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
After
Before
AfterFast, Reliable Gate Installation Across Norwell
A new driveway gate in Norwell typically runs $7,500 to $18,000 installed, depending on whether it’s a single swing gate, a double swing gate, or a sliding gate across a long estate driveway. That price includes the gate itself, the post footings, the operator if you want it automated, and the safety hardware. We quote the full number before any work starts, and that number doesn’t move. Call (877) 610-2993 and a live person picks up, day or night. Hal Gatewood has been at this since 2001, and he still shows up on Norwell job sites himself.
We know Norwell’s roads. We’ve pulled onto private drives off Grove Street, River Street, and Main Street, past the stone walls and the horse fences. The job is different here than it is in Hanover or Rockland. Norwell’s lots are bigger, the gates are heavier, and the ground doesn’t behave. Frost heave and North River humidity cause most of what we fix and most of what we prevent on a new install. That local knowledge is the difference between a gate that runs true for twenty years and one that drags in the dirt by year three.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Norwell’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
Hal Gatewood founded this company in 2001, and his name is on the shop. His address is published. Any Norwell homeowner can look up the license number, drive to the shop, and talk to the person who signed the estimate. That’s the oldest kind of accountability there is. We’ve built our reputation in Plymouth County one driveway at a time, and Norwell customers keep calling us back because we show up when we say we will and we fix what’s actually wrong.
Every Norwell job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. Not “up to” ninety days, not “in most cases.” If it’s not done right, we make it right, one call brings Hal back. The crew that works in Norwell is background-checked and uniformed. They know swing gates, double gates, and sliding gates the way you know your own driveway. And if you call at nine at night because a gate is stuck half-open across the drive, a live person answers. Not a voicemail, not a call center three states away. Us.
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands: LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule. That matters on an install because we stock the right parts locally rather than ordering a board and making you wait a week. For Norwell homeowners between Scituate and Rockland, that’s the kind of service you stop getting when the national outfits take over. We’re not them.
Our Gate Installation Services in Norwell
If you’re putting in a gate on one of Norwell’s estate lots, here’s what we do most often. Real talk on each, including what the North River corridor does to the work.
Swing Gate Installation
A swing gate is the classic Norwell look: two panels of welded steel or aluminum, ornamental finials, opening inward across a gravel or paved apron. We weld and reinforce the hinge side so the weight doesn’t sag the panel over time. The hinge post is the whole job. A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle, and that is where we start. In Norwell, that post has to be set deeper than code minimum because the frost line has opinions.
Double Gate Installation
Double swing gates are the norm on Norwell’s equestrian properties and long private drives. Two panels meeting at the center, each hung from its own post, often with an operator on each side or a single underground ram system. We set both posts in concrete-footed steel pipe sleeves, which is standard for us here, not an upsell. The biggest mistake we see from other installers in Norwell is setting a double gate on shallow-reinforced 4×4 or 6×6 wood posts. In this soil, that’s a callback in two years.
Sliding Gate Installation
On narrower frontages or driveways that climb, a sliding gate makes more sense than two heavy panels swinging uphill. A sliding gate never has to fight the slope when it opens. In Norwell we spec marine-grade track and roller hardware from BFT or Viking, because the standard zinc-plated stuff rusts along the North River corridor within three or four years. We also like to bury the operator in a sealed vault rather than mounting it on a post, which keeps the motor dry and the curb line clean.
Pedestrian Gate Installation
Not every Norwell property needs a wide driveway gate. A lot of our customers add a matched pedestrian gate beside the main gate, so the family walks through without cycling the big panels. We build it from the same material and finish, with a self-closing hinge set that won’t sag under daily use. We also wire it with the same access keypad or intercom system where the property calls for it.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Norwell
We install and service gates built around FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking operators, along with LiftMaster pump boxes and access boards. For Norwell customers that means we can match a new gate to the opener you already have, rather than forcing a full replacement. We keep common boards, capacitors, limit switches, and photocells in local stock. When a Norwell job needs a part on a Friday, we almost always have it in hand before Monday.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Norwell Homes
Every town has a pattern. Here’s what we keep finding when we walk onto a Norwell property for an estimate.
- Frost-heaved hinge posts. Norwell sits in Plymouth County’s 30 to 40 freeze-thaw cycle belt. Each cycle nudges a shallow-set post a quarter inch. By spring, the gate binds on the hinge, the panel drags, and the operator strains until it trips. If the post is wood and set in saturated ground, the heave is worse. A proper concrete-footed steel pipe sleeve stops this entirely.
- Rotted 4×4 wooden posts at ground level. The shaded, moist soil under Norwell’s tree canopy keeps post bases wet for months at a time. A gate hung on a 4×4 cedar or pressure-treated post from the 1970s through 1990s will rot right at the soil line, even if the gate itself is in fine shape. Replacing just the gate on those posts is a waste of money. The post goes first.
- Rust on latch and hinge hardware near the North River. Norwell’s humidity corridor corrodes bare zinc hardware in under five years. Homeowners near River Street, on Stetson Road, or backing up to the conservation land deal with this constantly. We specify sealed bearing hinges and marine-grade stainless latches on every Norwell install, period.
