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 Access Control Across Fort Worth
Gate access control in Fort Worth typically runs $450 to $2,800 depending on whether you’re retrofitting an existing operator or starting fresh with a phone entry or video intercom system. Most repairs on legacy gates around Wedgwood, Ryan Place, and the Alliance corridor take one visit, and we stock common DoorKing and LiftMaster boards locally so you’re not waiting on a parts truck from somewhere else. Hal Gatewood has worked on Fort Worth gates since 2001, which means he’s seen what our clay soil does to keypads, photocells, and post footings. Call (817) 241-4067 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Fort Worth’s Preferred Gate Access Control Company
The name on the shop is Hal Gatewood, and the shop is down the road. That’s the oldest accountability there is. When a Fort Worth homeowner calls about a keypad that quit after a rainstorm or a slide gate that binds in August heat, Hal or one of his crew shows up in a marked truck with background-checked, uniformed technicians. Not a subcontractor. Not a rotating cast. The person who quotes the job is the person you’ll see at the hardware store later.
Fort Worth customers keep calling us back because we repair before we replace. A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle, and that’s where we start. In Wedgwood alone we’ve reset dozens of posts set in the 1970s and ’80s where the underlying expansive clay has cycled through decades of drought and flood until the post leaned far enough to throw the keypad mount out of level and snap the photocell beam alignment. Another company would have sold a new operator. We dug the footing, reset the post, and recalibrated the existing LiftMaster. That’s the difference between a callback next spring and a gate that still works in five years.
If you’re in Fort Worth and you want a straight answer about your Gate Access Control system, call (817) 241-4067. We serve all of Fort Worth from the Dallas-Fort Worth office, with no trip charge inside the county.
Our Gate Access Control Services in Fort Worth
We don’t sell systems. We fix what you have, and when it’s truly done, we tell you that too. Here’s what that looks like in Fort Worth.
Keypad Entry
A keypad that works after a dry spell and fails after heavy rain is almost always a post alignment problem in Fort Worth. The Blackland Prairie clay under your gate post absorbs winter moisture, swells, and tilts the post far enough that the keypad’s internal contacts or wiring terminals get stressed. We check the post first, then the keypad. Typical keypad repair or replacement in Fort Worth runs $180 to $450, and we quote it before we touch a screwdriver.
Remote Control
When your remote stops opening the gate from the curb but the keypad still works, the issue is usually the receiver board or antenna. On older Fort Worth gates, the receiver may be a Viking or DoorKing unit from the late 1990s that’s no longer supported. We can retrofit a modern receiver into the existing housing without replacing the operator. Remote receiver work in Fort Worth typically runs $150 to $350.
Phone Entry
Phone entry systems let you open the gate from your cell phone, a landline, or a call box at the drive. Fort Worth homes along the Alliance corridor and newer west-side subdivisions are adding these in big numbers, especially on acreage lots where the gate sits too far from the house for a traditional intercom wire. A basic phone entry add-on runs $600 to $1,400 installed, and it works with most operators made after 2005.
Card Reader
Card readers are common on Fort Worth properties with multiple residents or tenant access: duplexes, ADUs, and equestrian properties west of Loop 820 toward Benbrook. The cards themselves rarely fail. What fails is the reader housing, which corrodes in our humidity or gets knocked offline when the post heaves. We service and replace card reader systems from $400 to $1,100 depending on how many credentials you need.
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 Fort Worth
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands, and in Fort Worth we see a lot of DoorKing, Elite, and LiftMaster operators on older homes, plus Viking and Ghost Controls on newer ranch-style properties. Because we stock common boards and safety edges for these brands locally, a Fort Worth repair usually doesn’t wait on a shipped part. If your operator is so obsolete that the manufacturer no longer makes the board, we’ll tell you plainly and show you what a retrofit costs versus a replacement. That’s the straight answer, and it’s free.
Common Gate Access Control Problems We See in Fort Worth Homes
- Clay heave tilts the post and kills the keypad. Fort Worth sits on expansive clay that swells with every wet season. When the post leans, the keypad mount stresses, the photocell beam breaks, and the operator reads a fault. Fix the post first, or you’ll fix the keypad twice.
- Legacy operators stall in ice and burn out control boards. Fort Worth is in a severe ice-storm corridor, and February 2021 proved it. Older operators without modern entrapment protection stall against ice-locked hinges, overheat, and cook the control board. If your operator predates the UL 325 standard, it may be time to retrofit rather than keep patching a 25-year-old board.
