Ask three Kent installers to price the same entrance and you can get three very different numbers. That is not always a sign that someone is overcharging. A driveway gate is part product and part building job, and the building part changes from one drive to the next. Real South East quotes, the national price guides and a line-by-line breakdown of a typical job show where the money goes and how to judge the figure in front of you.
What Homeowners in the South East Actually Paid
Forum threads are the most honest source of prices, because people post what they were quoted and what they paid. On Mumsnet in March 2024, one homeowner shared quotes for a 1.2 metre high pair across a 3.5 metre opening: £3,200 for the gates alone, £4,500 for automated swing gates, and £7,200 for an automated sliding gate. Others in the same thread reported almost £10,000 including an intercom, around £11,000 including VAT for a 5 metre automated swing pair in galvanised and powder-coated steel, and £10,000 for sliding gates.
On PistonHeads in March 2025, an owner with an 8 metre opening paid £10,500 including VAT for aluminium gates, posts, electrics, fitting, remotes and an intercom in the house, after quotes ranging from £9,000 to £16,500. One installer opened the conversation with a starting price of £9,000. Earlier in the same thread, a 6 metre sliding hardwood gate with automation was quoted at £13,000 twice. A poster who wanted a fully specified system from scratch put the ceiling at over £20,000.
Taken together, fitted automated pairs in the South East cluster between roughly £5,000 and £11,000, with sliding and hardwood gates often between £10,000 and £13,000, and large, fully specified entrances above that.
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Why National Price Guides Run Lower
National guides give lower figures. Checkatrade's electric gate installation page shows a range of £3,277 to £9,541 with an average of £5,712, and the same figures appear on its Maidstone, Canterbury and Sevenoaks pages, which tells you they are national rather than local. MyJobQuote, drawing on quotes made through its own platform, puts an average fitted job at around £3,000. Jacksons, the Kent gate manufacturer, says a single swing gate with ram automation starts at about £3,500 before VAT, with installation on top.
The gap comes from what is included. Platform averages often cover a single gate on an easy site with power already nearby. The forum quotes above are for pairs, often with intercoms, new posts, trenching and full safety kit. A West Kent entrance with a long drive and brick piers is a different job from a single gate on a new-build close.
Guide Prices by Gate Type in Kent
For a fully installed gate in Kent, these are the guide ranges we use. Automated sliding gates typically run from about £4,800 to £12,500, with cantilever systems, wide openings and premium materials at the top. Automated swing gates run from about £3,800 to £11,500, with underground motors and bespoke wrought iron at the higher end. Manual hardwood gates start at about £2,800. Adding motors to gates you already have usually costs £1,400 to £3,800, which is why automating existing gates is often the cheapest route to an electric entrance.
Where you live shifts the figure too. The commuter belt around Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells sits at the top of these ranges, while North and East Kent are closer to the national guides. Coastal homes pay a little more for galvanised or marine-grade finishes.
Where the Money Goes in a Typical Quote
A worked example from Trade2Base, a quoting tool used by installers, shows how a mid-range job adds up. For a 3.6 metre steel swing pair with ram motors, a keypad, a video intercom and a 12 metre armoured cable run, the total came to about £7,000. The gates were £1,600, the automation kit £1,300, photocells and safety edges £350, the keypad and intercom £700, posts and foundations £900, the electrician £750, and labour with force testing £1,400.
The lesson is that the motor kit is a small share of the bill. PistonHeads posters put kit-only costs at roughly £800 to £1,700. Most of what you pay is groundwork, power, labour and the safety work that makes an automated gate legal to use.
What Pushes a Kent Quote Up
Width and weight come first. A wider or heavier gate needs a stronger motor and deeper foundations, and solid hardwood or wrought iron weighs far more than aluminium. Sliding gates usually cost more than swing gates on the same opening; quotes in the forum threads above show a premium of roughly £2,000 to £2,700, mostly for the extra groundwork.
Power is the hidden cost. Trade2Base puts a new armoured supply from the consumer unit at £400 to £1,200, and a long rural drive can cost more to trench than the gate costs to make. Underground motors cost more than ram or arm motors and need drained chambers. In a conservation area or at a listed house, allow for drawings and an application; the national householder planning fee for gates rose to £272 from April 2026, according to the government's planning fee schedule.
Is My Quote Fair?
A fair quote is an itemised one. It should list the gate leaves with their material, size and weight; the posts or piers and their foundations; the motor brand and model; the safety devices, meaning photocells and safety edges; any access control; the electrical supply, trenching and reinstatement; the days of labour; force testing and a risk assessment; the handover paperwork; VAT shown separately; and the price of a service plan.
If a quote is a single number with no breakdown, ask for one. If it is far below the others, find out what is missing: no safety edges, no force test, or no new supply are the usual gaps. Jacksons warns that if an installation is cheap, there could be a reason. If it is far above, ask what is driving it; underground motors, a long trench or bespoke fabrication can all be legitimate. Choosing an installer is as important as choosing the gate.
Running, Servicing and Repair Costs
Running costs are small. Checkatrade estimates around £15 a year in electricity for a typical gate. Servicing costs more and matters more: Gate Safe recommends a service every six months by a trained installer, and price guides put a visit at roughly £100 to £300 depending on the system. Build that into the cost of ownership from the start.
Owners on PistonHeads describe the repair costs that catch people out. One replaced underground motors every two years at about £800 each until drain holes were drilled in the motor boxes; another paid £800 after a blocked soakaway flooded a chamber. Replacing the motors and controls on a 22-year-old system came to about £4,000. Good drainage and a regular service and repair arrangement cost far less than repeated failures.
Getting Comparable Quotes
Ask every installer to quote for the same specification: the same gate size and material, the same motor type, the same safety devices and the same access control. Ask each to visit, because a price given without a survey cannot account for your ground, slope or power supply. Then compare line by line. The cheapest total is rarely the cheapest gate to own, and a quote that includes force testing, proper drainage and a service plan will usually cost less over ten years than one that leaves them out.
VAT, Deposits and Stage Payments
Check whether each quote includes VAT. Some installers quote before VAT and some after, and on a £9,000 job the difference is £1,500, enough to make a dearer quote look cheaper. Ask for VAT shown as a separate line so you are comparing like with like.
Be careful with large deposits. A modest deposit to order bespoke gates is normal, but paying most of the price upfront leaves you exposed if the installer fails to finish. Stage payments tied to milestones, such as gates delivered, groundwork complete and gate commissioned, protect both sides. Keep the final payment until the gate has been force tested and you have the commissioning record in your hand.