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 Installation Across Memphis
Gate installation in Memphis usually takes us one to two days on site, and a basic single swing gate with a manual latch starts around $1,400, while a retrofit automatic opener on an existing Midtown wrought iron gate typically runs $2,100 to $3,400. We quote the price before we start, in writing, and it doesn’t change unless you change the scope. If you’re off Poplar, near Rhodes College, or down toward Whitehaven, we know the streets and the soil. Call (877) 610-2993 and Hal or one of the crew will answer.
This page is for Memphis homeowners who want a gate that still works two years after it’s hung. Not next month. Every installer claims a clean install. Very few dig deep enough for the clay.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Memphis’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
Hal Gatewood has owned this company since 2001. The name is on the shop, the shop is local, and he’ll hand you his cell number before the job starts. That’s the kind of accountability Memphis homeowners tell us they don’t get from national outfits that quote one number on the phone and change it at the door. We don’t do any of that.
Our Memphis customers deal with the person who shows up. Hal or a background-checked, uniformed crew member does the work, and Hal stands behind it with a written 90-Day Done Right Promise on every single job. One call brings him back. No runaround, no third-party warranty hotline.
Because we’re local to Memphis, we know what happens to a gate post on Shelby County clay after a wet spring. We know that Cooper-Young keeps working hours late into the evening and you may not get home until after seven. We schedule around that. When you call, a live person answers around the clock. Not a voicemail. Not a call center three states away.
Our Gate Installation Services in Memphis
Here’s what we install most often across Memphis. Every one of these starts with a looked-at-your-driveway assessment, not a guess over the phone. From Midtown’s narrow rights-of-way to the wider lots in Bartlett or Germantown, we size the gate to the space and the soil.
Driveway Gate Installation in Memphis
Most driveways in Memphis fall into two groups: the tight urban lots in Midtown and Cooper-Young, and the broader suburban driveways farther out. A driveway gate has to fit the swing room you actually have, not the room a brochure assumes. On shared driveways and narrow rights-of-way, a slide gate usually won’t work because there’s no room for the track. We won’t force one. We’ll build a swing gate that clears the driveway edge and stays square through the seasons. Typical driveway gate installation in Memphis runs $1,800 to $4,500 depending on size, material, and whether you add automation.
Pedestrian Gate Installation in Memphis
A pedestrian gate gets treated like the working entrance it is, not an afterthought. In Midtown, where century-old brick walkways and wrought iron fences set the tone, a new pedestrian gate should match the neighborhood rather than clash with it. We hang them so they don’t drag after the first rain. Pedestrian gates in Memphis typically run $700 to $2,200 installed.
Sliding Gate Installation in Memphis
Sliding gates make sense on a few Memphis properties: wide commercial approaches, driveways with steep drop-offs where a swing gate can’t clear, and sites with real clearance for a track. The catch in Memphis is that most residential lots don’t have a level run long enough for a full slide. We measure first and tell you straight if a slide gate is wrong for your space. When it does fit, expect $2,800 to $6,000 installed with a cantilever or wheeled track.
Swing Gate Installation in Memphis
Swing gates are the workhorse in Memphis, especially across Midtown, Frayser, Whitehaven, and the older neighborhoods where driveways were laid out before cars got wide. But the hinge post is everything. Around here, the clay takes a post that wasn’t set deep enough and shoves it out of plumb inside a year. Our swing gate installs start by pulling the old post if it’s short, augering new footings down through the clay to stable bearing, and setting posts in full-depth concrete collars. That’s the difference between a gate that stays square and one that drags by spring. Swing gate installation in Memphis is usually $1,400 to $3,800 depending on leaf size and operator.
What happens when you call
- 1
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 Memphis
We’re certified to work on Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and Elite openers, among the nine major brands we carry and service. That matters in Memphis because when an opener fails after an ice storm, you don’t want to hear that your brand is “special order.” We keep common parts and operator boards on the truck and at the shop, so turnaround is quick. If you’re replacing an old gate operator in Germantown with a DoorKing, or switching a Midtown wrought iron gate to a Ghost Controls system, we’ll install and program it so it works the first time. Gate Installation is what we do every day.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Memphis Homes
- Hinge posts heaving in expansive clay. The single biggest repeat call in Memphis is a swing gate that sagged because the hinge post moved. The ground under Shelby County swells after spring rain and cracks in July. A post set shallow goes with it. Unless a new post goes down three feet or more into a full concrete collar, the gate will be out of alignment within a season.
- Shallow concrete collars cracked by freeze-thaw. Memphis sits in the mid-South ice storm belt. Winter ice, not snow, is the norm, and water seeps into thin concrete around gate posts, freezes, expands, and cracks the collar. Loose posts then overload the opener’s limit switches. We see seized operators every January and February out of Frayser and Raleigh where posts were poured too thin.
- Forced slide gates on narrow Midtown lots. Some installer looked at a tight shared driveway, sold a slide gate, and squeezed a track into a space that had no business holding one. The result is a gate that binds and a callback list a mile long. In Midtown, Cooper-Young, and anywhere with a pre-war lot, swing gates are usually the right call.
