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 Richardson
When a gate stops closing in Richardson, you don’t want a call center you want a person who knows that Blackland Prairie clay moves posts around like a slow tide. Gatewood Fence & Gate has repaired, realigned, and rebuilt gates across Richardson for over two decades, from cedar privacy gates off Campbell Road to automated slide gates on the US-75 tech corridor. Whether it’s a sagging hinge, a dead opener, or a gate post leaning toward the flower bed, we show up in a company truck, fix it on site, and hand you a written 90-Day Done Right Promise before we leave. Call (325) 936-1371 and a live person answers, day or night.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Richardson’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Hal Gatewood started this shop in 2001 and his name is still on the door. That matters in Richardson, where a lot of gate work sits on shared property lines, HOA-governed easements, and commercial docks where the gate has to work every single day. We are not a franchise rolling through with a sales quota. We are the people your neighbor off Arapaho Road calls when their driveway gate starts racking out of square. Richardson homeowners keep our number because we own our mistakes, we weld on site instead of hauling your gate to some remote shop, and we answer the phone around the clock.
Dispatch and scheduling run from our Dallas-Fort Worth office, but the crews that show up in Richardson live and work right here. We know the difference between a 1970s ranch-home gate off Yale Boulevard and a 1990s builder-grade panel off Jupiter Road. We know which HOA finish standards apply in the newer master-planned pockets. And we know the clay. That last part alone saves Richardson customers money, because a repair that ignores the soil is a repair you pay for twice.
Every Gate Repair job we complete includes the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If something we fixed fails inside 90 days, one call brings Hal or his crew back. No runaround, no arguing about what the warranty “really” covers. We also carry a published license number and a physical address, so you can look up who you’re hiring before they ever touch your gate. In a city with as many fly-by-night handyman operations as the north Dallas suburbs, that kind of accountability is rare.
We are certified to service nine major gate brands, including LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, and Linear. When Richardson customers call us about an automatic gate fault, we usually have the board or sensor on the truck, not “on order.” That matters when your gate is the only thing between your backyard and a busy Richardson cut-through street.
Our Gate Repair Services in Richardson
This page is for Richardson specifically, which means we’re going to talk about the kinds of gate failures we actually see here not a generic list of services. These four sub-services cover the majority of calls we get from Richardson homeowners and property managers.
Electric Gate Repair
Electric gate repair in Richardson splits into two very different worlds. On the residential side, we fix older LiftMaster and FAAC swing-arm operators on ranch homes from the 1970s and 80s. These units sit exposed to Texas heat, dust, and the occasional ice storm. We see failed capacitors, worn gear boxes, and control boards that no longer recognize their own remote. On the commercial side, we repair slide-gate operators, loop detectors, and card-access systems for tech campuses along US-75 between Campbell and Renner. A bad loop detector there means delivery trucks backing up onto the service road, so we treat those calls as urgent. All work is quoted before we start, and we carry the common boards and sensors for LiftMaster and FAAC so we are not making you wait on a part from a warehouse two states away.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gate repair in Richardson means dealing with more than just the motor. The operator is only as good as the gate it’s pushing. On a wood privacy gate where the post has moved, an automatic opener will keep tripping its obstruction sensor because the gate binds against the ground or the latch. We see this constantly in the Brackenwood and Richland Park neighborhoods, where the clay is especially active. We align the gate first, then we tune the operator. If the sensor eyes have drifted or the force settings are maxed out, we adjust those too. On commercial properties, we bench-test the operator after repair and watch the full open-close cycle at least twice before we leave. Around US-75, a gate that closes halfway and reverses is a security problem by the end of the day, so we treat those as priority calls.
Hinge & Post Repair
Hinge and post repair is the most common residential call we run in Richardson. A sagging gate is almost never a hinge problem by itself. The post is moving. Blackland Prairie clay expands when it rains and shrinks during the droughts that hit North Texas every few years. A cedar post set in that clay will lean, crack, or rot at the base within about 20 to 30 years. Most of the privacy gates in Richardson’s ranch-home neighborhoods are now 30 to 50 years old, which means they’re overdue. We dig out the old footing, set a new post in deeper concrete, and remount the hinges in fresh wood. Sometimes we can save the post by welding a steel brace at the base, but we tell you honestly if replacement is the only repair that will hold. We do not patch a post just to get paid and then come back in eight months. The 90-Day Promise covers the work either way, but Hal would rather fix it right the first time.
Gate Realignment
Gate realignment in Richardson gets overlooked a lot, even by decent general contractors. A gate that drags on the walkway or won’t latch in the striker isn’t “just like that.” The frame has racked. Maybe the hinges wore unevenly, maybe the post moved, maybe the original builder never squared the panel when the house was new in 1982. We square the frame with the gate still hanging in your yard. On wood gates, we may re-cut the diagonal brace or replace a warped picket. On steel and ornamental aluminum gates, we true the frame and shim the hinges. Then we test the latch repeatedly. A gate that closes with a firm click tells you it’s right. If it rattles, we’re not done.
