Landscape Gate and Entry Decision Checklist

List everything that has to pass through each opening, including bins, bikes, a mower, a barrow, garden furniture and material for future work.

The widest thing on the list is what the opening has to answer to, and it is almost never the person who uses it daily.

Note the most awkward item and exactly where it gets stuck at present, without deciding what width would solve the problem.

The point where something catches is more useful than a guessed measurement, and a professional can work directly from it.

Ask a qualified professional what clear opening the items on your list would need here; never take a width from another property.

Record whether anything would ever need to come through that is not a garden item, such as a delivered appliance or building material.

One-off journeys through a side gate shape what it should allow, and they are precisely the ones nobody plans for.

Write down whether two people pass at once, or whether somebody regularly comes through with both hands occupied.

Both hands full changes what a gate has to do, particularly where it also has to be latched again behind you.

Note whether a wheelchair, pushchair or walking frame uses the opening now, or might reasonably need to in future.

Recording who uses the route is owner knowledge; what the opening would need for them is a professional question.

What an opening needs in order to work for a wheelchair or a frame must be established with a qualified professional, not estimated from a sketch.

Consider whether the same opening has to serve both the front of the house and the working side, and note what that forces through it.

One side gate doing everything is the commonest arrangement and the commonest source of daily frustration.

Decide which way each gate should open and draw the swing on a sketch, noting what stands within that arc on both sides.

The arc is where the problem lives, and drawing it is the quickest way to find the pot, step or bin already standing in it.

Note whether the swing would cross a path, a step or a drop, and record where somebody would have to stand to open it.

Standing room on the opening side is what makes a gate workable, especially for anyone carrying something at the time.

Consider whether a gate that slides or folds would suit an opening where there is nowhere for a swinging leaf to go.

Where the arc cannot be found, a different arrangement becomes the question, and being open to it helps the conversation along.

Record whether the gate has to be held open while things are carried through, and whether anything would hold it there.

A gate that swings back on you is the reason so many end up propped permanently open with a brick.

Write down whether the gate should close itself, and note who or what you would be relying on it for.

Self-closing is usually asked for because of a child, a dog or a road, and naming the reason keeps the requirement honest.

Anything relied on to contain a child or an animal must be discussed with a qualified professional; nothing here confirms an arrangement will do so.

Note whether the gate would swing over a surface that would be scraped, or over ground that lifts and softens in wet weather.

The ground under the arc is why many gates stop closing properly, and it is visible long before anything is built.

Note which way the ground falls across the opening and whether the gate would have to swing uphill or downhill from where it hangs.

A gate swinging uphill has to clear rising ground, and that is the constraint which decides how it can sit.

Record whether a gap under the gate would be acceptable, and write down what has to be stopped from getting through it.

The gap is the trade-off for a gate that swings on falling ground, and only you can say what it must not let past.

Write down whether the gate sits at the top or the foot of a flight of steps, and where somebody would stand while opening it.

A gate opening onto a step is awkward however well everything else is done, and it is easy to spot at the sketch stage.

Note whether the ground either side of the opening sits at different levels, and record that you will not assume a post can be set there.

How gate posts are set in particular ground, especially close to a change of level, is for a qualified professional to determine.

Consider whether water runs through the opening, and record where it comes from and where it goes once it is through.

Openings often sit at a low point and become the route water takes, which affects the gate and the surface together.

Where surface water is directed is a drainage design matter for a qualified professional and may be regulated; confirm locally what applies.

Record whether the opening sits in a wall, a fence or something holding ground back, since that changes who has to be involved.

An opening formed in anything retaining ground is a structural question for a qualified engineer before it is ever a gate question.

Note who has to operate the catch, including anyone with limited grip, and whether it has to work with one hand only.

One-handed operation is a real requirement in a garden, and it is decided by the catch rather than by the gate.

Decide whether the gate has to open from both sides, and note whether anybody has to be prevented from opening it from one of them.

Which side can open it is usually the entire point, particularly where a child or a dog is concerned.

Record whether the gate needs locking, and whether that is against intrusion, against a child getting out, or simply to stop it blowing open.

