Gate stopped working, or nobody servicing it? Call 029 2068 9339
Service 07 / 07 Automated gates
Gate Safe trained engineers installing and servicing powered gates. New swing, sliding, communal and commercial gates on CAME automation, set up to the force limits in BS EN 12453 — and servicing, safety checks and repairs on gates of any make, whoever fitted them.
Working to
01 Safety & compliance
It is heavy, it moves under its own power, and it lives where people and vehicles are. That is why this page starts with the standard and the duty rather than with a picture of a nice gate.
Put an operator on a gate and the gate and its automation together become machinery. A new powered gate installation falls under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations: it has to be designed and built so that it is safe in normal use, it has to be assessed and marked as conforming, and it has to be handed over with the documentation that records what was done and what was proved. That paperwork is not a formality. It is the only written account of how the gate was set up and what it was measured at on the day it was left running.
From then on the duty of care moves with the building. Whoever is responsible for the premises is responsible for the gate: keeping it maintained, keeping its safety devices working, and being able to show that somebody competent has checked it. We cannot take that duty off you and neither can anybody else. What we can do is install a gate that meets the standard, set the forces properly at commissioning, write the readings down, and come back and check them.
BS EN 12453 is the standard for the safe use of power operated gates, and most of it comes down to one idea: force limitation. A gate set up to it does not simply stop when it meets an obstruction. It stops within a limited force, within a limited time, and then backs off. The forces are measured with a force tester at the points the standard specifies — the leading edge, the closing edge, the places where a gate can trap something — and the readings have to fall inside the limits the standard sets. They are measured, not judged by eye.
Force limitation is only one of the ways of protecting an edge. Photocells across the opening, safety edges on the moving parts, and how the gate is guarded all do their share, and which of them a gate needs depends on where it is, who uses it and whether those people have been trained. A gate on a private drive and a gate on a communal entrance used by residents, visitors and delivery drivers are not the same problem, and they should not get the same answer.
A gate that has been set up properly
Stops within the forces the standard allows and then backs off. Photocells and safety edges that have been proved to work. Readings taken with a force tester, written down and dated, so somebody can tell you when it was last known to be safe.
A gate that has not
Closes with whatever force the motor can produce. Relies on people getting out of the way in time. Has a photocell nobody has tested, an edge nobody has pressed, and no record of a single reading — so nobody can say whether it is safe or not.
Gates rarely fail all at once. They drift, and the drift is invisible, because a gate with a dead safety device opens and closes exactly as it did the day before. Four things go wrong quietly:
Photocells fail or fall out of alignment. A knock from a vehicle, a loose bracket, a lens full of dirt or a wet terminal, and the beam that was protecting the opening is no longer protecting anything. Nothing about the way the gate behaves tells you. Safety edges wear or seize. The strip along a moving edge is rubber and it lives outside. It splits, it fills with water, the sensing element inside corrodes, and the edge that was meant to feel contact stops feeling it. Force settings drift out of limit. Hinges wear, a leaf sags, a post moves, the ground shifts, and the gate starts to bind — and the usual response is to turn the force up until it closes again. Every one of those adjustments pushes the gate further outside the limit it was commissioned at. And the trapping points are always there. There are crush points where a swing gate closes on its hinge post and where a sliding gate meets its end frame, and shear points along the run of a sliding gate where it passes a fixed structure closely enough to trap a hand or an arm. Those points exist on a properly guarded gate too. The difference is that on a properly guarded gate they are protected, the forces are limited, and somebody has checked recently that they still are.
A new gate is handed over with the documentation that goes with a piece of machinery: what was installed, what the safety devices are and where they are, the force readings taken at commissioning, the operating and manual release instructions, and the recommended service interval. The electrical installation feeding the gate is certified separately under BS 7671 — that side is covered on our electrical and data installations page. Keep all of it. It is what an insurer, an inspector or the next contractor will ask to see, and on a gate somebody else fitted it is almost always the thing that is missing.
02 What we install
Swing, sliding, communal and commercial. We automate them with CAME equipment, run the supply, fit the safety devices and set the forces — and the electrical side is certified by the same firm that fitted the gate.
01
One leaf or a pair, opening into the site on underground, ram or arm operators. They suit an opening with room to swing and ground that is reasonably level, and they are the usual answer on a domestic drive. The hinge post is a crush point, so it gets guarded and the force gets limited.
Domestic & commercial · CAME automation
02
Where there is no room to swing, where the drive is short or where the ground falls away. A sliding gate needs a run alongside the opening and a track or cantilever to carry it, and the run itself is where the shear points are, so it is guarded and the photocells are placed to cover it.
Sliding gate installation · South Wales
03
Gates on blocks of flats and managed developments, where residents, visitors and delivery drivers all use the same entrance and most of them have had no training on it. That is the hardest case for safety and the one the standard is strictest about. Entry is by fob, keypad or intercom.
