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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After
Before
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Before
AfterFast, Reliable Gate Installation Across Highland Park
Highland Park is not like other Dallas suburbs when it comes to gates. The homes are older, the ornamental iron is heavier, and the town’s own building department will not accept a modern square tubular steel substitution where a 1940s round bar belongs. Gate installation here means knowing what Highland Park expects before the first post hole goes in. Hal Gatewood has been standing behind gate work since 2001, and his crew shows up to Highland Park with the fabrication experience those older estates demand. Call (325) 936-1371 for a free estimate, and we will look at your gate in person, measure for the exact steel profile, and write you a price before any work begins.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Highland Park’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
We are an owner-operated shop, not a franchise with a rotating cast of strangers. Hal Gatewood’s name is on every invoice and his address is published for anyone to look up. When you call, a live person answers the phone, day or night, not a voicemail or a call center three states away. That matters in Highland Park, where a gate that will not close leaves a $4 million estate open to Armstrong Parkway and anyone driving past.
Our crew has fabricated and matched ornamental profiles on Highland Park gates that predate the Eisenhower administration. We know what the town’s inspectors look for because we have been through the permitting process on historic properties here. When we replace a hinge post on a 1930s solid bar swing gate, we match the original round bar profile and weld it on site, in your driveway, so the gate never leaves your property. That is the kind of local accountability you get from a shop that still answers its own phone.
Our Gate Installation Services in Highland Park
Swing Gate Installation
Swing gates dominate Highland Park driveways, especially on the older estates where a dual leaf ornamental iron gate spans a wide entry. The clay soil beneath Highland Park heaves every spring and contracts every August, and that movement shifts post footings enough to knock travel-limit alignment out. We pour deeper post footings than the suburban standard, set them with reinforced concrete, and we check alignment after installation because we know the soil here will test it. A typical swing gate replacement in Highland Park runs $4,800 to $11,500 depending on leaf width, ornamental density, and whether we are setting new posts or reusing sound ones.
Security Gate Installation
The security gates we install in Highland Park tend to sit at the street line, often with an integrated keypad and camera access control, and they have to hold up to what Highland Park asks of them: looking appropriate to the architecture while actually doing the job. We install FAAC and LiftMaster operators with entrapment protection, and we will not skip the safety photocells just because a gate is old. Highland Park’s building department checks for exactly this. A full security gate with automation and access control starts around $7,200 and can reach $16,000 on properties where the town requires period-correct profiles.
Double Gate Installation
Double leaf gates are common on Highland Park’s wider driveways, and they carry some specific failure modes here. One leaf drifts out of travel-limit because its post has settled differently than the other. Or a center locking point wears and the two leaves no longer meet flush. We install double gates with matched post footings and independent operators where the driveway width calls for it. Most double gate installations in Highland Park run $6,500 to $13,800, and we write that number down before we start.
Pedestrian Gate Installation
Pedestrian gates around Highland Park are usually matched to the driveway gate, often the same ornamental style, which means the same fabrication standards apply. We build them to match existing profiles rather than welding something off the shelf that clashes with a 1940s entry. A pedestrian gate with matching hardware starts around $1,900 in Highland Park. The whole point of a pedestrian gate is that it looks like it belongs to the property, not like it was ordered from a catalog.
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 Highland Park
Highland Park gates carry operator brands that evolved with the estates, which means we see a lot of legacy FAAC and BFT units still in service, often controlling gates built decades after those operators were discontinued. We service and install FAAC, BFT, LiftMaster, and Linear, among others, and we keep common boards and safety edges on hand so we are not telling a Highland Park homeowner to wait two weeks for a part. If your gate still runs on an old FAAC 400 series, we can often retrofit the operator without replacing the entire gate or the original post.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Highland Park Homes
- Original ornamental iron with freeze-cracked collar joints. The February 2021 ice storm and the freeze cycles since have stress-cracked welds on older solid bar and cast iron gates around Highland Park. We repair those with on-site welding that follows the original profile, not with plate patches bolted over the damage.
- Legacy control boards that will not accept modern safety photocells. Plenty of Highland Park gates still run original operator boards built before entrapment protection was required. Those boards either fail outright or the town flags them during an inspection. We can often retrofit to a current LiftMaster or FAAC board without abandoning the existing motor.
- Clay soil movement knocking swing gates out of travel-limit alignment. Blackland Prairie clay swells and shrinks seasonally, and we see the result all over Highland Park: operators that overheat or strip gears because the posts have shifted. We correct the post footing and then re-set the travel limits, rather than just re-setting the limits and walking away.
- Historic gates with worn hinge posts that no longer hold adjustment. A sagging gate in Highland Park is usually not the panel’s fault, it is the post. We replace hinge posts with a matched profile and a deeper footing, and we do the welding on site so your gate never leaves the property.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Highland Park, TX
Nothing about Highland Park is generic, and the same applies to gate pricing. A basic pedestrian gate starts around $1,900, a single leaf driveway swing gate typically runs $4,800 to $8,000, and a full custom double gate with period-correct ornamental iron and automation lands between $6,500 and $16,000 depending on scale, steel profile, and access control requirements. The single biggest cost driver in Highland Park is fabrication matching: the town will reject modern square tube substitutions, so custom round or flat bar work costs more than a stock panel. We quote every job in writing before any work starts, and that number does not change at the door. Call (325) 936-1371 and we will measure, match, and price your gate honestly.
We Also Serve Cities Near Highland Park
Our shop works throughout the Dallas metro, and we regularly handle Gate Installation in Dallas, Plano, Irving, and Richardson. Highland Park is its own jurisdiction with its own standards, and we treat it that way. You can find more about our broader service area on our Highland Park page. Hal and his crew are already familiar with the streets, the soil, and the architectural expectations from Preston Road to Lakeside Drive.
Serving Highland Park, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Highland Park 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 Installation in Highland Park
In most cases the original gate can stay. We retrofit modern LiftMaster or FAAC operators onto historic Highland Park gates regularly, often keeping the original post and hinge assembly. The gate itself is usually sound; it is the operator and the safety system that need updating. We will tell you honestly if a gate is too far gone, but around Highland Park we more often rescue than replace. Call (325) 936-1371 and we will give you a straight answer.
Highland Park’s building department enforces aesthetic standards that require replacement gates to match the original material profile. A 1940s ornamental gate built from solid round or flat bar stock cannot be swapped for modern square tube without a variance, and those variances are not freely given. We fabricate replacement sections in the original profile and finish them to match, so the gate passes inspection without fighting the town.
Usually it can be corrected. The sag is almost always in the hinge post, not the panel. We replace the post, set it in a deeper reinforced concrete footing, and weld the original hinge assembly back on. In Highland Park’s clay soil, the post is the moving part, and fixing the panel without the post means fixing it twice.
Yes and yes. Highland Park inspectors check for entrapment protection when gate work is permitted, and any operator we install includes safety photocells and automatic reverse. We will not install an automated gate in Highland Park without them, even on a private driveway, because it is both a code requirement and a basic safety matter.
It can make a slide gate more expensive and more finicky, but rarely impossible. Slide gates need a track that stays level, and Highland Park’s expansive clay will heave an inadequately prepared track bed. We typically recommend a cantilever slide design with deeper pier footings when a slide gate makes sense for the driveway. For many Highland Park properties, a swing gate is the more forgiving installation, but we will tell you which fits your specific entry rather than defaulting to one style.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Highland Park since 2001.