How Gatewood Fence & Gate Was Born in Fort Worth
Hal Gatewood didn’t wake up one morning dreaming about gates. It happened the way most honest things do: gradually, then all at once. He spent years in the trades watching people get treated poorly by companies that had no stake in the neighborhood. A gate would fail, the homeowner would call a big operation, and someone would show up in a rented truck, quote a replacement, and disappear. Hal kept seeing the same pattern: the sag, the dead opener, the hinge post leaning like it was tired. And every time, the answer was replace, replace, replace.
Then came the job that changed things. A homeowner in Fort Worth had been quoted thousands for a full gate replacement when the real problem was a post that had shifted and a hinge that had worn out. Hal fixed it in an afternoon. The gate worked. The bill was fair. And the homeowner kept saying, “I didn’t know anyone still fixed things.” That sentence stuck. It planted something. The name was already on the shop, and the shop was down the road. That’s the whole idea in one line.
Hal Gatewood’s Personal Connection to the Gate Repair Trade
Hal came up around metal and wood and the smell of cutting oil. In the beginning, the work was just work: show up, fix the thing, go home. But somewhere along the way, he started noticing how a gate behaves when it’s right. The way it swings without groaning. The way the latch catches clean. The way an opener hums instead of grinding. Those small things started mattering more than they probably should. It became a point of pride he didn’t fully understand and didn’t try to explain.
He learned the trade the old way, from tradesmen who had been doing it for decades. The work was physical and occasionally loud. Sparks from the welder. The crack of a post coming out of old concrete. The particular weight of a sagging gate when you lift it by hand to see where the hinge is failing. He learned to listen before he looked, because a gate tells you what’s wrong if you’re patient enough to hear it. A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle. Fix the panel without the post and you’ll fix it twice.
What keeps him at it is the satisfaction of a thing working properly. There’s no ceremony in it. Just a gate that opens when you push the button and closes when you expect it to. He’d tell you he’s not sure what he’d do without this work. Probably something else with his hands. Maybe less welding. But it’s hard to imagine. The family name is literally in the trade, so walking away from it never made much sense.
Over the years, he’s repaired gates that other companies wanted to replace, welded on site rather than hauling a gate away for two weeks, and gotten genuinely irritated on behalf of homeowners who found safety sensors somebody bypassed. That irritation is part of the job description. The name is on the shop, and nothing leaves the shop that he wouldn’t stand behind.
Meet Hal Gatewood - The Person Behind Every Job
Hal Gatewood is the Owner & Founder of Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Fort Worth and the surrounding communities. He’s been working with gates and fences since 2001, learning the trade hands-on and building a reputation one repaired hinge at a time. He works with Ghost Controls and Mighty Mule opener systems regularly, and he’s seen just about every way a gate can fail in the North Texas climate: heat-soaked opener boards, post rot after wet springs, hinges worn out from wind and clay soil movement.
He’s a straight talker. He’d rather tell you the truth about a repair than sell you something you don’t need. On his own time, he keeps his hands busy and his projects practical. There’s not much guesswork about him: show up, do the work, charge what was quoted, and answer the phone when it rings. That’s not a marketing line. That’s how he works. If you hire Gatewood Fence & Gate, the person whose name is on the truck is the person accountable for the outcome. Hal puts his name on the work because he plans to be around long after the job is finished.
Our Promise to Fort Worth Homeowners
The promise is simple because it has to be. First, the price we quote is the price you pay, and it’s agreed upon before any work starts. No surprises after the fact. Second, we use quality parts, brands like DoorKing and Mighty Mule, and we don’t cut corners on hinges, posts, or sensors. Third, we stand behind our work. The Gatewood guarantee is ninety days in writing on every fences and gates job, and one call brings Hal back.
One more thing. We repair before we replace. If a gate can be fixed for a reasonable price, that’s what we’ll recommend. We’d rather keep you as a customer for twenty years than win one big ticket on a replacement you didn’t need. That’s the loyalty part of our L.O.C.A.L. values code, and it’s not a slogan. It’s how we operate.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed – Every pro working under the Gatewood Fence & Gate name is required to hold the license their state requires. That’s a standard, not a favor.
- Insured & bonded – We carry the coverage homeowners should expect before anyone sets foot on the property. It protects you and it protects us.
- 25 years of trade experience – Hal Gatewood has been working in fencing and gates since 2001. That’s lived experience, not a training certificate on a wall.
- Local reputation – Our business has been built on word of mouth in Fort Worth and the surrounding communities. Ask anyone on your street.
Why do these matter to a homeowner? Because when someone works on your property, you’re trusting them with your safety, your family’s security, and your money. A license means they’re accountable to a standard. Insurance means you’re not left holding the bill if something goes wrong. And a local reputation means the person doing the work has to face you at the hardware store on Saturday. That’s the oldest accountability mechanism there is.
Rooted in Fort Worth
We work across Fort Worth and the surrounding communities: Colleyville, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Kennedale, Keller, Bedford, Arlington, Haltom City, Saginaw, White Settlement, and Richland Hills. These aren’t service zones on a map. They’re the places where we live, shop, and run into our customers on the weekend. The truck carries our name, and that name gets seen around town. We sponsor local teams and buy from local suppliers when we can. Being local isn’t a marketing position for us. It’s just the truth: we live twenty minutes from most of the gates we work on, and we like it that way.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Fort Worth since 2001.