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 Plano
A sagging gate in Plano usually isn’t a hinge problem. It’s a soil problem. The Blackland Prairie clay under most of this city swells when it rains and shrinks hard in August, and that slow breathing works even deep-set gate posts out of plumb year after year. Gate repair in Plano, TX starts with the post footing, not the hardware. Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and he’ll tell you the same thing at your driveway before he touches a wrench. Call (979) 291-0947 and a live person answers, day or night.
Most Plano gates fail because the post that carries the hinge side has wandered. You can swap hinges, shim the latch, even replace the panel, and eighteen months later the gate drags again. That’s what we mean when we say we’re a repair-first shop. We excavate the footing, re-set the post below the shrink-swell zone, and then re-hang the gate so it actually swings. This is the repair that holds.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Plano’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every invoice. He’s been owner-operated since 2001, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every job in writing, not buried in fine print. If the gate binds again, one call brings him back. No runaround, no third-party warranty department.
Plano homeowners deal with a specific headache: HOA architectural review. In neighborhoods like Willow Bend and Kings Ridge, the covenant specifies black powder-coated ornamental iron, down to the hardware finish. Show up with the wrong panel or a mismatched hinge and the repair gets rejected after it’s installed. We work with those specifications every week. Hal’s crew knows the finish and material requirements for Gate Repair in Plano because we’re local, not a rotating cast from a metro dispatch board.
Every call is answered by a live person around the clock. Not a voicemail, not an offshore call center. When your automatic gate dies at 10 p.m. and your car is stuck on the wrong side, you want the person who picks up to actually know what a Viking opener sounds like when the capacitor fails. That’s us.
- Locally owned and owner-operated since 2001, with a published address and license number anyone can look up.
- 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing on every job.
- Live person answers 24/7, not a queue.
- On-site welding means your gate stays in your driveway, not hauled to a shop.
- Upfront pricing, quoted and agreed before any work starts.
Our Gate Repair Services in Plano
Most of what we do in Plano falls into four categories: electric openers, automatic gate mechanics, hinge and post work, and realignment. The city’s older west-side subdivisions and the newer Legacy-corridor developments fail differently, and we carry parts for both.
Electric Gate Repair
Plano’s higher-end subdivisions run automated driveway gates on LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking openers. When a control board shorts or a limit switch drifts, the gate either won’t close or reverses mid-cycle. We stock common boards and sensors for all nine brands we service, so we’re not waiting on a three-day part shipment while your gate sits open. A typical electric gate diagnosis and board replacement in Plano runs $285-$520.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gates in Plano face a specific enemy: ice and thermal cycling. Winter ice storms add freeze-thaw stress to motor housings and worm gears, and the summer heat pushes capacitor and circuit failures. If your opener runs but the gate barely moves, the capacitor is usually the culprit. If it hums and trips a breaker, it’s the motor start winding. We test on-site, quote the repair before touching anything, and carry replacement motors for most FAAC and LiftMaster swing and slide operators. Automatic gate motor replacement in Plano typically runs $480-$1,150, depending on the operator type and arm configuration.
Hinge & Post Repair
This is the defining repair in Plano, and we’ll say it plainly: if the hinge post is out of plumb, the gate will never hang right until the post is re-set. On Blackland Prairie clay, posts set in concrete can wander more than an inch per year. That means digging out the old footing, boring below the shrink-swell zone, setting the post in properly compacted and drained material, and then re-hanging the gate to swing true. In Kings Ridge, we reset a twisted hinge post on a black powder-coated ornamental steel swing gate where the clay had contracted in August and re-swelled in April, leaving the gate dragging on the latch side. Our crew poured a new post footing below the shrink-swell zone and re-hung the existing LiftMaster opener, then recalibrated the travel limits so the safety photocell cleared the new arc. Post re-set with welding and re-hang in Plano runs $350-$820, depending on depth and concrete condition.
Gate Realignment
A gate that binds at the latch, scrapes the ground, or gaps unevenly at the top is rarely a hinge problem alone. Realignment means checking the post plumb first, then adjusting hinge geometry, latch height, and opener travel limits so the entire system works as one unit. On Plano’s ornamental iron gates, we often realign and reinforce the frame with on-site welding rather than replacing panels that don’t need replacing. Realignment-only service in Plano typically runs $185-$385.
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 Plano
We’re certified to service nine major gate and opener brands, and we keep common parts for FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking on the truck specifically because Plano’s automated gates skew toward European and commercial-grade operators in the Legacy corridor. If your opener is a LiftMaster, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, or Mighty Mule, we carry those parts too. When a part isn’t on the truck, we source it same-day from local suppliers, not from a warehouse three states away. The gate gets fixed while the problem is still in front of us, not days later.