- Summer heat expands steel and trips the force limit. When Fort Worth hits 100°F for weeks, metal gates grow long enough to bind at the latch. The operator thinks it hit an obstruction and reverses or locks out the remote. We reset force limits and adjust the gate gap for the season, which solves most false trips without replacing anything.
- Obsolete housings leave dead remotes and dead ends. A surprising number of Fort Worth gates still run on control boards discontinued before 2010. The operator works fine, but no one makes the receiver anymore. We can often retrofit a modern receiver or phone entry system into that same enclosure, saving you the cost of a full operator swap.
Pricing for Gate Access Control in Fort Worth, TX
Here’s the honest range, not the phone quote that changes at your door. A typical keypad replacement in Fort Worth runs $180 to $450. Remote receiver retrofits run $150 to $350. Phone entry add-ons run $600 to $1,400. Card reader systems run $400 to $1,100. A full access control package on a new operator, with phone entry and video intercom, lands between $1,800 and $2,800 depending on the hardware. What affects the price most is whether your existing post is still plumb: if the clay has moved it, we have to reset the post before any access control work makes sense. Every quote is written down and agreed to before we start. We don’t change it at the door, because our name is on the shop and the shop is down the road. Seniors and veterans get 10% off, and any repair over $200 takes $40 off.
We Also Serve Cities Near Fort Worth
If you’re in Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Hurst, or Kennedale, we come to you too. The same clay soil and the same ice storms affect gates all over Tarrant County, and we know the failure patterns from one end of it to the other. Most calls get a same-week appointment, and no trip charge inside the county.
Serving Fort Worth, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Fort Worth 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 Access Control in Fort Worth
Because the Blackland Prairie clay under your gate post swells with moisture and tilts the post out of plumb, which stresses the keypad wiring and mount. The keypad itself is usually fine. The first step is checking the post with a bubble level; in most Fort Worth homes with this symptom, the post has moved enough to pull the keypad off its contacts or crack the housing seal. We fix the post first, then the keypad if it actually needs it. Call (817) 241-4067 for a free estimate on a post reset and keypad check.
Usually yes. The gate itself is rarely the problem. What matters is whether the hinge post is still plumb and whether the existing operator can accept a modern phone entry input. Many Ryan Place gates have solid ornamental iron on decent steel posts, and we can retrofit a phone entry module into the existing enclosure without touching the gate. If the post has heaved, we reset it first. A phone entry retrofit on a gate like that typically runs $600 to $1,200.
Probably not. In Fort Worth’s July and August heat, the steel gate expands enough to bind on the rack and pinion, which sends a false obstruction signal to the operator. The control board reads that as a fault and locks out the remote. Most times we adjust the gate gap, reset the force limits, and the board runs fine. If the board has overheated repeatedly, that’s a different story. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll diagnose it on site.
Neither, in most cases. A sagging gate in Wedgwood nearly always means the hinge post has heaved out of plumb from decades of clay movement. We responded to a Wedgwood home where a 1980s ornamental swing gate with a LiftMaster operator had stopped responding to the keypad. The hinge post was leaning 3 inches out of plumb, which pulled the gate off the safety photocell beam and stripped the operator’s drive gear. We reset the post in a deeper concrete footer, re-hung the gate, recalibrated the operator’s force limits, and added a new loop detector before pairing the homeowner’s phone entry system. The gate didn’t need replacing. The post did.
A loop detector is buried wire under the driveway that senses a vehicle’s metal mass and tells the gate to open or hold; a photocell sends an infrared beam across the gate opening and stops or reverses the gate when the beam breaks. In Fort Worth, clay heave frequently misaligns the photocell, and loop detectors get severed by tree roots or driveway resurfacing. Both are safety devices on modern operators, and when one fails, the gate usually refuses to close on its own. We test both on every access control call. For a fast diagnosis, call (817) 241-4067.
Get Your Fort Worth Gate Access Control Working Again
If your keypad quit after the last rain, your remote stopped reaching the operator, or you want phone entry on a gate that’s older than your truck, call (817) 241-4067. Hal or one of his crew will show up, figure out what’s actually wrong, and give you a written price before any work starts. Every job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not done right, one call brings us back. No runaround, no fine print.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Fort Worth since 2001.