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 Motor & Opener Across Arlington
Gate motor and opener repair in Arlington usually runs $240-$520, and the problem is rarely just the motor. It’s more often the black clay soil under the post, the heat warp in the frame, or a control board that took a lightning hit. We’re Gatewood Fence & Gate, and since 2001 our Gate Motor & Opener team has serviced the operators, arms, racks, and loops that quit at the worst possible moment, which in Arlington usually means a 105° afternoon or right before you have to leave for work. Call us at (817) 241-4067 and a live person picks up. That’s Hal’s crew, not a voicemail tree.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Arlington’s Preferred Gate Motor & Opener Company
Arlington isn’t a generic suburb. The streets here span everything from 1970s ranch tracts in east Arlington to huge new builds out by Lake Arlington and Viridian, and the gate problems change block by block. We drive these neighborhoods constantly, and our techs know where the clay is meanest, where the storm water pools, and where the heat turns a steel gate into a hot, binding trap.
Hal Gatewood founded this shop in 2001 and his name is still on every invoice. He is not a franchise. When someone in Arlington calls with a stuck gate, the person who answers knows the difference between a Viking arm issue and a bad limit switch. Every job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not right, we come back. No runaround, no argument, no “well, that’s a different problem now.” That’s why people in Arlington who get burned by big outfits end up calling us second, and staying after that.
We answer the phone 24/7 with a live person. A fence gate stuck open at 11 p.m. is not something you can sleep on. Our techs carry common boards, arms, and remotes for Linear, DoorKing, LiftMaster, and Ghost Controls on the truck. When we tell someone in Arlington we’ll be there in the morning, we mean a specific morning, not “sometime next week.”
Our Gate Motor & Opener Services in Arlington
Motor Installation
Most Arlington homes have swing gates on a single driveway or a wide double gate, and the operator gets sized to the gate’s weight and the post’s depth. We don’t sell you a motor off a shelf and walk away. We measure the gate, check the hinge side, call out the soil condition, and then sell you the right operator. A motor install on a standard residential swing gate in Arlington typically runs $650-$1,400 including the operator, arm, and wiring.
Motor Repair
Arlington’s weather cycles are hard on motors. Heat expansion causes gates to bind, the motor strains against the resistance, and limit switches lose their range. The control board takes power surges from summer storms. We repair what’s repairable, replace what’s not, and we don’t upsell you to a new motor when a limit adjustment or a new capacitor fixes it. Repair calls in Arlington run $85-$240 on average, and our estimate is quoted and agreed before we touch the gate, every time.
Linear Motor
A linear arm motor drives a gate in a straight line, and it hates misalignment more than anything. On Arlington clay, the post moves a half inch, the arm binds, and the motor burns itself out trying until the breaker trips. We can often salvage the operator by resetting the post properly, then dialing the limit back in. Linear arm replacements in Arlington run $300-$800, plus the post work if the footing needs redoing.
Slide Motor
Slide gates on tracks are less common in residential Arlington, but we install and repair them all over the city, especially on larger lots and small acreage homes near Kennedale and down along I-20. Slide motors in Arlington run $575-$1,600 installed for residential, and commercial slide motors push higher depending on the operator’s duty cycle. Rack and pinion wear shows up as jerky, stuttering movement, which is the gate telling you the operator is about to eat itself.
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 Arlington
We service, repair, and install Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing, plus LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Mighty Mule, and Elite. Our warehouse stocks common boards, remotes, and arms for these brands so we’re not waiting on a two-week ship for a part your gate needs now. When an Arlington customer has a Ghost Controls arm fail, we don’t tell them to Google it. We know what fails on the arm, we know the part number, and we often have the replacement on the truck. That’s the difference between fixing a gate and chasing a gate.
Common Gate Motor & Opener Problems We See in Arlington Homes
- Gate won’t close in spring because the post heaved. Arlington black clay swells with spring rains, lifting posts just enough to knock the swing arm out of alignment. The operator trips its safety and stops. Fix the post first, then the operator, or you’ll do both again next year.
- Gate binds in July heat. Metal frames expand, cedar boards warp, and the gate drags the post or the latch. The motor sees the resistance, draws more current, and either trips or burns its limit switch out. We reset clearances, replace warped boards, and recalibrate the limits.
