Service
Gate Servicing in Lancashire and the South Lakes
Planned maintenance and safety checks that keep an automatic gate legal and working.
Automatic gates need servicing because they are powered machinery with moving parts under load. Hinges wear, safety edges perish, photocells drift out of alignment and motor forces change as the gate gets heavier with rust or paint. A gate that closed safely two years ago may not close safely now.
The part most owners do not realise is the legal one. A powered gate must be safe by design and force tested, and that obligation continues for the life of the gate. If the safety equipment has failed and nobody has checked, the gate is still legally machinery and the responsibility sits with whoever owns it.
Servicing is not tied to who installed the gate. Any make of motor and control board can be serviced, and gates fitted by other companies, or by installers who are no longer trading, are common work.
Gate Servicing across Lancashire and the South Lakes
Worked from Leyland across Lancashire and up into the South Lakes. Pick your town for the local detail.
Areas we coverGate Servicing questions
How often should an automatic gate be serviced?
An annual service suits most domestic gates, and gates in heavy daily use such as commercial yards or shared residential entrances usually need attention more often. The cycle count matters more than the calendar: a gate opening forty times a day wears its hinges, rack and rollers far faster than one used twice. If a gate has never been serviced since it was fitted, that is the point to have it looked at regardless of age.
Can you service a gate that another company installed?
Yes, servicing is not tied to whoever installed the gate. Any make of motor and control board can be serviced, and gates fitted by companies that have since stopped trading are common work. The one thing worth digging out beforehand is any paperwork or handover pack, because it names the equipment and saves time identifying the control board.
What is included in a gate service?
A proper service covers the mechanics, the safety equipment, the electrics and the forces, not just a squirt of grease on the hinges. The mechanical side is hinges, bearings, rack and rollers, gate alignment and the condition of the posts and fixings. The safety side is photocell alignment, safety edge response and the manual release, and the electrical side is the control board, cabling, glands and enclosures checked for water ingress.
What is force testing, and why does it matter?
Force testing measures how hard a gate leaf pushes when it meets an obstruction, and for how long, using a force tester rather than judgement by hand. BS EN 12453 sets the limits, and a gate that exceeds them can trap or injure someone even though it appears to be working perfectly. Forces drift over time as hinges stiffen, gates gain weight through rust and repainting, and control boards are adjusted, which is why the test is repeated rather than done once at installation.
Is servicing an automatic gate a legal requirement?
There is no law that names a service interval, but a powered gate must remain safe for its whole working life, and that is not possible without checks. In law a powered gate is machinery, so the duty is to keep it in a safe condition rather than to book a service on a particular date. In a workplace or a shared residential setting the duty is stricter still, because work equipment must be maintained and inspected under separate regulations.
Why do photocells need checking if the gate is working?
Photocells fail quietly, and a gate with dead or misaligned photocells usually keeps operating exactly as it always did. The beam can drift out of alignment as posts settle, the lenses fog or fill with cobwebs and insects, and water gets into the housings. Nothing on the gate tells you this has happened, so the protection is simply gone until someone checks it deliberately.
How long does a gate service take?
Most domestic gate services take between one and two hours, depending on the drive type and how much adjustment is needed. Underground motors take longer than ram arms because the boxes have to be opened and drained if water has collected. Where a fault is found during the service, the diagnosis is separate from the repair itself, so parts may mean a return visit.
What if the parts for my gate are obsolete?
Obsolete control boards and motors are common on gates over about ten years old, and there are usually two routes forward. The first is a like for like replacement of the failed part from remaining stock or a compatible equivalent, which keeps the gates, posts and cabling as they are. The second is replacing just the drive and control system while retaining the gates themselves, which is far less work than it sounds because the cabling and ducting are already in place.
Do manual gates need servicing too?
Manual gates need less attention than powered ones but still benefit from a check, mainly at the hinges, the posts and the latch. The failure mode is nearly always the same: the hinge or post works loose, the leaf drops, and the gate starts catching on the ground. Caught early that is an adjustment, and left for a year it becomes a re-hang or a new post.
What are the signs that a gate needs servicing?
The usual signs are a gate that has become noisy, one that judders or hesitates part way through its travel, one leaf sitting lower than the other, or a gate that has started catching on the ground. Slower opening than it used to have is another, since it often means the motor is working against stiff hinges or a dropped leaf. Any of these should be looked at before they turn into a failure, because a straining motor is a motor on its way out.
Who is legally responsible for the safety of a powered gate?
The owner or occupier of the property carries the ongoing responsibility for a powered gate being safe once it is in use, and whoever installed it is responsible for it being safe by design at handover. On a commercial site or a block of flats, that duty sits with the business, landlord or managing agent, and it extends to anyone who could come into contact with the gate rather than only staff or residents. This is the reason automatic gates get treated as machinery rather than as a piece of fencing.
What affects the cost of servicing a gate?
The main factors are the drive type, the number of leaves, how much access control is fitted, and the condition the gate is in when it is first seen. Underground motors take longer than ram arms, and a sliding gate with a long rack takes longer than a single swing leaf. A gate that has never been serviced usually needs more work on the first visit than at later ones, simply because several years of wear are being caught up at once.