Our Gate Repair team handles everything from a stuck pedestrian gate to a full driveway swing system.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Plano Homes
- Posts walking out of plumb. The clay under Plano swells in spring and contracts in July and August. A concrete-set post becomes a lever in the mud, and the gate drags on the latch side within two or three seasons. The fix is a deeper footing below the shrink-swell zone, not another bag of concrete around the old one.
- HOA finish mismatches. In Willow Bend, Kings Ridge, and the Legacy-area subdivisions, the covenant mandates black powder-coated ornamental iron to match the community perimeter fence. A cedar replacement panel or a galvanized hinge will get the repair rejected at architectural review, even if it’s functionally identical. We pull the HOA spec before ordering materials.
- Solar opener failure on long driveways. Plano’s acreage-style entrances and long driveway runs often use solar-charged gate openers because mains power isn’t practical at the road. Cloudy spring weeks leave the battery discharged and the gate dead-stuck. We size solar panels and battery banks for the actual gate mass and cycle count, not the manufacturer’s best-case chart.
- Weld fatigue at the hinge joint. Heavy ornamental steel gates in Plano, especially those on irregular clay that flexes seasonally, develop fatigue cracks at the hinge-side frame welds. We weld on-site, grind smooth, and repaint to match the powder coat. Gate stays in your driveway, not hauled off.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Plano, TX
Here’s what Plano homeowners should expect. A service call and diagnosis runs $65-$95, and that’s credited toward the repair when we do the work. No trip charge inside the county. Hinge replacement with post shimming runs $220-$410. Full post re-set on Blackland clay runs $350-$820 depending on how deep the old footing goes. Automatic opener board or limit switch replacement runs $285-$520, and a full motor replacement runs $480-$1,150. Every price is quoted and agreed in writing before any work starts, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise covers every repair. Seniors and veterans get a standing 10% discount, and any repair over $200 takes $40 off. Call (979) 291-0947 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Plano
Beyond Plano, our crews regularly work in Allen, The Colony, McKinney, and Prosper. If you’re just outside the city line and need a post re-set on clay or an automatic opener rebuilt, call the same number: (979) 291-0947.
Serving Plano, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Plano 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 Plano
The concrete wasn’t deep enough. Blackland Prairie clay expands when wet and shrinks when dry, and the active shrink-swell zone in Plano commonly runs 4 to 7 feet down. A footing set at 24 or 36 inches sits entirely inside that moving layer, so the clay heaves it upward and sideways over a few seasons. The fix is to core below the shrink-swell zone, usually 48 to 72 inches depending on gate weight and soil core, use a properly drained footing, and only then re-hang the gate. If your post keeps leaning, the footing is the problem. Call us for an exact quote: (979) 291-0947.
Almost certainly not, and you shouldn’t try without checking first. Willow Bend’s HOA covenants specify black powder-coated ornamental iron for gate and fence continuity, down to hardware finish. A cedar panel will be rejected at architectural review, and you’ll have bought lumber you can’t use and still need an iron panel made to spec. We verify the HOA requirement before we quote, order the correct material, and weld on-site. Call (979) 291-0947 and we’ll confirm your neighborhood’s spec.
It can, but only if the panel and battery are sized for the actual gate mass and your sun exposure. Plano’s long-driveway estates often mount solar panels in partial shade, and manufacturer charts assume full sun and a light aluminum gate. A heavy ornamental steel gate on a cloudy spring stretch will drain the battery in three days. We size the array and battery bank for the real load, and we build in reserve capacity for Plano’s overcast weeks. Bring us your gate dimensions and gate weight, and we’ll give you a real number. Call (979) 291-0947.
For a heavy driveway or farm gate in Plano, the footing needs to bottom out below the active shrink-swell zone. In practice, that means 48 to 72 inches, with the hole bell-shaped at the bottom and the post core drilled into undisturbed clay below the moving layer. Anything shallower will heave within a few seasons. We excavate, drill, set, and re-hang, and we warranty the post with our 90-Day Done Right Promise. Call (979) 291-0947 for a free site evaluation.
The most common cause on Plano gates is post movement, not the photo-eye. If the hinge post has drifted even half an inch out of plumb, the gate’s travel arc changes and the safety edge or photocell reads the new path as an obstruction, triggering auto-reverse. You can clean the lenses and re-test all day, but the gate will keep reversing until the post is re-set. That’s the first thing we check on any intermittent-reverse call in Plano. Call (979) 291-0947 and we’ll verify it on-site.
Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for Plano Gate Repair
If your gate is sagging, binding, or stuck, call (979) 291-0947. A live person answers. We’ll show up in the window we give you, diagnose what’s actually wrong, and quote the repair in writing before any work starts. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every job we do in Plano. That’s not a slogan. It’s the oldest accountability there is.
Written by Hal Gatewood, owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Plano and surrounding North Texas communities since 2001.