← Automatic driveway gate bid calculator
A published $4,500 automatic-gate special treats a 12-foot single aluminum swing on existing posts as the same job as a 16-foot dual steel swing with masonry columns, two vehicle loops, a keypad, and a solar kit. It is not. Fence calculators price posts and walk gates as a barrier. Garage-door calculators price springs and a header. Automating the driveway is a style, an operator count, and the extra work you have to do before the leaves move. Quoting all of that from a kit special is how the first loop sawcut eats the field margin.
Each extra operator is a kit that never appears on the brochure. On the sample rates a 12-foot single aluminum swing on existing posts with AC and two remotes prices about $6,506 ($542 per opening foot, 12.9 crew-hours, walk-away $4,684). The same shop’s 16-foot dual steel swing with masonry columns, two loops, a keypad, battery backup, edge sensors, and a solar kit prices about $20,440 ($1,277 per opening foot, 42.9 hours). Almost half of that dual bid is extra work — columns, loops, power, and access. Matching the single-swing special on the dual masonry gate is how that job becomes a loss. Even the cheap job’s walk-away ($4,684) is already above a $4,500 Facebook number.
Hanging two operators on posts that do not exist is a callback, not a savings. On a 16-foot steel opening the sample rates price a single swing with masonry around $15,395 — still thousands less than dual, because dual adds a second operator and a third column. Slide of that run prices about $16,741. Single swing is still the right bid on a 12-foot existing-post job: dual of that refresh prices about $9,165 and slide about $7,585 because you would be buying a second operator the opening does not need. Treating every driveway as one kit number is how the style that looked cheapest on paper is not the one that keeps the margin.
An 18-foot aluminum slide on new steel posts with one loop is not the 12-foot single plus 50%. On the sample rates that slide prices about $10,144 ($564 per opening foot, 22.8 crew-hours). The track and the receiver posts are their own hours. A 14-foot single wood swing on steel posts with a loop, keypad, and battery prices about $9,809 ($701 per opening foot). Neither number lives in a $4,500 kit special.
A $42/h hand loaded at 32% payroll burden is $55.44. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is arithmetic on the rates you type. It is not a gate specification, a UL 325 determination, a permit, an electrical design, an engineering stamp, or a recommendation of swing versus slide. Soil, slope, leaf weight versus operator class, and what the jurisdiction will accept still decide the style. Verify every figure against your own takeoff.
No warranty. This free page is not gate, construction, electrical, legal, tax, or financial advice. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying its output before relying on it. Open the bid calculator to price a specific opening.
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Charge from the style (single swing, dual swing, or slide), the opening width, leaf material, columns, power, vehicle loops, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 12-foot single aluminum swing on existing posts at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $6,506 — about $542 per opening foot.
When the opening needs two operators and the posts are not already there. On the sample rates a 16-foot dual steel swing with masonry columns, two loops, a keypad, and a solar kit prices around $20,440. Matching a $4,500 single-swing special on that job is how the first loop sawcut eats the field margin. Almost half of that dual bid is columns, loops, power, and access.
A slide is one operator and a track, not a pair of swing leaves. On the sample rates an 18-foot aluminum slide on new steel posts with one loop prices around $10,144 ($564 per opening foot, 22.8 crew-hours). The track and the receiver posts do not live in a per-opening Facebook special.