- Old ornamental iron attached to new posts without rust work. Midtown has original wrought iron gates from the 1900s and 1930s. They’re beautiful and they’re tired. Hanging those leaves on fresh posts without treating the rust at the hinges and barrel points just moves the problem. We weld repair on site, then hang.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Memphis, TN
Expect these ranges for the Memphis market. The price you get from us is the price we quote before work starts, in writing. If the scope changes, we talk about it first.
| Scope of Work | Typical Memphis Price |
|---|---|
| Pedestrian gate, steel or wood, manual latch | $700 - $2,200 |
| Single swing driveway gate, steel, manual | $1,400 - $2,800 |
| Single swing driveway gate with automatic operator | $2,100 - $3,800 |
| Double swing gate, automatic, dual operators | $3,400 - $6,000 |
| Retrofit automatic opener on existing swing gate | $2,100 - $3,400 |
| Sliding gate, automatic, with track or cantilever | $2,800 - $6,000 |
| Post reset in full-depth concrete collar | $500 - $1,200 per post |
What moves the price in Memphis is the post work more than the gate itself. Digging out clay and setting deep footings is labor, and short-cutting it is exactly what you’re paying us not to do. Free estimates are standard. Seniors and veterans get a permanent 10% discount, and there’s no trip charge inside the county.
We Also Serve Cities Near Memphis
Beyond Memphis proper, our crew works regularly in New South Memphis, Germantown, Bartlett, and Millington. If you’re in one of those communities, the same pricing and the same Memphis team handles your gate. The soil doesn’t change much at the county line, and neither does how we dig.
Serving Memphis, TN - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Memphis 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 Installation in Memphis
In Midtown, the problem is almost never the weld, it’s the post. Your gate is likely hung on a hinge post set directly into expansive Shelby County clay without a deep footing. The clay swells in wet springs and shrinks in dry summers, shifting the post a fraction at a time until the gate drags at the latch. Welding the frame just fixes the symptom. Until the post gets pulled, the hole gets augered three feet or more through the clay to stable bearing, and the post goes back in a full-depth concrete collar, it’ll sag again. We do this exact repair across Midtown and Cooper-Young regularly. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll look at the post, not just the hinge.
Most likely not. A slide gate needs a clear lateral run alongside the driveway, and shared Midtown rights-of-way rarely have that. If the only place for a slide track is on your neighbor’s side of the fence line, the answer is no. On a shared drive just off Cooper Street in the 38104 zip, our crew installed a double swing gate with a LiftMaster operator and safety photocells across a narrow right-of-way where a slide gate had no track room. We pulled the original century-old hinge posts, augered new footings down through the clay, set them in a full-depth collar, and hung the restored wrought iron leaves. Then we added a keypad for the two households so vehicle access kept working the whole afternoon. Swing gates fit Memphis’s older lots. Call us before you buy a slide gate.
In Memphis, gate post footings should go a minimum of 30 inches deep, and on a wide or heavy swing gate, 36 to 42 inches is safer. The expansive clay under Shelby County moves enough at the surface that a shallow post will tilt within a year. We dig until we hit stable bearing, then pour a full-depth concrete collar that goes below the frost line and below the zone where the clay shifts the most. It’s slower and it’s heavier work. It’s also the only footing depth that keeps a Midtown gate square through a wet spring and a dry July.
You usually can, provided the gate itself is structurally sound and the hinge posts are stable. We install openers from Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and Elite on original Midtown wrought iron gates all the time. The catch is the posts. If the hinge post has moved, bolting an opener to a crooked gate will tear up the operator gears within months. We check the post first, reset it if needed, then weld reinforcement at the stress points before mounting the operator. A retrofit opener in Memphis typically runs $2,100 to $3,400, and we program the travel limits and force settings rather than leaving them at factory default.
Any automatic gate installed in Memphis must have entrapment protection: at minimum, a primary inherent sensor that reverses the gate on contact and a secondary non-contact sensor like photocells across the opening. Swing gates also need protecting the pinch points at the hinge and the latch. Code here follows the UL 325 standard, and we install photocells and edge sensors on every automatic job, including retrofits. If your gate closes on its own and you have to dodge it, the entrapment protection isn’t working. We’ll correct it. Free second opinion on any written estimate from another company, and we’ll tell you plainly what’s non-compliant.
Memphis Gate Installation That Starts With the Ground, Not the Gate
In Memphis, the ground decides whether your gate works. The gate is just steel. The clay underneath it moves every season, and the installers who don’t account for that are the ones who disappear when the gate starts dragging. We don’t disappear. Our crew works from the Memphis metro office, Hal’s shop is local, and he’s been doing this since 2001. The name is on the shop and the shop is down the road. That’s the oldest accountability there is.
If you’re in Midtown, Frayser, Whitehaven, or anywhere in the 38126, 38127, 37501, or 37544 zips, call us for a free estimate on your gate. We’ll come out, look at the posts instead of just the hinges, and give you a written price that won’t change unless you change the job. Call (877) 610-2993.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Memphis since 2001.