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.
Before
After
Before
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Before
AfterFast, Reliable Gate Access Control Across Hurst
If your gate keypad stopped talking to the operator, or your phone entry app spins without opening the gate, you’re probably on a 40-year-old Hurst lot where the ground itself is working against the hardware. Gate access control in Hurst means something specific here: Blackland Prairie clay heaves, posts walk out of plumb, and the electronics that depend on a square frame lose alignment. We fix the frame first, then the access system. That’s the order that actually holds. Call (877) 610-2993 and you’ll get Hal or someone from his crew, any hour.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Hurst’s Preferred Gate Access Control Company
We’ve been owner-operated since 2001, and the person whose name is on the shop still answers the phone. That’s not a marketing line; it’s how we run the business. When you call about a keypad in the 76053 or 76054 ZIP, the person you talk to knows what a Blackland Prairie post shift does to a photocell beam. We don’t have to guess why a video intercom mounted on a Hurst Hills gate keeps dropping signal. We’ve already seen it a hundred times.
Our local reputation comes from doing the unglamorous work correctly: resetting hinge posts in concrete collars before installing a new keypad, re-drilling stripped hinge lag holes in 1970s cedar rather than bolting a plate over the rot, and matching the access system to the gate’s weight and span, not to what’s on sale. Hurst customers tell us the same thing: the person who quoted the price is the person who did the work, and the gate still cycles clean a year later. That’s the standard.
Response to Hurst is measured in the time it takes to cross the Mid-Cities from our Dallas-Fort Worth office. Emergency calls in Hurst are not routed to a voicemail or a call center; a live person answers, and we tell you honestly when the truck will be there. No-hassle upfront pricing applies here like everywhere else. The price you’re quoted is the price you pay, and it’s agreed before we touch the gate.
Our Gate Access Control Services in Hurst
Keypad Entry
A keypad on a Hurst gate has a harder life than most. The post it’s mounted to is sitting in expansive clay that shrinks and swells with every wet/dry cycle, and over 40 or 50 years that can walk the post 2-4 inches out of vertical. When the post tilts, the keypad antenna aims at the ground instead of the operator, and you get intermittent codes that work sometimes and fail the next morning. We level the post, reset it in a concrete collar if needed, and then program the keypad so it actually stays paired. Keypad entry in Hurst typically runs $220-$480 installed, depending on whether we’re wiring a new unit or replacing a failed one on an existing mount.
Remote Control
Remote transmitters, receivers, and antenna extensions are straightforward on newer Hurst subdivisions, but the older ranch-style blocks off Precinct Line Road often need receiver relocation or antenna re-aiming because the operator is tucked behind a brick wing wall that eats signal. We stock receivers compatible with the openers we service, and we program remotes on-site so you can test them before we leave. Remote control service calls in Hurst run $95-$210 for most reprogramming and receiver swaps, and a full receiver-and-two-remote package usually lands around $280-$420.
Phone Entry
Phone entry systems let you buzz a visitor through from anywhere, but in Hurst they’re often retrofitted onto gates and posts that predate the smartphone by three decades. The unit needs line-of-sight for the cellular or Wi-Fi module, and it needs a gate that closes squarely so the latch report reads correctly. We handle both sides: the electronics and the mechanical square of the gate. Phone entry installs in Hurst run $650-$1,300 for most residential systems, with the gate mechanical work quoted separately if the post or hinge has moved.
Card Reader
Card readers on Hurst properties are common at small HOAs and shared driveway entrances where a half-dozen neighbors need access without sharing a single keypad code. The reader itself is reliable; the failure is almost always where it mounts. On a tilting post, the reader’s proximity field shifts and cards that worked yesterday read as errors today. We reset the post or move the reader to a stable structural mount, then reissue cards and test every one. Card reader systems for Hurst residential groups run $850-$1,900 installed, including reader, controller, and a set of programmed cards.
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 Hurst
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands, and on Hurst calls we see mostly LiftMaster, Viking, and DoorKing on the operator side, with Ghost Controls and Elite showing up on newer retrofit installs. We keep common boards, limit switches, and safety edges in the truck so a Hurst service call doesn’t turn into a two-week parts wait. If we don’t have the part on hand, we tell you the day it arrives and we show up with it. That’s what local service means: you watch the truck pull up, not a tracking number.
Common Gate Access Control Problems We See in Hurst Homes
- Post shift from expansive clay breaking keypad and photocell alignment. Hurst’s Blackland Prairie soil swells and shrinks dramatically with rainfall and drought, and posts set without concrete collars decades ago are now leaning enough to throw safety beams and antenna alignment out. The access system didn’t fail; the ground moved under it.
- Summer heat binding steel frames and triggering limit faults. When July pushes past 100°F, steel gate frames expand, slide gates bind in their tracks, and operators overheat into fault mode. We see more limit switch replacement calls in Hurst in August than any other month.
- Ice storm damage from forced-open gates. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 snapped operator arms and sheared rack and pinion teeth all across the Mid-Cities. In Hurst, where many gates are on 45-year-old frames, a frozen gate that gets pushed open once can destroy a drive assembly. If the gate is frozen, the operator is already fighting a losing battle.
