It's 6:30pm, it's raining, and the gate stops a metre from closed. You press the remote again. Nothing. Behind you, the garage door you closed this morning has stopped a hand's width off the ground, and its remote has been temperamental since winter. The street is dark. The car is running. Somewhere in a kitchen drawer there's a key for the gate motor...
How do gates and garage doors keep a home secure?
Gates and garage doors are the two openings your car uses most, and both are part of your security. A driveway gate closes off the boundary, and a garage door closes off the house. A motor, a battery and remote controls operate each one, and each needs looking after to keep working smoothly.
Key takeaways
- Driveway gates come sliding or swing, and the space beside and behind the opening decides which one fits best.
- A gate motor runs on its battery, so a gate slowing or stopping halfway after a power cut usually means a damaged or flat battery.
- Old technology gate remotes send the same signal every time, while rolling code remotes send a new code with every press.
- A noisy or slow garage door is warning you early of a fault, and a broken garage door spring is never a do-it-yourself job.
- Every garage door motor has a manual release for power cuts, so find yours before you need it.
Driveway gates: sliding, swing and made to fit
Style and design don't always decide which driveway gate or garage door you get. Often the space and the setting decide it. Some work harder than others. A tip-up garage door swings out in one heavy piece, a roll-up door coils its whole curtain around a drum, and a single swing gate hangs its full width from one pillar, so each one carries more strain every day. They need regular servicing to keep the days they're out of action to a minimum. If your gate has stuck or scraped for a while, you're not alone. Most of us give it a shove and get on with the day, until the morning it won't move.
Choosing a sliding or swing gate starts with a tape measure. A sliding gate needs a stretch of wall beside the opening at least as long as the gate. A swing gate needs clear space behind it.
In Johannesburg, the city's Public Roads By-law bars anyone from obstructing a sidewalk, so a swing gate should open into your property. Steel is the strongest material, and it's what we work in. We make driveway gates to fit each opening in our own workshop.
Once the gate is up, its wheels carry the whole gate. Centurion Systems is a South African gate motor manufacturer. It says sliding gate wheels should be in a good condition and rotating freely, and a worn wheel makes the motor work harder every time the gate opens.
A brown spot in November is a broken bracket by March.
Gate automation: how gate motors work and why they stop
A gate motor rarely fails all at once. It slows first, groans on the way open, then stops a little short. The motor runs on its battery, and mains power keeps the battery charged, so a long power cut soon shows up a damaged or flat battery. For gate automation, we fit Centurion motors matched to the size of each gate, and our service team repairs Gemini motors too.
At a Sandton estate entrance in October 2026, heavy old gates were wearing out the motors. We fitted lighter slatted gates with Centurion Vantage 500 linear motors, and altered the walls so each motor pushes from its strongest angle.
A gate motor service, booked as soon as testing shows a problem, checks the battery, the beams, the rack and the wheels. Summer brings the other risk. Centurion recommends earthing the motor and fitting surge protection, because gate motor lightning damage can burn out the controller or the charger.
The storms are already here, so book the service before the next one, not after it.
Gate remote and motor security: who can open your gate
Somewhere out there is a remote nobody can account for, and it still opens your gate. It belongs to a tenant who moved out, or the builder who finished your kitchen. A lost gate remote stays live until someone deletes it from the receiver.
Old remotes send the same signal with every press, like a password anyone nearby can copy, and gate remote cloning copies it. Rolling code remotes send a new code each time. Gate remote jamming is different: a device blocks the signal, so the gate never locks behind you unless you watch it close.
The motor needs guarding too. A motor sitting in the open is easy to reach through palisade. A gate motor cage with an anti-tamper lock keeps hands off the motor and its battery, and makes gate motor theft far harder. An anti-lift bracket stops the gate being lifted off its rail, and a gate alarm tells your phone when the gate opens.
Driveway safety comes down to minutes: the less time you wait at the gate, the less time anyone else has. Our gate remote and motor security page covers each one.
Every month a forgotten remote stays on the receiver is another month it works for someone else.
Garage doors: choosing a door to fit and last
A garage door is the biggest moving part of most homes. It gets louder first, then slower, and then one evening it stops halfway down, with the car inside.
Choosing between a sectional vs tip up garage door comes down to space. A sectional door rises in panels along the ceiling, while a tip-up door swings out as one piece and needs room in front of the garage. Roll-up doors suit narrow garages, and roller shutters, which roll aluminium slats into a compact box above the opening, need no space under the ceiling at all. Measure the opening, the headroom and the space in front before you choose. Aluminium garage doors are light and won't rust, while steel is harder to break through.
A noisy garage door often means dry rollers or tired springs. A garage door spring broken under tension can hurt someone badly, so it's a job for a technician, never a do-it-yourself fix. Our garage doors page shows the doors we fit.
The groan you hear in October is louder by Christmas.
Garage door motors: power cuts, faults and remotes
A garage door motor lifts the door at the press of a button, and like a gate motor, it relies on mains power or a backup battery. When a garage door motor is not working, the cause is often small. It may be a flat remote battery, a tripped plug, or settings drifting out of place.
Every motor has a garage door manual release, usually a cord hanging from the rail, so you can open the door by hand in a power cut. Find yours in daylight, and make sure the garage isn't your only way into the house.
Set up a gate and garage remote on one handset, and one button opens the gate while the next opens the garage. You spend less time waiting in the driveway. We fit Centurion garage door motors, and our garage door automation page explains the options.
The worst time to look for the release cord is in the dark, with the power off and the car locked inside.
Closing Reflection
Picture the same wet evening a year from now. The gate slides open as you turn in, steady and smooth, on wheels somebody checked in spring. It closes behind you without a stutter, and the beams see the bicycle left in the way.
The garage door lifts at the next button on the same remote, and the car rolls in out of the rain. The door comes down to the floor behind you, and you walk inside without looking back...
You shouldn't have to push your own gate closed in the rain. With Paul's Gates you won't.
Contact Paul's Gates to arrange a site visit and a written quotation for your gates, gate motors and garage doors.