Austin Metal Gates handles gate operator installation in Austin, TX, and is Travis County's leading specialist in automating the gate you already own, specializing in operator replacement, UL 325 safety retrofits and ASTM F2200 upgrades to the leaf itself. We offer monitored photo eyes and contact edges.
Our team provides a full survey of the existing hinges, posts and rollers, delivering a quieter, safer opener for homes and entrapment-protected entries for both residential and commercial projects. The same crew that inspects your gate and measures every gap does the install, and any screening, roller covers or stops the leaf needs are welded in our shop before the new operator goes on.
From guarding exposed rollers and screening low openings to pairing the new control board with your remotes and keypad, our team handles every detail. Serving Austin, Sunset Valley, Shady Hollow and The Hills, we test every safety device in both directions before we leave.
Why Austin Metal Gates
No stock panels cut down to fit, and no handoffs. The crew that measures your opening builds and installs the gate.
This service is for owners who already have a driveway gate and want it to open on its own, and for owners whose operator has reached the end of its life and needs a successor. The leaf stays. What changes is the drive unit, the controls and the safety system around it.
Before we quote an operator, we survey the gate it will move. Guidance on the construction standard is plain that an existing manual gate being automated must be brought up to ASTM F2200 first, so the leaf matters as much as the motor. On the first visit we check:
If the gate itself is the obstacle, we say so. A leaf sometimes needs screening, a roller cover or a heavier hinge post before it can be automated safely, and that work is quoted beside the operator so you see the whole job at once. A driveway with no gate at all is a different project, covered by our automatic driveway gates page.
The rule that operators must monitor their external entrapment devices took effect on January 12, 2016, and the seventh edition tables for entrapment protection took effect on August 1, 2018. An operator put in before those dates may still open and close every day, but it was not built to that bar, and neither was the wiring around it.
A retrofit brings the whole installation up to the current standard:
Where an old operator cannot accept monitored devices, replacing it is usually cleaner than adapting it. The quote shows both routes so the decision is yours.
A photoelectric sensor is a non-contact device: it throws a beam across the path of the leaf and stops or reverses it when something breaks the beam. Placement follows the manufacturer's instructions for each layout, and we set heights and angles to cover the real entrapment zones while cutting down on nuisance trips.
An edge is a pressure-sensitive strip on the face of the leaf that reverses the gate on touch. UL 325 wants wired edges routed so the wiring is protected from mechanical damage, and wireless edges placed where columns, walls and planting do not block the signal.
An induction loop is an insulated wire sawn into the pavement. The metal in a car changes the loop's inductance and the detector signals the operator, so an exit loop opens the gate for a departing car. Small metal masses often fail to trigger a loop, and a loop cannot see a person at all, which is why loops sit beside photo eyes and edges and never replace them.
Manufacturers must name the external sensors, by brand and model, that are compatible with each operator, because the operator and its devices are judged as one system. We fit devices from that list rather than whatever was left on the old install.
UL 325 covers the operator. ASTM F2200 covers the gate, and a leaf built for hand operation often falls short of it. The points we check and correct:
Screening panels, roller covers and stops are cut and welded in our shop to suit the existing pickets, then galvanized and powder coated or painted to match before they are fitted on site. The finished leaf reads as one piece rather than an old gate with parts added.
Operators are listed by class. Class I serves a residence of one to four single families. Class II covers commercial locations open to the public, including multifamily housing of five or more units. Class III is for industrial sites not serving the public, and Class IV for guarded, restricted-access sites. A shared private drive can fall outside Class I, so we match the listing to how the entry is really used.
Within the class, the drive type follows the gate:
Duty cycle matters as well. A motor spends only part of its time running, and pushing it past its rated duty lets heat build faster than it can escape, so we size for how often your gate actually cycles, not only for how heavy it is.
There is no single figure for this job, because the existing gate decides so much of it. These are the drivers we price against:
The on-site survey is free. The written quote lists the operator, the safety devices and any gate upgrades as separate lines, so you can see exactly what the retrofit involves.
The process
Four steps, and nothing is fabricated until you have signed off on the drawings and the price.
We measure the opening, the slope and where power can reach, and talk through style, automation and access.
You get scaled drawings for your approval and for any HOA or city review, with one written price.
Steel is cut and welded to the approved drawings, then galvanized, powder coated or both.
Columns and posts set, gate hung, operator set up to UL 325 and every safety device tested with you.
Questions
Usually, once we confirm the leaf, hinges and posts can carry a powered load and the gate meets ASTM F2200 or can be brought up to it. Some leaves are too light, too racked or too close to a wall, and we tell you that on the survey rather than after the install.
An operator installed before the monitoring rule of 2016 and the 2018 tables may have only one means of entrapment protection, unmonitored devices or bypass jumpers. It still moves, but it does not meet the current standard, and a retrofit closes that gap.
The condition of the gate, swing or slide, leaf weight and count, the operator class and type, how many safety devices the layout needs, loops, power and entry devices. Each one appears as its own line in the written quote.
It depends on the gate. If the leaf needs screening or roller covers made in our shop, that fabrication comes first. We give you the schedule with the quote, and the install day ends with every device tested.
We can add battery backup so the operator keeps running after mains power drops. When the battery is spent, the operator can be released so the leaf moves by hand.
If the change is visible, often yes. In Shady Hollow no exterior change may be made without the section's Architectural Control Committee, and in The Hills an architectural modification request goes to the POA first. We supply the drawings and device layout for the application.
We fit the access hardware your fire district accepts, such as a key switch or an access box, and program it with the operator. Lakeway asks for an ESD 6 key switch on coded gates, and West Lake Hills requires an ESD 9 approved access box.
Yes, if you are in Travis County: Austin, Rollingwood, West Lake Hills, Sunset Valley, Shady Hollow, Barton Creek, Lost Creek, Steiner Ranch, The Hills, Lakeway or Volente. Call with your address to confirm.
Every operator installation and retrofit comes with a written warranty, and you keep the manufacturer documentation for the new operator and devices.
Free on-site measure across Austin and the west side. We call you back to set a time.
Calls only, we do not receive text messages.
