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 Richland Hills
Gate access control in Richland Hills usually means adding keypad, remote, phone, or card entry to an existing gate that’s been standing since the Eisenhower or Nixon administration. A keypad entry retrofit on a wood privacy gate here typically runs $350-$750 installed, while a slide gate operator conversion on a tight shared driveway runs $1,500-$2,800 depending on the gate’s weight and the condition of the post footing. We’re Gatewood Fence & Gate, owner-operated since 2001, and we know Richland Hills’ gates better than anyone because we’ve been resetting heaved posts and rehanging sagging frames on these same clay-soil lots for over two decades. If you need same-day help, call (817) 241-4067 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Richland Hills’s Preferred Gate Access Control Company
We’re not a franchise van that drives in from three counties away. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every invoice, and he’s the person you’ll talk to when you call about a keypad that works sometimes and quits after a hard rain. Richland Hills homeowners keep our number saved because we show up in the window we promised, charge the price we quoted before any work starts, and stand behind every job with our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not done right, one call brings us back. No runaround, no “talk to the regional manager.”
Richland Hills is a tight, fully built-out suburb of about 1.8 square miles. Nearly every home went up in the 1950s through early 1970s, which means nearly every gate we touch is original or once-replaced and sitting on a hinge post that has spent six decades fighting Blackland Prairie clay. We know which fence lines along Rufe Snow Drive, Baker Boulevard, and the streets off Vance Road have the worst post heave. We know which shared driveways can’t fit a swing gate’s arc and need a slide gate conversion. That’s why we don’t guess when you describe the problem over the phone. We’ve probably already worked on your street.
Our reviews from Richland Hills customers tell the same story: the person who shows up knows gates, welds on site, and doesn’t upsell you on parts you don’t need. Calls are answered by a live person 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hal’s background-checked, uniformed crew does the work, and Hal himself checks the job before he calls it done.
Our Gate Access Control Services in Richland Hills
We handle the full range of Gate Access Control work, but in Richland Hills the jobs almost always involve retrofitting automation onto aging wood privacy gates in tight spaces. Here’s what we do most often in your area.
Keypad Entry
Adding a keypad entry system to a 1960s-era wooden gate on Richland Hills’ shifting clay soil starts with making the gate itself hang straight. A keypad that won’t engage is often blamed on the electronics when the real problem is a latch sensor misaligned because the hinge post has leaned a quarter inch out of plumb. We re-plumb the post, set the gate frame square, and then mount the keypad so it actually reads and triggers every time. Typical keypad entry installation in Richland Hills runs $350-$750, including wiring and programming.
Remote Control
Remote control upgrades for swing and slide gates are the fastest way to get automation working again after a motor dies or a receiver stops reading the old clicker. We stock remote transmitters and receiver boards for Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and Elite systems, so we’re not waiting on a warehouse three states away. For Richland Hills homes with shared driveways, we’ll program multiple remotes for multiple households so everyone keeps access without fighting over one clicker.
Phone Entry
Phone entry systems let you buzz open the gate from a cell phone or landline. This works well on Richland Hills lots where a pedestrian path and a vehicle gate run side by side and you don’t want to hand out a keypad code to every delivery driver. We wire the phone entry controller into your existing operator, mount a weather-tight call box, and program in the numbers you want. Expect $400-$900 for a complete phone entry add-on on a single-residence gate.
Card Reader
Card reader access makes sense for Richland Hills properties with multiple regular users: a duplex with a shared driveway, a small rental property, or a home with a workshop out back. We install proximity card readers that work with your existing gate operator and program as many keycards as you need. The card reader itself runs $250-$500, plus the operator retrofit if your gate motor is too old to accept a card reader input.
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 Richland Hills
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands, and in Richland Hills we see a lot of LiftMaster, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing operators on aging wood gates. We keep common parts for these brands on the truck, so a failed receiver or worn rack and pinion doesn’t mean leaving your gate stuck open while the part ships. Our repair-first philosophy applies to the electronics too: we rebuild and rewire what we can before we sell you a new operator. When a motor is truly dead, we quote the replacement honestly and install it the same day the part arrives.
Common Gate Access Control Problems We See in Richland Hills Homes
- Keypad fails intermittently after rain. The clay under a 1960s brick-and-frame tract home swells after heavy rain, shifts the hinge post a fraction, and keeps the latch sensor from engaging. The keypad is fine. The post and frame are the problem, and we fix both together.
- Swing gate operator binds on a shared driveway. The hinge post has leaned into the gate’s arc over decades, and the motor is fighting geometry it can’t win. We reset the post, re-hang the gate, or convert the whole setup to a slide gate operator if the driveway is too narrow for the full swing arc.
