How Much Does a Garden Gate Cost?

Softwood vs Hardwood or Oak

A basic pressure-treated softwood side or garden gate, supplied only, typically runs £50–£250: MyJobQuote (updated March 2026) puts a small 3ft softwood gate at £15–£120 and a 4ft gate at £30–£250, while BookaBuilderUK’s 2026 guide gives £50–£150 for softwood supply only. Trade Warehouse’s general figure of £50–£300 for a wooden gate spans the same bracket. Fitted into existing posts, expect £250–£500: MyJobQuote gives £250–£450 for softwood on timber posts, and Side-Gates.co.uk (North West installer, 2026 pricing) quotes £325–£385 for a standard timber side gate depending on whether posts are new or existing.

Hardwood or oak roughly doubles to triples the softwood price at every stage. MyJobQuote’s hardwood range runs £80–£400 supply only, from a small 3ft gate up to larger sizes, against £15–£120 for a 3ft softwood gate, and BookaBuilderUK gives £150–£350 against £50–£150. Fitted, MyJobQuote quotes £400–£700 for hardwood on timber posts, roughly £150–£250 more than the softwood equivalent. Oak, iroko and idigbo are the woods most commonly quoted for hardwood gates, chosen for weather resistance and a 30-year-plus service life against 15–20 years for pressure-treated softwood (Garden Gates Direct, published February 2026).

Driveway and Double Gates

A pair of timber driveway gates, supplied only, runs £400–£800 for pressure-treated softwood up to £800–£1,200 for premium mortise-and-tenon softwood with kiln-dried timber, and £1,200–£2,500+ for hardwood such as oak, iroko or idigbo with traditional joinery (Garden Gates Direct). Fitted, BookaBuilderUK’s 2026 guide gives from £800 as a typical installed price for a timber pair, and PriceYourJob (updated July 2025) puts a pair of wooden driveway gates on hardwood posts at around £750 on average, split roughly evenly between materials and labour. Hardwood pairs fitted cost more again, since both the gates and the installation take longer: budget the supply-only figure above plus a day or two of joiner time (see day rates below).

These figures are for manually operated swing gates, which is what our gate calculator sizes. Automating a driveway gate is a separate and much larger cost: a motor and control kit alone runs £1,000–£1,800 for a standard above-ground swing system (ElectricGatesExperts, published June 2026), and MyJobQuote’s driveway gate guide gives £500–£2,000 for an automation add-on kit or £8,500–£10,000 for a fully automated gate installed from scratch. Electrical supply and access control (intercom, keypad) are extra on top of either figure.

Supply and Fit: Joiner and Handyman Day Rates

Fitting a single side or garden gate into existing posts is usually a half-day to a day’s job (MyJobQuote gives 3–5 hours), and a driveway pair with new posts typically takes 1–2 days. Day rates vary by trade and region: MyJobQuote gives £120–£250 a day for a handyman, with London and the South East roughly £30–£80 a day higher than the rest of the country. BookaBuilderUK’s 2026 regional breakdown is more granular: London/South East £200–£350 a day, Midlands/South West £180–£280, North England £150–£250 and Scotland/Wales £150–£260, or £30–£60 an hour. PriceYourJob’s figures sit lower again at around £100–£200 a day for a handyman and roughly £150 a day for a tradesman, which is a reminder that “joiner”, “handyman” and “fencing contractor” quotes can differ for the same job.

Posts and Hanging Hardware

Replacing a gate post costs roughly £120–£150 including labour and materials for a single post (MyJobQuote), or £10–£30 for a timber post and £30–£80 for a concrete post on a materials-only basis (BookaBuilderUK). Driveway gate posts, being larger and load-bearing, run higher at roughly £250–£400 each, with brick or stone pillars £800–£2,000 (MyJobQuote’s driveway gate guide). Our post foundation calculator works out hole depth and concrete volume for a given post size, and our own gate calculator’s canon burial depth is 600mm for both post types.

Hanging hardware is a smaller but real line item: basic hinges run £15–£40 and standard latches or locks £20–£80, rising to £50–£120 for a BS-compliant lock (BookaBuilderUK). Garden Gates Direct prices a full hardware set for a driveway pair at £40–£80 for basic hinges and catches, or £100–£250+ for premium hardware such as heavy-duty hinges and a self-closing mechanism. Our gate calculator’s FAQ notes two hinges per leaf for gates up to 1200mm tall and three for taller, heavier leaves, which is the main reason hardware cost climbs with gate height.

What Moves the Price

Width and height: a standard 900mm pedestrian gate sits at the low end of every range above; our gate calculator’s own guidance puts driveway gates at a minimum 2.4m wide for a single car or 3.6m for comfortable two-way access, and taller leaves (over 1200mm) need a third hinge and a heavier brace. MyJobQuote’s size bands show softwood supply cost roughly doubling from a 3ft to a 6ft gate.

Bespoke vs off-the-shelf: an off-the-shelf picket or slatted gate is the cheapest option, from £295 with existing posts up to £345–£410 with new posts (Side-Gates.co.uk); a fully enclosed tongue-and-groove or wider custom gate runs £485–£665+ from the same installer. Garden Gates Direct shows the same pattern for driveway pairs, where moving from pressure-treated softwood to premium mortise-and-tenon joinery roughly doubles the supply-only price before hardwood is even considered.

Region: London and the South East run consistently higher across every source checked here, whether quoted as a day-rate premium (MyJobQuote, £30–£80 a day) or as a separate regional band (BookaBuilderUK, roughly £50–£100 a day above the North of England).

Working Out Your Own Materials

The figures on this page are trade cost guides for supply-and-fit or supply-only pricing. If you are building your own gate rather than paying for the whole job, our gate calculator works out vertical boards, ledges, the diagonal brace length, post length and hinge count for close-board, palisade or ledged-and-braced styles, with an optional price-per-metre field for a materials cost estimate. Pair it with our post foundation calculator for concrete quantities, and our timber treatment calculator for the preservative or oil you will need to keep a softwood gate protected; Garden Gates Direct puts annual gate treatment at roughly £50–£150 a year for professional application.

Cost ranges cross-checked against independent UK trade cost guides fetched July 2026: MyJobQuote (garden gate guide and driveway gate guide, both updated 25 March 2026), BookaBuilderUK (2026 guide), Garden Gates Direct (published 18 February 2026), PriceYourJob (updated 24 July 2025), Side-Gates.co.uk (2026 guide), Trade Warehouse and ElectricGatesExperts (published 9 June 2026, automation figures only). The automation kit price (ElectricGatesExperts) and the Side-Gates.co.uk side-gate price breakdown are each single-source figures and have not been cross-checked against another supplier. These are third-party trade cost-guide and installer publishers, not fixed price lists: actual quotes vary by property, region, tradesperson and site condition. Last updated: July 2026.