Sliding gate for a steel building: five decisions

October 28, 2026  ·  Indumor

1 On a floor track · 2 Hung from an overhead track · 3 Cantilevered.

Take a case. A building 10 meters wide (about 33 ft) has to house a truck and a seed drill, and the gate will be opened by one person, often in the wind and with mud on the ground. With those few facts you can already define most of the sliding gate. These are the five decisions, in the order it pays to make them.

1. The clear opening

First, the hole everything has to pass through. In Argentina, traffic law allows trucks up to 2.60 m wide and 4.30 m high (8.5 × 14.1 ft), and you need margin on top of that to drive in without threading a needle. For our building, an opening 6 m wide by 4.5 m clear height (about 20 × 15 ft) lets the truck and the drill through with room to spare. Always measure the biggest vehicle that will ever come in, loaded, not the one you have today.

2. Which way it slides

A sliding gate needs a clear stretch of wall beside the opening at least as long as the leaf. For a 6 m opening that means 6 m of wall with no windows, no protruding columns and nothing parked there. If there is not that much room, split it into two 3 m leaves that slide to opposite sides. The cantilever gate in the next point needs even more, because its leaf is roughly half again as long as the opening.

3. How it is carried

There are three ways, and each one changes the structure.

• On a floor track. V-groove wheels run on a rail. It is the simplest and cheapest option, but the track sits exposed to dirt.
• Hung from an overhead track. The leaf hangs from trolleys running in a section above the opening, with only a guide left on the floor. The way stays clear, but that track and the beam carrying it take the weight of the gate and the wind, so they are designed together with the building.
• Cantilevered. The leaf rides on roller carriages fixed beside the opening and crosses it in the air, with no track in the way. It is the best choice where there is a lot of mud or snow, but it needs that extra tail and a solid concrete footing for the carriages.

There is a habit on many farm buildings worth breaking: laying the track straight on the floor slab, with no footing of its own and no fall for water. By the first winter it is packed with mud and grit, the wheel rides up, and the gate ends up being shoved open by hand or with the tractor. Don't. The track belongs on its own concrete beam, anchored and leveled, with a slope so the water runs off.

4. Weight, wind and stops

A 6 × 4.5 m leaf with a 100 × 50 × 2 mm tube frame, rails and 0.5 mm corrugated sheet comes to about 350 kg (770 lb). The wheels or carriages carry that weight and are chosen with margin. The wind is carried by something else, the top guides: a 27 m² leaf in a crosswind pushes hard, and the top rollers are what keep it upright.

A sliding gate must have solid stops at both ends of its travel and top guides that will not let it lean. If it comes off its track or carriages it falls sideways, and that is hundreds of kilos.

5. By hand or motorized

Built right, a 350 kg gate on good wheels moves by hand without much effort. A motor makes sense if it opens many times a day or has to be opened from the vehicle. It is sized by the weight of the leaf and the number of cycles, and it comes with photo eyes so the gate does not close on something or someone.

Do you know the width of the opening and which way the leaf can slide? With those two facts and a photo of the front, Indumor can quote the sliding gate with its guides and structure.

← Back to the Knowledge Hub