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 Richardson
We service and repair LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, and Linear operators, along with five other major brands. Having factory training across multiple brands matters in Richardson because a tech campus on the east side of US-75 might run FAAC while a residential swinging gate in Canyon Creek uses LiftMaster, and a distribution facility might still run an older BFT. We carry the common boards, sensors, and remote modules for these brands in our local inventory, which shortens turnaround for Richardson customers. If your operator is older and the board is dead, we can usually tell you within the first 20 minutes whether replacing the board makes sense or whether you are better off putting your money into a new operator instead. We won’t push you toward the sale. Hal would rather you spend less and keep the gate you’ve got.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Richardson Homes
- Clay-driven post movement: Fence and gate posts in Richardson’s Blackland Prairie soil heave in wet periods and pull away from the concrete in drought. Once the post moves half an inch, the gate binds. By the time you see a three-inch gap between the post and the concrete, the hinge is carrying all the stress and the frame has started to rack.
- Rotted post bases on 1970s and 80s cedar gates: These board-on-board privacy gates were built before treated lumber was the default and before anyone thought to slope the footing for drainage. Water sits at the base, the wood rots, and the gate sags. The panel can often be saved the post usually cannot.
- Slide-gate rack and pinion drift near US-75: Commercial slide gates along the telecom corridor get hot, dusty, and cycled dozens of times a day. The rack teeth wear, the pinion slips, and the gate grinds or jolts halfway open. We see this on older Richardson warehouses and office parks where the gate has run for 15 years with maintenance only when it fully stopped.
- Photocell and loop detector faults on automated gates: On both residential and commercial gates, the safety eyes drift out of alignment from wind, gate vibration, or a bump from a car. The operator reads that as an obstruction and refuses to close or reverses mid-cycle. A loop detector that stops sensing can leave a gate standing open or, worse, thinking a car is underneath it when nothing is there.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Richardson, TX
We quote every Richardson job upfront, before any work starts, and that number is the number you pay. No trip charge inside the county. For a typical residential gate realignment or hinge repair in Richardson, you’re looking at $180 to $340 depending on whether one post needs resetting or both. Electric gate repairs on residential openers generally run $220 to $480, with control board replacement at the higher end. Commercial slide-gate repairs near US-75 run higher because they often involve rack replacement, loop detector testing, and priority scheduling; expect $450 to $1,100 for a typical mid-size slide gate repair. Every repair over $200 gets $40 off, no coupon required. Seniors and veterans receive a permanent 10% discount on every job. And if another company gave you a written estimate, we’ll give you a free second opinion on it. Call (325) 936-1371 for a firm quote.
We Also Serve Cities Near Richardson
If you are searching for Gate Repair in Richardson, there’s a good chance you’re near the border of one of our neighboring service areas too. We run calls in Addison, Plano, Dallas, and Coppell every week, often the same day. If your property sits just over the line, we still treat you like a neighbor.
Serving Richardson, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Richardson 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 Richardson
The post underneath the hinge is moving, not the hinge itself. Richardson’s Blackland Prairie clay expands when wet and shrinks when dry, and over 30 or 40 years that cycle slowly walks a post out of plumb. Tightening the hinge only pulls the gate tighter into the ground. The repair that lasts is resetting the post in a deeper concrete footing, then rehanging the gate on fresh hardware. Call (325) 936-1371 and we’ll tell you whether the post can be saved or needs to go.
Most of the time, yes. For slide-gate and loop detector work on Richardson’s commercial properties, we stage the repair so the gate can stay in manual operation or partial use while we work on the operator or sensors. On busier sites we schedule the heavy portion of the work during off-peak arrival or departure windows. We will tell you upfront whether your specific gate allows working repairs or whether it has to be locked open for a few hours.
Yes. Commercial automatic gate operators in Texas have to meet UL 325 safety standards, which means periodic testing of the reversing mechanism, photocell function, and proper force settings. A gate that cannot reverse when obstructed is a liability for the property owner. We run that safety check on every commercial repair and document the readings. If the gate fails, we tell you what it costs to bring it into compliance and we do not clear it for service until it passes.
You’re seeing the clay shrink-cone effect. When Blackland Prairie clay dries, it pulls away from the concrete footing and leaves a visible crack around the post. The long-term fix is to remove the old footing, set a new post in a deeper pour with a wider base, and backfill in layers. Surface patching or pouring new concrete on top of the old crack will not stop the movement. We do this exact repair on Brackenwood and Richland Park gates a dozen times a year, and the new footing holds because it goes below the active clay layer.
A grinding, jolting rack and pinion slide gate usually means the rack teeth and the pinion gear are out of alignment, worn, or both. Heat and dust near US-75 accelerate the wear, and once the pinion starts skipping teeth, the gate loses position and the operator fights itself. We inspect the rack for missing or rounded teeth, check the pinion for wear, and adjust the gate’s travel so it stops in the right place. If the rack is too far gone, we quote replacement at the same visit. No estimate surprises.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Richardson since 2001.