Free on-site gate assessment - hinges, posts, and your LiftMaster or Nice gate operator checked before anything is quoted
The assessment is free and the quote is the invoice.
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AfterFast, Reliable Gate Repair Across Lakewood
Gate repair in Lakewood usually costs between $165 and $520 depending on what failed, and most hinge, post, and opener jobs can be finished the same day we arrive. If your gate drags the driveway after a rain or the opener hums without moving the gate, that’s our bread and butter. Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and Lakewood’s older homes are exactly the kind of work we know best. Call (325) 936-1371 and a live person answers, any hour.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Lakewood’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Lakewood homeowners don’t call us because they found the cheapest bid. They call because their gate has outlived three national outfits and they finally want a name they can verify. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop, his address is published, and his license number is right there for anyone to look up. That matters in a neighborhood like Lakewood, where a 1938 Tudor’s driveway gate is as much about the house’s character as the front door itself.
Most of the work we do on Lakewood streets starts with a problem someone else already “fixed.” A hinge tightened without checking post lean. A new opener bolted onto a gate that was racked three inches out of plumb. We show up, find the post was never right in the first place, and we do the job correctly. Every repair carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not done right, one call brings us back, no runaround.
Our Gate Repair Services in Lakewood
Electric Gate Repair
Older Lakewood homes often have electric gate operators that were installed in the late 1990s or early 2000s, back before modern entrapment protection was required. Control boards on those units fail gradually, terminals corrode, and homeowners don’t realize their gate no longer reverses when it meets resistance. We diagnose those boards on-site, and where the board is obsolete, we retrofit a current control system rather than leaving a safety liability in the driveway. We’re certified to service LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gates in Lakewood fail in patterns we can almost set a calendar by. After a dry July, the clay near White Rock Lake has contracted so much that posts have settled. By November, after the fall rains, the same posts have heaved upward and the gate drags. The opener arm bends or the limit settings drift, and the gate stops mid-travel. We check post plumb before we touch the opener, because adjusting the travel limits on a gate whose post has moved is just rescheduling the callback for next month.
Hinge & Post Repair
Lakewood’s 1920s and 1930s homes still carry a lot of original wrought-iron and ornamental steel gates, and those gates hang on hinges that are older than most of the people living behind them. Barrel hinges seize, pins wear egg-shaped, and posts rack out of plumb in the clay. We repair what can be repaired, and we weld on site so the gate never leaves your driveway. Swapping an iron gate for a new steel panel when the hinge post was the actual problem just means you’ll replace it again in five years. We’d rather fix the post.
Gate Realignment
Gate realignment in Lakewood is rarely a one-time job because the soil under the gate never stays the same size. The black clay expands in the wet season and shrinks in the drought, and a gate that latches cleanly in August can miss the latch by half an inch come December. We don’t just adjust the hinges and leave. We check the post bottoms, the footer, and the gate’s level side to side so the realignment holds through the next wet season. A sagging gate’s problem is almost always in the post, not the middle of the panel.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Lakewood
We service and install BFT, Linear, and Viking operators regularly across Lakewood, and we keep common control boards, remotes, and safety parts stocked for faster turnaround. When a Viking keypad fails after a lightning storm or a BFT board gives up on a Sunday night, we don’t want you waiting a week on a parts order. We also retrofit Ghost Controls systems onto older manual gates where the homeowner wants automation without tearing out the ironwork. Local parts inventory means we’re back on your driveway faster than a company shipping from three states away.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Lakewood Homes
- Post heave in expansive clay: Lakewood sits on Dallas’s black clay, and the lake proximity makes the moisture swings worse. A post set in a concrete collar that’s too shallow heaves upward after heavy rain, and suddenly the gate drags or the latch misses.
- Seized hinge pins from lake humidity: Uncoated iron hardware near White Rock Lake rusts fast enough that hinge pins will seize by spring if they’re not lubricated and painted after winter. We see gates that won’t swing freely simply because the pin has rusted solid inside the barrel.