- Control board dies after a storm. North Texas storms bring lightning and power surges that take out operator boards if the surge protection is old or absent. Arlington sits squarely in hail and lightning country, so this is a springtime call we know well. New board plus a surge protector runs $200-$500.
- Remote stopped working, but the motor is fine. Sometimes it’s the receiver, sometimes the button, sometimes a dip switch got knocked. We bring a new remote, test the photo eyes, and if a universal remote won’t pair, we know which proprietary receiver to order before the customer waits two weeks.
Pricing for Gate Motor & Opener in Arlington, TX
Arlington prices aren’t Dallas prices, but they’re also not Rockwall or Weatherford. Here are real numbers for this market. Motor repair: $85-$240. Motor replacement with install: $650-$1,400 residential. Slide operator replacement: $575-$1,600. Linear arm replacement: $300-$800. A full post reset with new concrete footing, including re-hanging and re-calibrating the gate: $600-$1,200 in Arlington’s clay-heavy soil. The big variable is always the post and the soil condition, never some mystery fee. We quote a price, you agree to it, and that’s what you pay. Free estimates on every job. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll come look at your gate, tell you what’s wrong, and write the number down before we touch a wrench.
We Also Serve Cities Near Arlington
Besides Arlington, our Gate Motor & Opener in Arlington service regularly covers gate work in Kennedale, Fort Worth, Hurst, and Haltom City. If your gate is at the edge of Arlington’s city limits or out past the loop toward Kennedale, we still come. We live here too.
Serving Arlington, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Arlington 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 Motor & Opener in Arlington
Your post is moving. Arlington’s black clay soil swells with spring rain, heaving the hinge post up and pushing the gate out of alignment. The operator’s safety system reads the misalignment, trips, and refuses to close the gate. The fix is to reset the post in a deeper footing with gravel backfill, then recalibrate the operator. If you only reset the limits, the post moves again in summer drought and you’re back to square one. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll put eyes on it.
Yes, and not just for power outages. Arlington sits in North Texas storm country, and gate operators near mature tree lines or older service drops get hit by surges during storm season. A battery backup keeps the gate cycling during an outage and protects the control board from brownouts. It’s a roughly $150-$400 add-on depending on the operator, and it pays for itself the first time the power goes out while your car is stuck inside.
If your gate is wide, heavy, and sits on a long driveway without mains power near the road, you need a solar operator sized to the gate’s weight and daily cycles, not just its width. A typical 14-foot tube-steel farm gate around Arlington runs 350-600 pounds, which needs a heavy-duty swing arm and a solar panel with enough panel wattage and battery amp-hours to run the motor on cloudy weeks. We install solar operators with the panel mounted high, aimed south, and we size the battery so the gate runs at least 20 cycles on a full charge. A solar package for a wide Arlington farm gate runs $900-$1,800 installed.
First, you put the gate on a maintenance schedule before the event season starts. Commercial slide gates near the AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field corridor open dozens of times an hour on event days, and that cycle count wears rack and pinion teeth, loop detectors, and drive belts fast. We inspect and adjust the gates, tighten the rack, replace the sacrificial parts before they snap, and put a battery backup in so a single power blip doesn’t strand the gate open. A commercial maintenance contract in Arlington runs $120-$250 per visit, depending on the gate’s size and how many operators you have.
Usually the post can be saved. On Arlington clay, shifted posts are the norm, not the exception, and we reset the existing post in a deeper, wider footing with gravel backfill and concrete, then remount the operator and dial the limits back in. We only replace a post if it’s rotted, split, or so far out of plumb that resetting it won’t hold. That call runs $600-$1,200, and it’s a fraction of what a full gate replacement costs. Call (817) 241-4067 for a free estimate on your gate, post, and operator - we’ll tell you straight what it needs.
We’re local to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and our crews serve Arlington every weekday, so most repair calls in Arlington are scheduled within 24 hours. Emergency calls, like a gate stuck open or a car trapped in the driveway, get prioritized. Call (817) 241-4067 and a live person answers, any hour.