Communal gate entry systems · Cardiff
04
Yards, depots, industrial units and compounds: wider openings, heavier leaves and a gate that cycles all day. Built for the duty it is going to get, with the controls put where the drivers and the office actually need them rather than wherever the cable was easiest to run.
Industrial · Built for the duty cycle
05
We automate on CAME equipment: operators, control panels and the safety devices that go with them. Sticking to one well-supported make means parts stay available, our engineers know the boards, and a fault on your gate is diagnosed rather than guessed at three years after we fitted it.
CAME operators & controls
06
Photocells, safety edges, warning signage and the force settings are part of the installation, not an extra line you can decline. So is the electrical work behind it: the supply to the gate, the containment and the certification of it under BS 7671, done by our own engineers.
Photocells · Safety edges · BS 7671
Gates usually arrive as part of a wider job — the supply out to the entrance, lighting on the approach, cameras or door entry on the building. All of that is our own work too. Electrical & data installations
03 Servicing & repairs
A gate does not stop being your responsibility because the firm that fitted it has gone quiet. We service, safety check and repair existing gates whoever installed them — starting with a survey, and ending with something in writing.
01
We come out and look at what is actually there: the gate, the operators, the controls, the photocells and edges, and how the entrance is really used. Then we take force readings. We are not tied to the make on the panel — we work on gates other firms installed, as a matter of course.
Free survey · Any manufacturer
02
You get it in writing: what we found, which safety devices work and which do not, what the forces measured, and what it would take to bring the gate back inside the limits. In plain English, with the readings in it, so it is worth something to you and to whoever asks you for it.
Written findings · Readings recorded
03
Every service visit re-measures the forces, tests the photocells and presses the safety edges rather than assuming they still work. Hinges, rollers, tracks, fixings and the manual release are checked at the same time, because that is what the forces drift with.
Force testing · Photocells · Safety edges
04
Anything the gate falls short on is priced on its own, so you can do it, phase it or leave it. Taking the gate onto a service schedule does not depend on you buying the remedial work — and if we think a gate cannot be made safe as it stands, we will tell you that instead of selling you parts.
No bundling · Your decision
If your gate is on a contract with us
Maintenance-contract clients get same-day attendance, and we work to a four-hour target for emergencies. That is the point of the contract: an agreed response you can put in front of an auditor, not a hope. It matters more than usual on a gate, because a gate that has failed unsafe should not be left running.
If it is not on a contract yet
We will always try. Out-of-hours and 24-hour call-outs are available at our discretion — call 029 2068 9339 and we will do our best. We would rather say that honestly than promise a response we cannot always keep.
04 Access control
Fobs, keypads and intercoms are the part people actually touch, and they are the part that goes wrong in front of an audience. We fit them as part of the gate rather than leaving them to a second firm on a second visit.
01
Fobs issued to residents, staff or drivers, and lost ones cancelled without anything changing on the gate itself. Keypads where a code suits better — contractors, a delivery entrance, a yard used by people who are not there every day.
Fobs · Keypads · Cancelled on request
02
Speak to whoever is at the gate before you let them in, and see them if you want to. Calls can be put through to a phone, so a caretaker covering four buildings is not tied to one handset in one lobby.
Audio & video · Calls to a phone
03
For blocks and communal entrances we install Intratone, whose wireless intercoms and door entry avoid a cable run into every flat — which is the expensive and disruptive part of the job in an occupied block. We also install CAME Entrotec door entry, audio and video.
Intratone · CAME Entrotec
04
On most communal sites the same fob should open the gate and the front door of the block. We install both, so the residents carry one fob and you ring one number when something stops working.
One system · One contractor
Door entry, access control on the building itself, CCTV and fire alarm work are set out properly on our fire and security systems page rather than repeated here. Fire & security systems
05 How a job runs
Five stages, and the first one costs you nothing. The forces are measured before we leave and the readings go in your file, so the gate is handed over with a number against it rather than a shrug.
01
We come out and look at the opening, the ground, the space behind the gate and the supply. More importantly we look at who uses the entrance and how — residents on foot, vehicles queuing on a road, delivery drivers, children. That is what decides which safety devices the gate needs, so it happens before anything is drawn or priced.
02
Gate type, operator, controls, the safety devices and where each one goes, the supply and the containment. Then a written quote that says what is included and what is not. The safety devices are in the price, not offered as an upgrade — that is not something we let a customer trim.
03
Groundwork, supply and containment first, then the operators, the controls and the safety devices. On an occupied site the entrance is kept usable and we tell people what is happening before we start, because a gate entrance that stops working without warning is the thing that generates the complaints.
04
The gate is set up, then it is measured. Forces taken with a force tester at the points BS EN 12453 specifies, adjusted until they are inside the limits, and recorded. Every photocell broken and every safety edge pressed to prove the gate reacts as it should. Proved, not assumed.
