Carlsbad Metal Gates Group is coastal North County's premier specialist in architectural metal gates, specializing in arched courtyard gates, scrollwork walk gates, and custom steel entry gates drawn to a home's existing ironwork. We offer hand-forged pickets and 316 stainless cable with dark steel posts for ocean-view decks.
Our team provides scaled elevation drawings for city review, delivering period-correct ironwork for homes and durable, code-minded entries for both residential and commercial projects. Backed by 14 years in business and our 2-year workmanship warranty, we've completed over 1,326 projects, from a pair of courtyard walk gates to forged fence lines and full deck railing runs.
From tracing the scroll pattern off a window grille to filing the site plan a reviewer asks for, our team handles every detail. Serving Del Mar and neighboring Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch, we treat a gate here as an architectural detail that has to suit the street as well as the owner.
Call us today for a free estimate, and our Del Mar location manager will photograph the ironwork already on your house before anything is drawn.
Olivia, Tudor Revival cottage with a walled courtyard, Del Mar
A courtyard entry with a rusted, mismatched pair of walk gates
Sophie, ocean-view home with an upper deck, Del Mar
An upper deck whose solid wood railing blocked the ocean view from the living room
Investment and duration figures are estimates. Your written quote sets the final price and schedule.
What you can hold us to
Olivia's Tudor Revival cottage with a walled courtyard had a courtyard entry with a rusted, mismatched pair of walk gates. We built two arched walk gates, front courtyard and side yard, in steel, satin black powder coat, with a scroll pattern taken from the window grilles of the house, self-closing hinges and a keyed latch. The pair was an estimated $1,900 to $2,800 and took an estimated 1 to 2 days to hang, and the gates now match the house and close on their own.
Sophie's railing problem was a view problem: at her ocean-view home with an upper deck, a solid wood railing blocked the water from the living room. We installed 56 linear feet of deck railing in 316 stainless cable with dark steel posts, tensioned and checked for deflection, an estimated $7,800 to $11,600 job completed in an estimated 2 to 3 days. Sophie now sees the water from her sofa, through cable that stays bright in the salt air off the lagoon.
A Del Mar gate is designed from the house outward, because the town's two building traditions each call for a different kind of ironwork. Old Del Mar carries the Tudor Revival homes first built by the South Coast Land Company, where a gate reads best with flat bar, simple vertical pickets and visible hinge straps. The Spanish Colonial Revival homes, like the estates inland in Rancho Santa Fe, call for softer arches, twisted or scrolled detail and a darker bronze or black finish against stucco. We draw the gate to the house it fronts instead of picking a catalog panel, which is why our Del Mar jobs are mostly courtyard and walk gates rather than wide driveway pairs.
Del Mar values reward that care: the ACS top-codes the median owner-occupied home value at $2,000,001, and Del Mar is at that cap (ACS 2024 5-year).
Most new fences and walls in Del Mar need city approval before steel is cut, so our drawings are built for review first and the shop second. The city's own forms say a Design Review permit is required for a new wall or fence, and for a replacement that is not like-for-like in material, location and style, and a separate building permit covers fence and wall construction. Smaller fence and wall projects can use Administrative Design Review, where the Planning Director decides unless a neighbor objects during the notice period, which sends the item to the Design Review Board. The city also asks for a site plan showing location, length, height and materials, and a signed mutual agreement when posts or footings sit on a shared property line. We confirm which track applies to your address and prepare the elevations and site plan to suit, including the drawings a Fairbanks Ranch or Rancho Santa Fe owner also needs for a matching estate entry.
Del Mar sits between two lagoons with the Pacific to the west and heavy marine layer much of the year, so every steel gate here is galvanized before it is painted or coated. Our standard is hot-dip galvanized steel first, then a zinc-phosphate prime and a TGIC polyester powder coat 3 to 5 mils thick, which keeps a satin black or bronze finish from blistering at the welds. A hand-forged wrought iron fence gets the same zinc layer under its finish and typically runs an estimated $85 to $130 per linear foot installed.
A custom courtyard or walk gate in Del Mar is typically an estimated $600 to $1,500 per gate installed, and the scrollwork, the arch and the hardware move the price most.
| Del Mar job | Est. investment | Est. time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Custom courtyard or walk gate | Est. $600 to $1,500 per gate | Est. 4 to 8 hours |
| Custom dual swing driveway gate with operator | Est. $4,000 to $8,000 per system | Est. 2 to 3 days |
| Hand-forged wrought iron fence | Est. $85 to $130 per linear foot | Est. 3 to 6 days |
| Stainless cable railing | Est. $75 to $260 per linear foot | Est. 1 to 3 days |
Olivia's two arched gates at an estimated $1,900 to $2,800 show where a matched pair with copied scrollwork lands. Your deposit is capped at $1,000 or 10% of the contract, whichever is less, under California law.
These Del Mar figures are estimates and subject to change. Your written quote after the design visit sets the final price and the schedule, which also depends on how long review takes for your address.
Period homes usually get courtyard entry gates in galvanized steel or ornamental iron and steel fencing with forged pickets where the house already has forged work. Ocean-view decks go to cable and glass view railings like Sophie's.
Our owner lays out every custom gate on the shop table himself, a habit behind all 1,326 of our completed projects, and our Del Mar location manager carries each job from the review drawings to the final fit. Our lead welder copies a scroll from a photo of your window grille rather than a catalog, and every gate carries our 2-year workmanship warranty on welds, hinge alignment, gate sag and gate travel.
We work all of Del Mar, from Old Del Mar's Tudor Revival streets to the Spanish Colonial Revival homes on the hillside, and the same week in Solana Beach on the bluffs and Rancho Santa Fe under The Covenant. Our full list of gate service areas in North County runs north to Encinitas and Carlsbad and inland to Poway and Harmony Grove.
Owners who outgrow a walk gate often move to estate gate entries with pillars like the arched pair we built in Rancho Santa Fe, and a courtyard gate can later take gate automation and an opener. A video intercom, keypad or app entry, an estimated $1,200 to $4,500, lets you buzz in guests from the deck without walking down to the street.
Usually yes for a new wall or fence or a change in material or style, and we confirm the track for your address before drawing.
Yes, we trace the pattern from your window grilles or railings, as we did on Olivia's Tudor Revival courtyard gates.
A custom walk gate typically runs an estimated $600 to $1,500, and your written quote sets the final price.
Not with G90 hot-dip galvanizing inside and out, so hollow tube does not rust from the inside, under every powder coat we apply in Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas.
Most pairs take an estimated 1 to 2 days to hang once design review and fabrication are done, with each post set in a deep bell footing first.
Yes, Sophie's 56 ft upper deck went from solid wood to stainless cable in an estimated 2 to 3 days.
Request a free estimate and we will photograph your ironwork, measure the opening and draw a gate that suits your Del Mar home.
Your local contact
Names, photos and stories are on our about page.
Location manager covering Del Mar
Runs the Del Mar schedule from the first site measure to the final safety test.
Where we work
Call us or send the form, and we will book a site measure and a written estimate.
Calls only, we do not receive text messages.
