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 Larkspur
Gate installation in Larkspur comes down to one thing most people don’t realize until they live here: this town is wetter than its neighbors. The fog settles into the canyons and stays. That changes what gate hardware you should buy, how the posts need to be set, and honestly, how long a cheap galvanized hinge will last before it seizes. We’ve been installing driveway gates, security gates, and pedestrian gates in the 94939 and 94977 ZIP codes long enough to know exactly what fails first out here. If you’re planning a new gate or replacing one that’s rotted out or rusted through, call us at (877) 610-2993 and we’ll walk your property with you before you spend a dollar.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Larkspur’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
We’re a local, owner-operated shop. Hal Gatewood started this business in 2001, and his name is still on the door and on every invoice. When you call, a person answers the phone. Not a menu tree, not a voicemail that never calls back. That matters when you’ve got a sagging gate blocking your driveway on a Monday morning and you need to know if somebody can show up. We serve Larkspur regularly, and the crews that arrive in your driveway are background-checked and uniformed, driving from our San Francisco Bay Area office. Nothing about this is anonymous. If you want to look Hal in the eye before you hire him, the shop address is published, and the license number is right there for anyone to check.
Homeowners in Larkspur have had it with companies that quote one price on the phone and a different one at the door. We don’t play that. The price gets quoted upfront, in writing, and agreed to before any work starts. Every job we do in Larkspur carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise. Plain language: if it isn’t right, we come back and make it right. That’s not buried in a contract. It’s stamped on your invoice.
Our Gate Installation Services in Larkspur
Driveway Gate Installation
Most of the driveway gates we install in Larkspur go on sloped lots. The grade matters more than people think. A gate that works perfectly on flat ground in Corte Madera will bind and drag on a hillside driveway in Baltimore Canyon if the hinges aren’t set for the pitch. We install automatic driveway gates and manual ones, always accounting for how water moves across the site. During a wet winter, clay-rich hillside soil expands and shifts. A post set without that in mind leans within two years. We don’t skip that step.
Pedestrian Gate Installation
Larkspur’s housing stock includes plenty of older Craftsman and Victorian homes near Old Town, and those properties often want a gate that doesn’t look like it came from a big-box catalog. We do that. A period-appropriate wood or wrought iron pedestrian gate, correctly hung with stainless hardware, will outlast the painted-steel equivalent by years in this climate. If you want a gate that matches the age and character of your house, tell us that on the call. We’ve built more than a few for these older Larkspur lots.
Sliding Gate Installation
Sliding gates make sense on steep Larkspur driveways where a swing gate would need to open uphill. But they come with a catch here: redwood needle duff. In Baltimore Canyon, fallen redwood needles pack into slide gate tracks and turn into a damp, acidic mat. That corrodes aluminum track and jams rollers, sometimes within a single season. A slide gate installed in Larkspur needs a track detail and a drainage plan that keeps debris and standing water out of the mechanism. We build that into the installation from day one, because coming back six months later to chisel compressed needles out of a track is not a repair, it’s a symptom of the install being wrong for the site.
Swing Gate Installation
Swing gates are the classic choice in Larkspur, and they’re usually the right one on flatter lots. The problem is rarely the panel. It’s the hinge post. In Larkspur’s fog-drip zones, the footing stays wet from fall through late spring, and the bottom of the post rots or the steel hardware gives out. We set hinge posts in pressure-treated lumber or galvanized steel, then use stainless hinges and fixings. That’s the difference between a gate that swings clean for a decade and one that’s dragging on the ground in three years. For a Gate Installation team that sweats the hardware details, call us before you buy anything.
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 Larkspur
We’re certified to service and install operators from the brands Larkspur homeowners actually have on their properties. That includes Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and Elite, among others. Stocking parts locally means we can usually get a Larkspur gate running without waiting on a national distributor to ship something. Hal and his crew know which Viking boards are prone to moisture failures in marine air, which Ghost Controls arms hold up on heavy wood gates, and when a DoorKing is actually worth keeping versus when you’re throwing good money after a corroded board.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Larkspur Homes
After years of working on Larkspur gates, here’s what we keep finding. These aren’t theories. They’re patterns.