The three reasons lead to quite different arrangements, and running them together produces a gate that satisfies none of them.

Write down who would need a key or an entry number, including family, a neighbour who feeds the cat and anybody who cuts the grass.

Access lists grow quietly, and thinking about them now avoids a lock that gets propped open within the first season.

Note whether the catch would still work once the gate has swollen in wet weather or shifted slightly on its post.

Gates move with the weather, and a catch with no tolerance in it is the one that ends up being forced.

Ask the supplier and a qualified professional what movement to expect from a particular gate and fixing in your own conditions.

Consider whether you would want to hear the gate, or to know it has been left open, without deciding how that would be achieved.

Describing the effect is owner work; anything involving power or signalling belongs with people qualified to arrange it.

List who arrives without being let in, such as delivery people, meter readers, refuse collection and anybody maintaining the garden.

Each of them has to get through somehow, and a gate designed only for the household forces workarounds on everyone else.

Decide where a parcel could be left when nobody is in, and whether that spot can be reached without the gate being unlocked.

The unlocked gate is the usual answer, and deciding a better one now is much easier than after it has become a habit.

Note whether bins are taken out by the household or collected from the plot, and where they stand between collections.

Bin routes decide side gate design more than anything else and are almost never discussed while the garden is being designed.

Record whether anybody needs to reach a meter, a stopcock, an oil tank or a flue from outside the house.

Service access is remembered only once somebody cannot get to it, and it usually sits behind the very gate in question.

Write down whether this opening would be the only route for larger work, including the material for the garden project itself.

The gate you are designing may well be the route for the work that follows it, which is worth flagging early.

Note whether anybody regularly props the gate open, and write down what they are working around when they do it.

A propped gate is a design fault made visible, and the reason behind it is usually simple once somebody asks.

Note whether any gate would open outwards over a footpath or a road, and confirm locally before treating that as an option at all.

What may open over a public footway or road is for the local authority to establish; never assume an outward swing is available to you.

Record what a driver or a cyclist could see as somebody steps out of the opening, and note where that view is blocked and by what.

What can be seen from an opening is worth recording, and it is a question for the local authority as well as for a designer.

Write down whether vehicles cross the line at any point, and whether the opening would have to serve them as well as people.

Combining vehicle and pedestrian entry in one opening has consequences, and it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by habit.

Anything involving a vehicle crossing a footway or entering from a public road must be confirmed with the local authority first.

Note whether the entry is shared with a neighbour, serves more than one property, or crosses land you do not own.

Shared entries and rights of way are legal questions; take suitably qualified advice before any change to a shared opening is planned.

Consider whether this opening should read as a front entrance or as a working side entry, and note who is meant to use each.

A single opening asked to be both tends to satisfy neither, and splitting the two is often the simplest improvement available.

Record what the opening looks like from the street while it is standing open, since that is how it spends a good deal of its life.

The open position is rarely drawn and is the one that visitors and neighbours actually see most often.

Write down whether automation is genuinely wanted or is simply being assumed, and note what problem it would actually solve here.

Automation is often reached for where a wider opening or a better catch would have done, and naming the problem tests that.

Ask a qualified electrical professional what power at this position would involve, and record what they tell you before going any further.

Outdoor electrical work is specialist and often regulated; it must be designed and carried out by a qualified electrical professional.

Note what would happen to the opening if the power failed, and ask what arrangements are usually made for getting in and out.

How you get through when nothing works is worth asking before a powered gate is chosen rather than afterwards.

Record who would be able to open a powered gate from outside, including anybody arriving without a handset or an entry number.

The access list that seemed simple for a latch turns into a system question as soon as anything is powered by electricity.

Ask a qualified professional what safety arrangements a powered gate involves, and record that this is not something to settle yourself.

Powered gates carry serious risks and are subject to requirements; their design, arrangement and upkeep must go to qualified specialists.

List the entry decisions that depend on an answer from the local authority or a professional, and keep each of them open until you have it.

Marking dependent decisions stops them being treated as settled once a design begins to look complete.