the hardware is sound, a motor goes on and the gate is better than it has ever been. Where the frame is warped or a post has moved, that gets corrected first — because automating a gate that drags simply transfers the strain to a motor that will not survive it.

This is the conversation worth having honestly before any money is spent. It is cheaper to hear that the track needs relaying than to buy a motor twice.

A site assessment first, usually on a separate visit, so the specification is settled and the parts are on the vehicle when the work starts.

On the day: civils and mounting, cabling, motor and controller, beams, limits set and tested under load, remotes coded, and the whole system cycled repeatedly rather than once. Limit switches are set with the gate loaded, because a limit set on an unloaded gate drifts the first week. On a slider, the track and the rack are dealt with under sliding gate repairs.

Then the handover, which is the part most installers skip: the manual release demonstrated, the remotes counted, the warranty explained, and a straight answer about what to do when it does not work at two in the morning.

The choice is usually made by the property rather than by preference.

A sliding gate needs a level run and somewhere for the gate to travel into — roughly the width of the opening again, alongside it. Where that space exists, a slider is the better answer on a driveway: it does not swing into the road or the property, it copes with a slope on the driveway itself, and it is easier to automate reliably.

A swing gate needs room for the leaves to arc, and posts solid enough to carry that leverage. It suits a property with a narrow frontage where there is nowhere for a slider to run, and it is often the only option on an older wall.

Where a site allows both, the decision comes down to how much clearance there is behind the pillars, whether the ground rises through the swing, and how the gate will behave in wind — a solid-panel swing gate is a sail, and it puts a load on the arms that a slatted one does not. On a swing gate, the hinges, posts and arms come under swing gate repairs.

The motor is the part everybody compares on price, and it is the part most likely to be replaced within the installation's lifetime. The things that determine whether the next motor goes on easily are the ones nobody quotes in detail.

A mounting pad that is level, properly sized and given time to cure. One poured in an afternoon and loaded the same day cracks, the motor moves a few millimetres, and the pinion mesh goes out on a gate that was installed correctly in every other respect.

Cable run in conduit, below ground where it crosses anything, and terminated in a housing rain cannot enter. Cable draped along a wall or run through a gap in the paving works until the first strimmer or the first storm, and then produces an intermittent fault that costs more to find than the original job cost to do.

A rack bolted to spec along the gate, on brackets that will not work loose in a year. And a track base — where one is being laid — set true, because everything above it inherits whatever is wrong with it. Getting a visitor from the gate to the house is what an intercom system is for.

What motor, and why that one for this gate — the answer should mention weight, travel length and how often the gate will cycle.

Is the cabling in conduit, and is it going under the driveway or around it.

Are safety beams included, and where will they be mounted.

What are the civils: a new pad, or bolting to what is there.

How many remotes, and will the number be written on the invoice.

What is the workmanship warranty, in writing, and separately what is the manufacturer's cover on the hardware.

And who comes out when it fails at two in the morning. An installation quote that cannot answer that last one honestly is a quote from somebody who will not be there.