05
A walk round with whoever runs the site: how it operates, how the manual release works and what to do if it fails. Then the documentation — what is installed, the safety devices, the force readings, the operating instructions and the electrical certificate — and a date for the first service visit.
06 Why CJS
Gate work sits across two trades: the machinery and the electrical installation behind it. We are assessed on the second and trained on the first, and the same firm does both.
Accreditation
The electrical installation feeding the gate is assessed against BS 7671, the UK wiring regulations, by the leading certification body for the industry.
Training
Trained through Gate Safe in the safe installation and maintenance of powered gates — the forces, the safety devices and what has to be recorded.
Sign-off
Inspection and testing is signed off by a Qualified Supervisor. Your certificates carry a named, accountable signature.
Insurance
Cover of £10m public liability and £10m employer’s liability. Certificates are available on request.
Track record
Over 38 years working across Wales and the South West — commercial, industrial, education, social housing and domestic.
Labour
Our own directly employed engineers do the electrical work. The same faces come back for the service visits, and they already know your gate.
07 Questions
Our engineers are Gate Safe trained. Gate Safe is the UK organisation set up to improve the safety of powered gates, and its training covers what a gate has to do to be safe in use, how the forces on it are measured and what has to be recorded. It sits alongside our NICEIC approval, which covers the electrical installation behind the gate against BS 7671, the UK wiring regulations. Gate work is one of those trades where anybody can buy the equipment and bolt it on. Training and third-party assessment are how you tell the difference from the outside.
BS EN 12453 is the standard for the safe use of power operated gates, and the heart of it is force limitation. A gate set up to it does not simply stop when it meets an obstruction: it stops within a limited force, within a limited time, and then backs off. The forces are measured with a force tester at the points the standard specifies, and the readings are written down rather than judged by eye. Photocells across the opening and safety edges on the moving parts do the rest of the work. The standard is the accepted way of showing a powered gate is safe, so it is what an installer, an insurer or an inspector will measure yours against — and an existing gate should still be meeting it, which is exactly what a service visit checks.
Yes, and on any make. We start with a survey rather than a price list: we look at the gate, the automation, the safety devices and the way the entrance is actually used, we take force readings, and then you get a written finding setting out what we found, what is unsafe and what it would take to put right. Repairs are priced separately from the servicing, so you can do the work, phase it or leave it — taking the gate onto a service schedule does not depend on you buying the remedial work. If we think a gate cannot be made safe as it stands, we will tell you that too.
It depends on how hard the gate is worked and who is near it. A gate on a private drive that opens twice a day is a different machine from a communal entrance opening two hundred times a day with residents and visitors walking through it, and a commercial yard gate in daily use is harder worked again. What matters is that somebody competent checks the safety devices and re-measures the forces at sensible intervals, and that the readings are recorded, so you can show the gate was safe when it was last looked at. We will tell you what your gate needs when we survey it, rather than selling everybody the same visit.
Yes. Once a gate has an operator fitted to it, the gate and its automation together are machinery, and a new installation falls under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. In practice that means the installation has to be designed and built so that it is safe in normal use, assessed and marked as conforming, and handed over with the documentation that records what was done and what was proved. After that the duty of care sits with whoever is responsible for the premises: the gate has to be kept maintained and its safety devices kept working, and you need to be able to show that somebody competent has checked it. Nobody can take that duty off you, and we would not pretend otherwise.
Yes. Fobs, keypads and intercoms are the part people actually touch, and we install them as part of the gate rather than leaving them to a second firm on a second visit. For blocks and communal entrances we install Intratone, whose wireless intercoms and door entry avoid a cable run into every flat, and CAME Entrotec door entry. Fobs are issued and lost ones cancelled without anything changing on the gate itself. The same access control usually runs the doors into the building as well, and that side of it is set out on our fire and security systems page.
Yes — swing gates, sliding gates, communal and apartment entrances, and commercial site and yard gates. Which one suits depends on the opening, the ground and the space behind it: a swing gate needs room to swing and reasonably level ground, while a sliding gate needs a run alongside the opening but copes with a slope and a short driveway. We automate them with CAME equipment. The photocells, the safety edges and the force settings are part of the installation, not an extra line you can decline.
We tell you, in writing, on the day we find it. The written finding sets out what is wrong, why it matters and what it would take to put right, with the repairs priced separately so the decision stays yours. Where something makes the gate dangerous to leave running — a failed photocell, a safety edge that no longer senses contact, forces well outside the limits — we will say so plainly and tell you what we would do in the meantime, including leaving the gate on manual release until it can be repaired. We would rather have that conversation than sign off a gate we are not happy with.
08 Free quote
Tell us about the entrance — a new gate, or one that is there already and needs looking at — and we will reply within one working day. The survey and the written quote cost you nothing, whoever fitted the gate.
We have your details and will reply within one working day to arrange the visit. If it is urgent, call the office on 029 2068 9339.