While residential driveway gates offer homeowners many benefits, one great benefit they offer all families is increased home security. All driveway gates can deter home intruders by adding an extra obstacle for them to bypass before they can gain entry into your home. In addition, many home intruders may simply see this locked gate and walk past your home and choose an easier target.

However, there are several decisions you can make during the gate design process to help ensure your driveway gate protects your family from home break-ins as efficiently as possible.

There are many gate material options that are both attractive and secure, like wood and aluminum. However, nothing beats the strength of steel when you want a gate that is as secure from intruders as possible. While determined thieves can use tools to cut or break any gate material, steel is very strong and much more difficult to break than wood or aluminum.

When choosing your steel gate design, maximize security by choosing a gate that is as tall as possible - this works to deter climbing. To further limit an intruder's ability to climb the gate, ensure that horizontal support bars are placed as close to the top of the fence as possible.

If you would like a gate with the strength of steel, but dislike the appearance of steel gates, then consider a composite gate. These gates have steel cores that are coated in PVC. The PVC is available in many colors that can complement your home design, and these gates come in many styles that steel gates do not.

Residential driveway gates typically swing open or slide open. Both gate styles can be very secure when the right gate operator is chosen.

For the most secure slide gate, choose a hydraulic rail drive operator with a solenoid lock. The solenoid lock prevents the gate from being forced open horizontally. While sliding gates with chain drive operators can be made secure, they are not nearly as secure as sliding gates with hydraulic rail drive operators. A determined home intruder can cut their chains, and then force them open.

A swing-style gate is most secure when equipped with a pad mount operator. A pad mount operator's steel arms make it very difficult for intruders to force the gate open.

An easy way to increase the security of any residential driveway gate is to choose a very secure gate lock. While there are many gate lock styles, magnetic gate locks are considered very secure. This lock will become magnetized when electricity is sent to it by your gate's power supply. These locks cannot be picked, as many traditional locks can. In addition, it takes more than 1,200 pounds of sheer brute force to open the average magnetic lock.

The only drawback of magnetic gate locks is that they will lose their magnetism and automatically unlock if the gate loses power. This makes it important to ensure that your electronic gate power supply is equipped with a backup battery when you have a magnetic gate lock. You can also couple your magnetic gate lock with a traditional lock that will stay locked in the case of a fence power outage.

Any driveway gate can make your home more secure from home intruders. Many will simply see the gate as an additional obstacle that makes your home not worth breaking into, and they may move on to the next target. When you follow these three tips for designing the most secure residential driveway gate possible, you can make your yard and home even more secure.