Sliding Gate Track and Drainage in Round Rock

On a driveway that slopes toward the street, a sliding gate asks different questions than a swing gate does, and the track becomes the part to get right (as laid out at metal gate contractor round rock curionic) before anything is fabricated for Round Rock, TX. A slide gate carries its whole weight on rollers, so a track that is out of level by a small amount will stall the gate or wear the rollers flat.

Track or cantilever

A track slide gate rolls on wheels that ride a rail set into or on top of the pavement. A cantilever gate has no rail on the ground at all: the leaf extends past its posts and rolls on carriages mounted on the posts, so nothing sits where gravel and leaves collect. Cantilever frames are longer, since the tail behind the opening is about half the length of the opening, which makes room along the fence line the first thing to measure.

Keeping the track clear

A groove in a driveway catches pebbles, mulch, acorns and silt, and one stone under a wheel will stop a motorized leaf. Brushy Creek lots with live oaks drop leaves into that groove for most of the year. A V-shaped rail sheds debris better than a flat channel, and a track that sits on top of the pavement is easy to sweep with a broom, while one cut into the concrete needs a drain.

Where the water goes

Water has to leave the track, not sit in it. The groove gets a slight fall toward a drain, a weep hole or the low side of the driveway, and the concrete on either side slopes away from it. Standing water in the groove rusts rollers, freezes on the rare hard freeze in Williamson County, and keeps the clay under the slab wet, which is how a track ends up wavy after two or three years.

Clay under the slab and the posts

The footings for the end posts and the roller carriage posts are set below the active zone of expansive clay soil, the same as any gate post. When the clay moves, a rolling gate shows it quickly: the leaf binds on one side, then rides high on the other. A continuous grade beam or a poured footing that ties the posts and the track together moves as one piece instead of three, and the gate stays aligned through wet and dry cycles.

Operator and safety edges

A sliding gate with an operator needs a rigid rack or chain to push against and a straight leaf. A steel frame with a welded bottom rail, set on level footings, gives the operator something to drive without strain, and stops in the right place every cycle.