Process & Materials
Exactly what happens,
and when.
A custom gate is bought before it exists. You agree a price, a drawing and a date, and then you wait — which is uncomfortable, and the discomfort is entirely reasonable. This page is the answer to it: every stage in order, the dates as they are actually counted, and the two jobs we don't take on.
There is nothing here we wouldn't tell you on the phone. It's written down so you can read it before you ask.
- 14 business daysStandard work · 20 for complex pieces
- Finished in powder coatOptions chosen with you at quote stage
- We fabricate and installThe same hands do both
Start to finish
Six stages, in this order.
Every job runs the same way, whether it's a pedestrian gate or an entire boundary. You'll know which stage yours is at whenever you ask.
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01
Your enquiry
The quote form asks for your opening, your location and what you have in mind. It takes a few minutes, and it means the first conversation starts from something real rather than from nothing. A photo of the gap helps more than anything else you can send.
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02
Measuring
We measure the opening ourselves rather than working from the number you were given. Where masonry is involved, this is also when Avinash assesses what's actually needed — before anything is agreed.
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03
Drawing and approval
Your design is drawn at the real dimensions of your opening, and there's no separate design fee for it. Two rounds of changes are included. No steel is touched until you approve the drawing.
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04
Cutting
Cut on our own CNC plasma table, from the file you approved. Because the table is ours, your job isn't sitting in somebody else's queue waiting for a slot.
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05
Fabrication and coating
The cut panels are welded up into the finished piece, hand-finished where the design needs it, then powder coated in the colour you chose.
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06
Installation
We fit what we make. The people installing your gate are the people who built it, so nothing about it is explained to you second-hand.
Lead time
The date you're given
is one that holds.
standard work
complex pieces
Counted from the day your gate actually starts on the floor, not from the day you pay.
Avinash won't take a job into the shop until he can give it proper attention. It means the start date you're given is one that holds, instead of a promise that slips while your gate sits in a queue.
Finish
Every piece is finished
in powder coat.
There's a range of coating options, and the right one depends on where your gate sits and how exposed it is — we'll go through the choices with you at quote stage. They do affect the price.
The choice is made about your site.
A frontage two streets from the sea and a sheltered inland driveway are not the same problem, and they don't get the same answer. That's a conversation we'd rather have once we know where the gate is going than a line printed on a website before anyone has looked.
Colour is part of the same conversation.
The catalog runs from black and charcoal through bronze, brass and gold, and pieces have been finished in red, blue and grey where that's what the house asked for. Bring the colour of your windows, your roof or your burglar proofing and we'll work to it.
What you won't find here is a printed specification or a guarantee. We'd rather tell you plainly what we're using and why, for your gate, at quote stage, than publish a promise in general terms and leave you to work out whether it applies to you.
Materials
Cut from steel,
not assembled from bar.
Your design is cut out of steel plate rather than built up from lengths of bar and welded together. That's why the pattern reads as one continuous piece — because it is one.
Gauge is chosen for the piece.
A driveway leaf spanning a wide opening and an interior screen are different problems, and they aren't made from the same thing. Gauge is one of the four factors that move a quote, alongside the size of the opening, how much detail is in the design, and the coating.
The design is drawn to your opening.
Nothing is cut to a standard size and trimmed to fit. The file is built around the measurements we took, which is why the piece arrives sitting in the opening rather than nearly sitting in it.
Before you ask
Two things we
don't do.
Said plainly and early, because finding out late wastes your time as much as ours.
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We don't supply or fit automation motors.
Not any brand, and not as an extra. If you want your gate automated, that's a separate trade and a separate contractor. It's still worth telling us at quote stage that automation is coming, so it's part of the conversation from the start rather than something raised at the end.
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We don't assume the masonry.
Avinash fabricates and installs. Where an installation needs masonry work, he'll assess the opening first and tell you plainly what's involved before anything is agreed. An opening that isn't square, or a wall that needs work before it can carry a gate, is something found by looking at it — not by guessing from a photograph.
Questions people actually ask
Four short answers.
When does the clock start?
The day your gate starts on the floor. Not the day you enquire, and not the day you pay. Before that point you're in measuring, drawing and approval, and how long that takes depends mostly on how quickly the drawing gets signed off.
Can I change the design after I approve it?
Two rounds of changes are included before anything is cut, which is where changes belong. After approval the piece follows exactly what you approved — that's the point of approving it, and it's what stops what arrives being an interpretation of what you asked for.
Can you match something that already exists?
Yes, and it's some of the work we're proudest of — a gate, a pedestrian gate and an entire boundary run sharing one design across a whole frontage. Send photographs of what's already there and we'll draw to it.
Where do you work?
Trinidad and Tobago, both islands. Enquiries from elsewhere in the Caribbean are welcome — shipping is arranged case by case and lead times vary with destination, so tell us where you are and we'll come back to you.
Next step
Start with the opening.
A photograph of the gap and a rough width are enough to begin. We'll come back with ideas, a date and a price in writing.
Not sure what you want yet? Design Your Own is the page for that — it covers where designs come from and what works in steel.