- Obsolete opener control boards: Many Lakewood homes still run LiftMaster and Linear operators from the pre-UL 325 era, meaning they lack the modern entrapment protection that’s now standard. Homeowners often don’t know their gate won’t stop for a child or pet until we test it.
- Alley gate posts that were never plumb: Rear alleys in Lakewood are full of fence posts set decades ago in trenches through the clay, and they’re almost never truly vertical. Quoting a hinge tightening without checking that post lean first means a callback within one wet season.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Lakewood, TX
We charge honest, upfront prices. Hinge and latch repair in Lakewood typically runs $165-$285. Gate realignment, where we check post plumb and reset the gate to level, usually lands between $225 and $420. Post resetting, where we dig out the footer and re-set the post in concrete, runs $380-$650 depending on the depth and whether we’re doing it in clay or through tree roots. Control board replacement on an automatic opener is typically $340-$580 including the board and programming. Prices are quoted and agreed before any work starts, in writing, every time. No trip charge inside the county, and $40 off any repair over $200. Seniors and veterans get 10% off permanently. Call (325) 936-1371 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Lakewood
Our crews serve Lakewood locally and handle gate repair in Highland Park, Dallas, Plano, and Irving as well. If you’re a few blocks over in East Dallas or up near Mockingbird Lane, the same owner-operated crew shows up with the same 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing.
Serving Lakewood, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Lakewood area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Gate Repair in Lakewood
Your gate drags after heavy rain because Lakewood’s expansive black clay soil swells when it absorbs water, and that swelling lifts the gate posts enough to throw the gate out of level by a quarter to half an inch. The gate that closed cleanly in July drags by November because the post has heaved upward, not because the gate itself changed. This is the single most common call we get from Lakewood homeowners every wet season, and the fix starts with checking post plumb before touching the hinges. Call (325) 936-1371 and we’ll check it the same day.
Yes. We retrofit vintage Lakewood gates with modern automatic openers regularly, and the 1930s ironwork is usually the strongest part of the job. The real deciding factors are the gate’s post alignment and its weight. We’ll check the post bottoms, verify the gate swings freely, and then match an opener system to the gate’s actual weight and swing arc. Ghost Controls and DoorKing both make solid retrofit kits for ornamental iron. The price runs $1,450 to $3,200 installed for most Lakewood driveway gates, and you get a written quote before we order a single part.
After a lightning storm, the most likely failure is the keypad’s circuit board or the receiver board inside the LiftMaster control box, not the keypad battery. A close strike can send a voltage spike through the low-voltage wiring and fry the receiver terminal before the keypad ever registers damage. We test the keypad with a known-good transmitter, then check the receiver terminals for voltage. A replacement keypad runs $120-$210 installed, but if the control board also caught the surge, expect $340-$500 total. We’ll diagnose it on-site before quoting anything.
Given Lakewood’s clay soil and the seasonal moisture swings near White Rock Lake, most gates here need a realignment check every 12 to 18 months. A gate that’s never been properly re-set into a deeper footer may need attention twice a year, especially if it faces an alley or sits near a downspout. We check post plumb with a digital level on every service call, because the post lean is the root cause of most sticking and latching problems. The realignment itself is part of a standard service call for most repairs. Call us and we’ll tell you honestly whether you need it now or can wait a season.
In Lakewood, it’s almost always better to reset the post than replace the gate, especially if the gate itself is original ironwork from the 1920s or 1930s. The post is leaning because the footer was too shallow for the clay, and resetting it properly in a deeper concrete footing will correct the gate’s alignment for years. Replacing the whole gate when the post is the problem just gives you a new gate on a bad post, and the new one will lean too. If the gate panel is rusted through or structurally failing, that’s a different conversation. But if the iron is sound, we reset the post and keep your gate. A post reset in Lakewood typically runs $380-$650. Call (325) 936-1371 and we’ll look at it before we quote you a dollar.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Lakewood since 2001.