- Rotted cedar posts swallowing hinge lag screws on original 1960s-1980s gates. Decades of Tarrant County hard water and heat have softened the wood where hinges and keypad mounts attach. You can’t hang a video intercom on a post that won’t hold a screw. The post gets treated or replaced before the electronics go on.
Pricing for Gate Access Control in Hurst, TX
Here’s what we actually charge in Hurst, and these are the numbers we quote over the phone before we come out. Keypad entry: $220-$480. Remote and receiver work: $95-$420 depending on hardware. Phone entry systems: $650-$1,300. Card reader systems for shared drives: $850-$1,900. Video intercoms: $700-$1,600. Solar gate opener packages: $1,100-$2,800 installed. Every quote is agreed before work starts, so the number you hear is the number on the invoice. There’s no trip charge inside Tarrant County, $40 off any repair over $200, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Estimates are free.
What affects the Hurst price most?
The gate’s mechanical square. If the post has wandered, we have to reset it before any access hardware goes on. That’s typically $350-$750 for a concrete collar and re-hang. We won’t install a $1,200 phone entry system on a gate that’s 3 inches out of plumb and call it done. The frame comes first, and the price reflects that honest sequence.
We Also Serve Cities Near Hurst
Our Gate Access Control team works all over the HEB Mid-Cities. From our base coordinating jobs in Hurst, we run service to Bedford, Richland Hills, North Richland Hills, and Colleyville - same live-answer phone, same upfront pricing, same 90-Day Done Right Promise on every job.
Serving Hurst, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Hurst 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 Hurst
In most Hurst cases the keypad is fine; the post it’s mounted on has moved. Blackland Prairie clay heaves and shrinks, tilting the post a few degrees, which points the keypad’s transmitter away from the operator’s receiver antenna. When the post shifts, the keypad and operator lose their line-of-sight radio alignment. We reset the post in a concrete collar and re-aim the antenna, and the keypad stops dropping codes. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll look at the post before selling you a new keypad.
Yes, if the panel is sized for the gate’s weight and the Hurst sunlight load. A 14-foot cedar privacy gate from a 1970s Hurst build needs a solar package with enough panel wattage and battery capacity to cycle through cloudy Texas stretches, not just a sunny day. We install solar openers sized for the actual gate, and we account for Hurst’s summer heat, which shortens battery life on under-sized panels. Solar gate opener packages in Hurst run $1,100-$2,800 installed.
Yes. UL 325, the standard that governs automatic gate operators, applies in Hurst and nationwide, and any automatic gate capable of closing on a person or vehicle must have a monitored entrapment protection system - which almost always means safety photocells. The length of the driveway doesn’t change the requirement; the presence of a moving gate does. We install and align photocells on every automatic gate job in Hurst, including retrofits onto older ranch-style entrances.
The limit switches and drive teeth fail first. Hurst’s summer heat pushes slide gates into binding, which overheats the motor and burns limit switch contacts. Then the rack and pinion teeth strip, especially if a gate was forced open during an ice event like Uri. We replace limit switches and rack sections regularly on older Hurst slide gates, and we’ll tell you honestly when a 40-year-old operator is more expensive to patch than to replace.
Mount the system’s control board in a shaded, ventilated enclosure and keep the Wi-Fi or cellular module out of direct sun. Hurst’s 100°F afternoons cook electronics inside unvented metal boxes on west-facing posts, and the first symptom is the phone app timing out while the gate itself still works. We shield and relocate control boards on Hurst installs as standard practice. Want us to check yours? Call (877) 610-2993 - it’s a free conversation.
How Hurst’s Clay Causes Most Access Control Failures - and How We Fix It
Here’s what makes Hurst different from newer suburbs on stabilized fill. The neighborhoods that were built out in the 1960s through 1980s sit on North Texas Blackland Prairie clay, a soil that expands when wet and cracks when dry, sometimes moving gate posts 2-4 inches off vertical over a few decades. A keypad mounted on that post doesn’t fail because the circuit board died; it fails because the entire mount walked away from where the operator expects the signal to come from. A video intercom’s camera that once framed the driveway now points at the neighbor’s roofline. The photocell on one side of the gate no longer sees the beam across the opening.
This is the defining access control pattern in Hurst: the electronics are usually fine, but the ground underneath has moved the frame, and everything bolted to the frame moved with it. National outfits that do a quick part swap and leave will be back in six months with the same callback. We lead with post reset, because it’s the only fix that lasts. We carry post-reset equipment on nearly every residential Hurst call - it’s not a special case here, it’s the default first step.
Our crew was called to a mid-century block near Hurst Hills where a swing gate operator kept faulting out. We found the hinge post had walked 3 inches out of plumb in the expansive clay, pulling the safety photocell beams out of alignment and stripping the rack and pinion teeth on a LiftMaster LA400. We reset the post in a concrete collar, re-hung the gate with new hinge lag screws, and reinstalled the safety photocells. The operator has cycled clean since. That’s the Hurst job, and it’s the job we do every week.
Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for Gate Access Control in Hurst
If your keypad intermittently quits, your phone entry won’t connect, or your gate operator faults after a rain, call (877) 610-2993. You’ll get a live person who knows Hurst gates, and we’ll come out and tell you exactly what’s wrong and what it costs to fix. The price is agreed before any work starts, no trip charge inside the county, and every job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every invoice, and the shop is down the road. That’s the oldest accountability there is.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Hurst since 2001.