Black Clay, Heat, and Hail: Why Arlington Gates Fail Differently
Arlington sits on Vertisol soils, the same expansive black clay that hits Dallas and Grand Prairie, with shrink-swell cycles so aggressive that gate posts heave visibly from season to season. In spring, the clay swells and lifts posts. In August, it bakes and shrinks, leaving a slight gap around the footing. That movement is why Arlington gates stop latching, why swing arms bind, and why a perfectly good Linear operator burns out a limit switch within a season of the post moving. The repair that ignores the post is a repair you’ll pay for again. Our rule is simple: check the post first, then the operator. And on clay like Arlington’s, that means setting posts below the active soil zone, in concrete with drainage gravel at the base, so the wet season doesn’t push them up.
Add Arlington’s summer heat to the equation and the problems compound. A black steel gate in direct sun on a 105° day expands enough to drag against the latch post or the ground. Cedar gate boards warp if they were ever installed green or left unsealed. The motor strains harder, draws more current, and trips its thermal protection. That’s the out-of-nowhere “gate stopped halfway” call we get every July. And in spring, when North Texas hail and lightning roll through, the control boards on automated gates catch transients from the grid and die. We install surge protection on every operator we touch in Arlington, because a $35 surge suppressor beats a $280 control board every time.
Out near Viridian, our tech replaced a LiftMaster LA500 swing gate operator on a wide driveway entrance after the hinge post heaved in spring rains and threw the gate out of alignment, binding the arm and tripping the safety photocell. We reset the post in a deeper footing with gravel backfill, mounted a new linear motor, and added a battery backup so the gate kept cycling during storm outages. That job took a day and a half and it still works because we fixed the post and the operator together. Out here, you don’t fix one without the other.
Why We Don’t Replace What We Can Repair
National outfits like to sell new operators because it’s easier to bolt on a new motor than to figure out why the old one failed. We don’t work that way. Most Arlington gate opener failures come down to three things: the post moved, the limits drifted, or the board got smoked. Two of those three are repairable for a fraction of a new motor. A limit switch adjustment is $85. A board replacement is $250. A new post footing is $700, but that’s the repair that makes the other repairs stick. Hal has been at this since 2001 and his default answer is fix it, not replace it. That’s why our Google reviews in Arlington keep mentioning the same thing: the other guy wanted $1,200 for a new motor, Gatewood charged $200 and fixed it in an afternoon.
We weld on site, in your driveway, not in some shop across town. If your gate’s steel frame cracked at the hinge or the motor bracket sheared, we bring the welder and fix it there. A cracked gate bracket doesn’t mean a new gate. It means ten minutes under a hood and a gusset plate.
Every repair carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If the gate fails again within 90 days of our repair, we come back and fix it free. Most companies won’t put that in writing. We do, on every invoice, in plain English. The name on the invoice is Hal Gatewood. The shop is local. You can drive to it and look him in the eye. That’s the oldest accountability there is.
Strong Local Reputation and a Real Person on the Phone
When you call Gatewood Fence & Gate at (817) 241-4067, a live person picks up. Not an automated tree. Not a call center in another state. A person who knows Arlington’s neighborhoods and the gate brands we service, and can answer simple questions without putting you on hold. We answer 24/7 because a broken gate at midnight is a real emergency, and the customer who calls from Arlington’s Dalworthington Gardens neighborhood expects someone to answer, not a voicemail.
We offer free estimates, a free second opinion on any written estimate another company gives you, $40 off any repair over $200, no trip charge inside the county, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. If you live near Pioneer Parkway or in the neighborhoods off Park Row, you’ve probably seen our truck. We don’t advertise with billboards or slick campaigns. We get called because a neighbor tells a neighbor, “Call Hal. He answered the phone, showed up on time, and fixed it for half what the other guy quoted.”
Schedule Your Gate Motor & Opener Repair in Arlington Today
Your gate isn’t going to fix itself, and in Arlington’s clay and heat, it’ll probably get worse. Whether it’s a gate stuck open in the Woodland West area, an operator that quit near Lake Arlington, or a commercial slide gate burning through rack teeth by AT&T Stadium, call Gatewood Fence & Gate at (817) 241-4067 and we’ll come look. Free estimate, up-front price, no surprises. We’ll tell you what’s wrong, what it costs, and we’ll write it down before we start. That’s how we work, and it’s why Arlington calls us first.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Arlington and the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2001.