Measure the clear opening and the ground behind it, and the gate more or less designs itself. That is the useful thing about custom gates in Rangiora: the town runs stand-alone sections from roughly 330 square metres up to 1,127 square metres, plus duplexes, townhouses, older heritage houses and lifestyle blocks out past the edge, and each of those sizes wants a different gate. Group One New Zealand designs, manufactures and installs them, with crews travelling north from our base at Unit 1, 37 Foremans Road, Islington, Christchurch. Sydney Chappell founded the New Zealand company in 2026. Give us the address and the opening width and we will come and look at it.
On a 330 square metre section the driveway is short and the house is close to it. There is often nowhere for a leaf to open into without swinging over the parking space you are trying to get to, which points to a sliding gate running along the boundary, or a cantilever where the ground will not take a track. The gate is also close enough to the street to be part of the elevation, so proportion and infill matter more than they would out of town.
A larger section or a lifestyle block is the opposite problem. The approach is long, there is room for two leaves to open inwards without fouling anything, and the span is wide enough that leaf weight becomes the deciding factor. A double swing suits it, with the motor sized to what the leaves actually weigh rather than to what the catalogue says.
Between those sit the duplexes and townhouses, where the gate is often shared or sits alongside a neighbour’s, and where a pedestrian gate matters as much as the vehicle one.
Call 027 424 0600 to Request a Free QuoteWe proudly serve clients across a range of sectors, including:
Rangiora also has older houses that came well before the current wave of building, and a modern powder-coated panel across the front of one of them looks exactly as wrong as it sounds. A timber gate detailed to pick up what the house and the existing fence already do usually reads better. Our range of materials covers wood, steel, aluminium and stainless steel, so the design is not forced to a single look.
Bring photographs of the house, the fence line and any existing ironwork to the site visit. If the idea in your head is unusual, say so. If your property or commercial site is irregular, tricky, lacking in space, hard to reach or perhaps you have a very specific idea in mind, then we’re happy to talk to you. Essentially, if you can dream it, we can build it.
Environment Canterbury projects that inland areas north and west of Rangiora will become 15 to 25 percent windier in winter and spring by 2090. The strongest winds here are north-westerlies, and winter southerlies bring hard frosts to the plains.
A solid gate leaf is a sail. On an exposed frontage or a lifestyle-block entrance with nothing upwind of it, that load goes straight into the hinges, the posts and, on an automatic gate, the motor. Slatted, louvred or vertical-bar infill lets the wind through and takes years off the wear. It also keeps the gate lighter, which usually means a smaller motor and a lower running cost. Frost is the other consideration: clearances get set so the gate is not binding in July and rattling in January, and fixings are chosen so nothing seizes.
We can provide larger commercial motors reserved for larger, heavier gates, which is what a wide double swing on a rural entrance needs. Our gates are solar powered as well, which saves you energy costs, and on a long approach where the switchboard is a hundred metres from the gate that removes the cable run from the job entirely.
Sloping entrances are common on the district’s edges and are not an obstacle. Our range of safety devices and alternative opening methods allows us to have on sloped ground as well as flat-level.
On quote, every time, and only after the measure-up. What the quote is built from:
Because we manufacture and install your gates ourselves, there are significant savings to be made when choosing the Group 1 team. Nothing is bought in and marked up between the drawing and your driveway.
Contact Group One today – reliable, accredited, and available 24/7.
We’ll come out and take a look at the site and discuss ideas with you about the best solution for your situation. You will get a design to approve before anything is cut, and it is worth having the opening width, the slope, the surface at the gate, whether power reaches it and your preferred style ready for that conversation.
Fabrication follows approval. All our gates are 100% New Zealand made and installed. On installation day the posts go in, the leaf is hung or the track laid, the motor is fitted and the safety devices are set up and tested with you operating the gate. All gates constructed by our team come with a comprehensive warranty and are backed by a full after-sales service.
Waimakariri District Council becomes involved in fencing only where a building consent or a resource consent is needed, or where the fence adjoins Council land. It advises that a resource consent is likely for any fence on the road boundary or on an internal boundary, and a driveway gate is a fence on the road boundary. Nationally, a building consent is not required for fences or hoardings up to 2.5 metres high.
On the smaller sections that distinction matters more than it looks, because an internal boundary can be a few metres from where you want a post. Boundary fences also remain subject to the Fencing Act 1978, which means a neighbour is served a fencing notice and given 21 days before work starts. Confirm your position with the Council, and we will design to it.
Call 027 424 0600 to Request a Free Quote
Section size settles the gate here more often than taste does. A compact townhouse frontage has nowhere for a swing leaf to travel and wants a slider or a cantilever; a large section or a lifestyle block takes a double swing on a long approach; a heritage house wants timber detailed to match what is already standing. Building to order is the only way one outfit serves all three from one town, and that is what a small team designing, making and installing its own work is for. Sydney Chappell founded Group One New Zealand in 2026. Gates are fabricated at Islington in Christchurch and brought north finished. With winter and spring expected to turn windier inland of here, open or slatted infill is often the structural answer on an exposed frontage rather than a stylistic preference. In the company’s own words on its history: “Although Group 1 Line Marking has just started here in New Zealand, as a group we have been operating in Australia for almost 25 years.” The page sets out materials and automation.
The smallest job on our books gets the same site visit, the same drawing to approve, the same in-house build and the same warranty as the widest one. A narrow pedestrian gate on a duplex frontage is not a lesser project; it is just a shorter one, and it still deserves someone standing at the opening with a tape measure before anyone quotes a price.
Phone us on 027 424 0600 or email info@groupone.co.nz, 7am to 3pm Monday to Friday, and we will arrange a site visit in Rangiora. Group One New Zealand, Unit 1, 37 Foremans Road, Islington, Christchurch 8042. NZBN 9429053752833.
Call 027 424 0600 to Request a Free QuoteIt is quoted per gate. Span, material, leaf weight, motor size, power and ground conditions all move it, which is why the visit comes first.
Not always, but it is often the tidiest. A cantilever suits ground that will not take a track, and a single swing can work if there is space on the right side of the opening. We work that out on site.
Yes. Wide spans are a leaf-weight and motor question rather than a limit, and lifestyle-block entrances are regular work for us.
Slat spacing and angle control that. A louvred infill blocks the view from the street while still letting wind through, which is the compromise most exposed frontages want.
We carry parts, hardware, access controllers and remote locks, and we automate pre-existing gates.