A cedar yard gate, a pool gate, a steel tube farm gate and a powered driveway gate each fail in their own way, so each one takes a different lock.
The right gate lock depends on the gate. A wood yard gate wants a keyed or padlockable latch, a pool gate needs a self-closing, self-latching latch, a tube farm gate needs a good chain and padlock plus hinges it can't be lifted off, and a powered driveway gate needs a manual release you can find in the dark. Fix any sag first, because no lock works on a gate that doesn't close.
Most side-yard gates, from Willoughby townhouses to Walnut Grove backyards, are wood on a wood post, closed with a black steel latch and a string through a hole so you can open it from the driveway. That string is the whole security system.
A gravity latch is a bar that drops into a catch as the gate swings shut. It latches by itself and keeps the dog in, but anyone can reach over or pull the string. A thumb latch opens from either side, which is handy and equally unlocked. Many gravity latches have a padlock hole, though: D&D Technologies sells its heavy-duty gravity latch as self-latching and padlockable. Drop a small padlock through at night and the latch becomes a lock.
A keyed gate latch saves fumbling with a padlock in the rain. D&D's LokkLatch Deluxe operates and locks from both sides of the gate, and its two six-pin cylinders can be rekeyed to match your doors. For steel-framed gates, the Belgian maker Locinox makes surface-mounted gate locks that bolt onto 40 to 60 mm square tube. One catch: on D&D's LokkLatch Regular, locking the outside push button does not lock the main latch.
A padlockable latch or hasp is the budget route, but it's only as strong as its fixings. Four short screws in a soft cedar post come out with a flat bar before you can say "I thought that was locked." Choose a hasp whose fixings are hidden when it's closed, or through-bolt it with carriage bolts. For which padlock to hang on it, see shed locks and padlocks.
A pool gate is designed around a curious toddler rather than a burglar: it has to swing shut and latch by itself, every time.
Magnetic latches are the usual answer. D&D's MagnaLatch Top Pull is built for toddler-resistant pool gates: permanent magnets pull the latch shut as the gate closes, which avoids mechanical jamming, and its six-pin lock can be rekeyed to match your doors. Locinox makes a magnetic child-safe latch too, the FortiMa.
A latch only latches if the gate reaches it. Spring hinges like D&D's TruClose Heavy Duty self-close gates up to 70 kg; heavier gates want a hydraulic closer that shuts them at a controlled speed. For a pool, pick one that won't hold open, such as D&D's SureClose safety gate closers, which self-close from 90 degrees. Test it the lazy way: open the gate a little, let go and walk off. If it doesn't click shut, it isn't done.
There are two Langleys, and their pool rules differ. Aldergrove, Fort Langley, Walnut Grove and Willoughby are in the Township; Langley City is its own municipality.
The City's online copy is a consolidation, so confirm the current rule with its building department before buying hardware.
On acreages and hobby farms the gate is usually galvanized tube with two jobs: keep livestock in and strangers' trucks out. The goats will test the first job daily. The Prince George RCMP's rural crime prevention tips suggest a driveway gate with a lock that can't easily be cut or broken off, like a puck lock, and a detachment release on rural property crime suggests keeping it locked even when you're home.
The classic, and it will lock a sagging gate that no latch will meet. Its weak points are the cheapest link and the padlock, so match them: a heavy hardened chain on a thin-shackle padlock just moves the weak spot. Wrap it snug, and keep the lock off the ground, out of the winter puddle.
Many tube gates close with a spring-loaded latch pin or slide bolt that drops into a keeper on the post, usually with a padlock hole. The latch is the goat-proof part; the padlock is the people-proof part. If there's no hole, a lockable latch that clamps around the tube adds one, and it beats unwinding a chain twenty times a day.
Most tube gates hang on two hinge pins pointing up, so a locked gate can simply be lifted off, padlock untouched. Turn the top pin to point down and the gate can't rise off both pins at once. Or fit a collar above the top hinge, run the chain through the hinge end as well, or peen the threads on bolt-on pins so the nuts can't be wound off.
A powered gate is held shut mostly by its operator. The lock questions are who gets in, how you get out, and what happens when the power goes.
A keypad at car-window height lets family, the farrier and the feed delivery in without a drawer of remotes. It's one option: an intercom lets you buzz people through instead, and a key switch takes a cylinder keyed to your house. On battery keypads, check the weather rating, change batteries before winter, and give out separate codes so you can delete one without changing everyone's.
An exit sensor or buried vehicle loop opens the gate as you drive up from inside. Safety is a separate system: the binational ANSI/CAN/UL 325 standard for Canada and the US requires gate operators to have two independent, monitored entrapment protection devices for each entrapment zone, typically photo eyes and a sensing edge. If the mower knocks a photo eye out of line and the gate refuses to close, that's the system working.