- Solar openers underperform in shaded lots. Richland Hills’ small, tree-lined lots don’t get enough direct sun for many solar gate openers, especially during winter ice events when the battery is already cold. We upgrade to hardwired AC operators or add a secondary panel and battery management that holds voltage.
- Older operators lack safety photocells. Many gates installed before about 2010 in Richland Hills have no photocell safety edge. If a gate starts closing while a kid or a dog is in the path, there’s nothing to stop it. We add photocells and fail-safe edges as part of any access control retrofit, because that’s a safety issue, not an upsell.
Pricing for Gate Access Control in Richland Hills, TX
Here’s what you can expect to pay in Richland Hills specifically. Keypad entry runs $350-$750 installed. Remote control receivers and transmitters run $120-$300. Phone entry systems run $400-$900. Card readers run $250-$500 plus wiring. Slide gate operator retrofits, which are the most common conversion we do on Richland Hills’ tight landlocked lots, run $1,500-$2,800 including the rack and pinion, safety photocells, and post reset. A full swing gate operator replacement with new hinges and a post re-plumb runs $900-$1,800. Every quote is written down and agreed to before any work starts. You’ll see the number on paper, and that’s the number you pay. Call (817) 241-4067 for a free estimate, and we’ll come out, look at your gate, and put a price in writing.
We offer $40 off any repair over $200, a free second opinion on any written estimate from another company, no trip charge inside the county, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. These aren’t limited-time marketing tricks. They’re standing offers, because Hal would rather do honest work at a fair price than play games.
We Also Serve Cities Near Richland Hills
While this page focuses on Richland Hills, our crews serve the entire area around it. We work regularly in Fort Worth, Colleyville, North Richland Hills, and Hurst. If you’re in one of those cities and need gate access control, call the same number and you’ll get the same service. For more on our local coverage, see Gate Access Control in Richland Hills.
Serving Richland Hills, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Richland Hills 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 Richland Hills
Because the lots are small and the driveways are tight. A swing gate needs a full arc of clear space to open, and on a landlocked 1950s lot with a shared driveway off Rufe Snow Drive, that arc usually doesn’t exist without hitting a fence, a car, or the neighbor’s property line. A slide gate runs along the fence line on a rack and pinion and takes almost no additional footprint. In Richland Hills, where nearly all homes were built before 1975, we do slide gate conversions more often than swing gate installs by a wide margin. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll tell you honestly which one fits your driveway.
Yes, and we do it regularly. The key is fixing the post first. Blackland Prairie clay shrinks in drought summers and swells in wet winters, and a hinge post that has endured 60 years of that cycle is rarely plumb. We reset the post in a new concrete footing, re-hang the gate so it closes square, and then mount and wire the keypad. If you mount a keypad on a gate that’s out of level, it will fail intermittently no matter how good the keypad is. We fix the gate, then the access control, and the job holds up. Estimates are free.
Yes, if it’s installed correctly and the post work is done right. The operator itself is rated for outdoor temperatures well beyond anything we get in Tarrant County. What kills gate automation here is not the operator, it’s the gate binding against a heaved post in a wet winter or a warped wood frame after a hard summer. We build the mechanical foundation first: plumb the post, square the frame, set the rack and pinion straight. Then the operator moves the gate without fighting it. We warranty our work with the 90-Day Done Right Promise, and we honor it.
We keep at least one access path open the entire time. On a shared driveway, that usually means we disconnect the gate from the operator, push it fully open, and lock it against the fence line so vehicles and pedestrians can pass freely while we work on the post, the rack, or the electronics. We don’t block both households at once. We also schedule shared driveway work at a time both parties can live with, because we know half the battle on a shared gate is keeping the neighbors from hating each other. Same goes for the keypad codes: we’ll program separate codes for each household so nobody blames the other when the gate won’t open.
Because the gate shifted. After heavy rain, the clay soil under your gate post absorbs water, expands, and pushes the post a little out of alignment. The gate still closes, but the latch sensor doesn’t quite make contact, so the keypad thinks the gate is still open and won’t trigger a new signal. Or the gate frame warps enough that the limit switch misreads the closed position. Nine times out of ten, it’s a mechanical alignment problem, not an electronic failure. We’ll re-plumb the post, square the frame, and the keypad works again without replacing it. Call (817) 241-4067 and describe what’s happening; we’ll tell you whether it sounds like post movement or a wiring fault before we ever schedule the truck.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Richland Hills since opening our doors in 2001.