- Operator failure on long drives with buried conduit. Norwell’s older estates have electric gate openers run through original conduit that wasn’t sealed against groundwater. Condensation inside the conduit shorts the low-voltage loop. We see it on Gannett Road, on Circuit Street, all through the 02061 zip code. We run new conduit in a sealed continuous run and put the junction boxes above grade.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Norwell, MA
Here are real ranges for what we charge in Norwell. A single swing gate, manual, powder-coated welded steel, starts around $7,500 including footings and hardware. A double swing gate with an automated opener lands between $11,000 and $18,000 depending on span, weight, finish, and whether we’re adding an intercom or keypad entry. A sliding gate with marine-grade track and a buried operator runs $12,000 to $22,000. A matched pedestrian gate adds $4,000 to $7,500. Every one of these jobs gets a written line-item quote before work starts, and the price doesn’t change at the door. We also offer $40 off any repair over $200, a free second opinion on any written estimate, no trip charge inside the county, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Gate Installation in Norwell is priced by the foot of opening, the weight of the panel, and the condition of the ground, not by what the estimator thinks you can afford.
We Also Serve Cities Near Norwell
Our Norwell customers often ask us to look at properties in the next town over. We cover Hanover, North Scituate, Scituate, and Rockland with the same crew and the same 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. Same live person on the phone at 2 a.m. Same price given up front. If you’re just south of the Norwell town line and need a new gate, call us.
Serving Norwell, MA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Norwell 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 Norwell
Norwell’s position along the North River puts more of the town in a tidal moisture belt than Hingham or Hanover, and Plymouth County’s 30 to 40 annual freeze-thaw cycles work hardest on saturated clay and silty loam soils. Water in the soil expands when it freezes, lifting whatever is anchored shallowly, then settles when it thaws. A gate post set in a concrete footing too shallow to get below the frost line gets worked loose a little bit every winter. Hingham has some of the same coastal moisture, but its more built-out lots mean fewer long ornamental gates on exposed, saturated ground. Hanover’s soil drains differently and its lots are smaller. Norwell’s combination of big estate gates, shaded wet soil, and frost cycles is why we set posts in concrete-footed steel pipe sleeves here as standard practice, not as a line-item upgrade.
For a heavy ornamental gate near Norwell wetlands or conservation land, the longest-lasting footing is a concrete pier with a steel pipe sleeve set below frost depth, typically 48 to 54 inches in Plymouth County, with the steel pipe filled with concrete and the hinge bolt plates welded to the pipe above grade. On properties backing up to the North River marshes, even pressure-treated 6×6 posts in concrete will heave or rot within 8 to 12 years because the saturated, frost-active soil never fully dries. Galvanized or powder-coated steel pipe inside a poured concrete collar doesn’t hold water at the hinge point, which is the failure point we see on every wooden post we pull in Norwell. If you’re near wetlands off Grove or River Street, call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll come look at the soil before we quote the post.
Yes. Under Massachusetts law, automated driveway gates must have listed entrapment protection, which in almost every Norwell install means a monitored safety edge, photocell pair, or a combination of both, depending on how the gate closes. We install LiftMaster operators with the full sensor suite, and we test them after every service call. A gate that rolls closed on a child or a horse is not an acceptable risk, and a gate without working protection devices is also a liability for the homeowner. Call us if you’re unsure whether your current Norwell gate meets the law, and a second opinion is free.
Yes, and we do it regularly on Norwell’s larger rural lots where the gate sits hundreds of feet from the house panel. A solar gate opener from FAAC or Ghost Controls with a deep-cycle battery bank will run a single swing gate or a double gate with the right panel sizing. The challenge in Norwell is not the sun in summer; it’s the shaded canopy and short winter days. We size the panel array for the worst month, not the best, and we mount the panel above the tree line where possible. If the drive is fully wooded, we may recommend a hybrid system with a low-voltage line run instead. We’ll tell you the honest math before we quote anything.
Spring is when Norwell’s frost comes out of the ground unevenly. The track or the post anchors shift as the frozen soil thaws at different rates, so the gate binds on the track in March and April, then usually eases off by May. If your sliding gate binds every spring, the track bed was laid on a base that’s too shallow or not drained, or the operator post has heaved. The fix is re-setting the track on a gravel-drained poured base and anchoring the operator on a deep pile or sleeve, not just shimming the track and hoping. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll pull a level on it the same week.
Contact Gatewood Fence & Gate in Norwell
We serve Norwell, MA, out of our Boston office, with crews that work locally in the 02061 zip code. Same live person on the phone, same name on the invoice, same 90-Day Done Right Promise on every job. If you’re thinking about a new gate, want a second opinion on a written estimate, or need a gate looked at before winter, call (877) 610-2993 for a free estimate. You can also stop by the shop. Hal will be there. The name is on the sign, and the shop is down the road. That’s the whole point.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Norwell since 2001.