Operators have a release that disengages the motor so you can push the gate by hand. LiftMaster's LA500 installation manual, for example, covers a manual release, battery backup, and a setting for whether the gate opens or stays shut when the battery runs low. Find your release and its key on a sunny afternoon, not at midnight in a windstorm, and don't keep that key in the car stuck outside the gate.
The Township's Fire Prevention Bylaw No. 6061 requires a civic address readable from 15 metres. Where the house is set back from the road, it must also be posted at the driveway entrance, and rural homes need reflective numbers at least 127 mm tall. If your driveway is an emergency access route (a drive provided for fire department access), it has to be kept clear of fences and other structures, so ask the fire department before gating it. On a powered gate, decide in advance how responders get through: a code, a key switch or a neighbour with a remote.
Most gate locks that "stopped working" are fine. The gate moved.
Wood gates droop at the latch corner with age, and posts in wet ground lean. Once the latch misses the catch by a few millimetres, no lock helps. An anti-sag cable and turnbuckle, run from the top hinge-side corner down to the bottom latch-side corner, pulls a wood gate back into square; a leaning post needs resetting or bracing. Adjustable latches forgive a little movement, not a gate that drops more every year.
Plated steel on a damp fence line rusts, and a stiff latch gets propped open "just for today," which becomes every day. A hasp staple rusted halfway through is half a staple. Replace tired hardware with stainless steel or polymer parts; D&D sells its polymer latches on not rusting, binding or staining.
One key for the house and the gate is the nicest upgrade nobody asks for. D&D says its LokkLatch and MagnaLatch cylinders can be rekeyed by a locksmith to match other door locks. Gate locks built on European profile cylinders usually key alike with other profile cylinders, not a typical North American house key. On an acreage, a master key system goes further: one owner key for everything, and helper keys that open only the gate and barn.
| Lock type | Best for | Security | Weather resistance | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravity or thumb latch | Wood side and yard gates | Low; keeps pets in, not people out | Plated steel rusts; stainless lasts | Lowest |
| Padlockable latch or hasp with padlock | Gates you rarely open | Moderate; set by the fixings and padlock | Good with stainless hardware | Low |
| Keyed latch, lockable both sides | Gates used every day | Moderate; nothing hanging out to cut | Good; polymer and stainless | Moderate, plus rekeying |
| Magnetic latch with self-closing hinges | Pool and child-safety gates | Built for safety; keyed models add security | Good; polymer and stainless | Moderate to high |
| Chain and padlock, or puck lock on a tab | Tube and farm gates | Low to high; set by padlock and hinge pins | Depends on the padlock | Low to moderate |
| Keypad, intercom or key switch | Powered driveway gates | High if codes are managed | Check the rating; batteries dislike cold | Highest; priced with the operator |
Gate locks have no flat price, because the job is rarely just the lock. The number moves with the gate material, whether it needs rehanging before any latch will meet, how many cylinders need keying to match, and the drive out to a rural property. For scale, the lock change and rekey page lists typical Metro Vancouver ranges: $35 to $65 to rekey a cylinder, $25 to $50 each to key several alike, and a service call of $49 to $75 that's applied to the work.
DIY is fine for a gravity latch, with longer screws than the bag supplies. Bring in a locksmith to put the gate on your house key, for a keyed latch that won't line up, a pool gate that has to satisfy a bylaw, or a gate, barn and shop on one key system. Give a rural address with its nearest cross-street, since a five-digit number on a numbered avenue is easier to find with the corner attached, and say if the driveway is gated.
Usually. Most gravity latches have a hole where the drop bar sits in the catch, sized for a small padlock. If yours doesn't, swap it for one that does, or add a padlockable hasp beside it. Either way, fix it into solid wood with long screws, or the whole latch pries off with the lock still on it.
Pin one leaf, then lock the other to it. A drop bolt (cane bolt) on the inactive leaf drops into a keeper or a hole in the driveway, and the active leaf latches or padlocks to it. Without the drop bolt, both leaves push in together and the latch between them is decoration.
Inward, for most gates, because the hinges end up inside the yard where nobody can lift the gate off or knock the pins out. If slope or space means it has to swing outward, use hinges with fixed or capped pins, through-bolted, on the public side.
For a gate you use daily, a keyed latch that locks from both sides, through-bolted rather than screwed: nothing to cut and nothing to carry. For a gate you rarely open, a padlockable latch or hidden-fixing hasp with a good shrouded padlock is cheaper and just as strong. Either way, the gate has to close square first.
Fast Locksmith Langley fits gate latches and hasps, supplies padlocks, and rekeys gate and outbuilding cylinders to match your house key, across Langley City and the Township. Call 778.370.5576 or book online, mention the gate type and whether the driveway is gated, and you'll get a price range before anyone drives out.
Services and guides that go with gate hardware on Langley yards and acreages.