What about the fence either side of it?

Drawn at the same time. A gate that does not agree with its fence reads as two separate purchases from the road.

Not necessarily. Posts, piers and rendered pillars are three different structures, and the leaf and the ground decide which one is right.

There is no room for a gate to swing.

Then it should not swing. A slide or a cantilever gets the same opening without needing an arc that is not there.

Will it overhang the sidewalk?

It should not, and that is a design constraint rather than a preference — whatever the gate does happens inside the property line.

Driveway Gate Installation in Sweetwater, FL

Black swing gate open onto a paver driveway with a lawn either side

Driveway gates · Sweetwater, FL

Measured on site and drawn on your entrance before anything is cut.

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(954) 245-0182

Black sliding gate running along a concrete driveway beside a clipped lawn and palms. — The urban core — Where the driveway usually meets the sidewalk and the swing arc has to come from somewhere else.

Sweetwater · Miami-Dade County

The first question is never the style, it is the opening. Width, slope, where the cars stop and how much room the leaves have to move through decide what can be built, and all four get measured rather than assumed.

Where the driveway meets the sidewalk there is no arc for a swing leaf to travel through. That usually points at a slide or a cantilever, and it is far better to find that out at the measure than on install day.

The urban grid was laid out long before anybody was automating an entrance, so the space a gate needs has to be found rather than assumed.

Inside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

Miami-Dade sits inside the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, the strictest wind-load regime in the state, so the rating on posts, panels and hardware is not a nice-to-have here. Permits on top of that are issued locally — by the municipality or by the county — so what Sweetwater wants to see on paper is worth confirming before anything is cut.

Driveway Gates — the full breakdown

Before / after

Drag it backto how we found it.

Drag the divider to see the change. Where a frame is marked Concept it illustrates the starting point rather than photographs it.

Illustration of a plain builder-grade gate shown on the same driveway — DesignBuilder-grade to bespoke

The ornate custom estate gate built on that driveway — DesignBuilder-grade to bespoke

Driveway Gates · Sweetwater

06 frames

Sun setting through the vertical slats of a dark metal gate

Vertical slat, low sun

Black sliding driveway gate beside a stone pillar with palms behind — Slide, single leaf

Horizontal timber slat gate between brick pillars under flowering bougainvillea — Horizontal slat, brick piers

Wide driveway gate and railing photographed at dusk from the street — Dusk, from the street

Lit driveway gate at night with uplit palms behind it — After dark

Ornate arched iron double gate between rendered pillars at an estate entrance — Ornate double swing

Worth knowing

Drawn before it's cut
Shop-fabricated
Coastal finish
On-site measure
Slide & cantilever options

What about the fence either side of it?: Drawn at the same time. A gate that does not agree with its fence reads as two separate purchases from the road.
Do I need pillars?: Not necessarily. Posts, piers and rendered pillars are three different structures, and the leaf and the ground decide which one is right.
There is no room for a gate to swing.: Then it should not swing. A slide or a cantilever gets the same opening without needing an arc that is not there.
Will it overhang the sidewalk?: It should not, and that is a design constraint rather than a preference — whatever the gate does happens inside the property line.