- Rusted galvanized hinges on gates that look fine. The panel holds up, but the hardware seizes and then snaps. In Larkspur’s marine air, galvanized steel fails years before it would inland. We replace it with stainless and don’t have to come back.
- Post-base rot from fog drip. In Baltimore Canyon especially, the redwood canopy collects fog and releases it as constant drip. The footing zone never really dries out. Wood posts lean, then the gate sags. We set posts differently here than we would in Mill Valley, because the moisture profile is different.
- Slide gate tracks packed with acidic redwood duff. This is the Baltimore Canyon special. The needles decompose into a wet mat that corrodes aluminum and confuses photo-eye sensors. The fix isn’t just clearing the track. It’s changing the drainage so it doesn’t happen again.
- Operator boards failing from condensation. Automatic gate operators don’t like constant damp. In Larkspur, a board can fail from moisture even if the mechanical parts are fine. We seal and vent installations properly, which most fly-by-night installs skip.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Larkspur, CA
A basic pedestrian gate installation in Larkspur typically runs $600 to $1,400, depending on width, material, and whether the old post needs to come out. A single driveway swing gate runs $1,800 to $3,600 installed, with an automatic operator adding $1,200 to $2,500 more depending on brand and site conditions. A sliding driveway gate on a steep lot usually starts around $2,800 and goes up from there, because the track work and drainage take real labor. If we replace an existing gate and the posts are sound, the job gets cheaper. If the posts are rotted or leaning, that’s extra work and we’ll show you the numbers before anything is signed. Every quote is free, written, and valid from the moment you get it. Nothing changes at the door. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll come measure your Larkspur driveway or side yard.
We Also Serve Cities Near Larkspur
We work throughout Marin County. If you’re in Corte Madera, Kentfield, Mill Valley, or Tamalpais Valley, we can help with the same honest pricing and same local knowledge we bring to Gate Installation in Larkspur. The drive is short, and a live person still answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Serving Larkspur, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Larkspur 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 Larkspur
Baltimore Canyon’s redwood canopy condenses coastal fog and drips it onto your gate hardware for hours after other Larkspur neighborhoods have dried out. That constant moisture cycle corrodes galvanized steel hinges years faster than it would on an exposed lot in central Larkspur. We replace rusted hardware with stainless steel so it holds up under the canopy. If your hinges keep seizing, you don’t need another galvanized pair. You need a material change. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll tell you what’s on your gate now and what should be.
Generally yes, if the driveway climbs away from the street. A swing gate on a steep grade has to open uphill, which puts constant stress on the hinges and the operator. A slide gate runs parallel to the slope and avoids that fight. In Larkspur’s hillside neighborhoods, a slide gate is often the right engineering choice even if it costs a bit more up front. We’ll look at your grade and give you a straight answer, not a sales pitch.
Short answer: often, but you need the right panel placement and a battery bank sized for fog, not for a sunny Marin hillside. In deep canyon shade, a solar opener under a redwood canopy will struggle. We’ve installed plenty of solar operators in Larkspur, and the trick is angling the panel to catch whatever light breaks through the canopy and pairing it with a battery that handles multi-day fog. If the site truly gets no sun, we’ll tell you to run low-voltage power instead and never pretend solar will work where it can’t. Call (877) 610-2993 for an honest read on your specific driveway.
Monthly, and more often in fall. Larkspur’s redwood needle duff and blowing leaves block photo-eye sensors more than mechanical failure does, so most sensor problems are actually debris problems. Wipe the lenses, clear anything accumulated around the beams, and watch for moisture condensation inside the sensor housing, which the marine air causes here. If your gate still reverses or won’t close after a quick cleaning, call us and we’ll test the alignment and wiring on site.
Pressure-treated wood with stainless fixings and a well-drained footing is the most reliable choice for most Larkspur lots, because it handles the seasonal soil movement better than rigid concrete-set steel. In clay-heavy hillside soil, the ground swells in winter and shrinks in summer. A post that moves with that cycle beats one that resists it and eventually cracks its own footing. For steel gates, galvanized posts set in concrete with proper drainage work well. We choose based on the gate weight, the soil, and the moisture profile of your specific lot, and we’ll explain why on the walkthrough.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Larkspur with Gate Installation since 2001.