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 Pimmit Hills
Gate installation in Pimmit Hills typically runs $2,400 to $9,800 depending on the gate type, operator, and site work, and we can usually have a new gate measured and quoted within a few days of your call. If you’re in 22043 and your old gate is leaning, rusted through, or just doesn’t match the house anymore, we’ll come look at it and give you a written price before any work starts. Hal Gatewood has been doing this since 2001, and the number to reach a live person is (877) 610-2993.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Pimmit Hills’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
Pimmit Hills is a neighborhood we know block by block. The 1950s ramblers off Lisle Avenue, the split-levels along Pimmit Drive, the newer customs going up where the old cottages used to be along Magarity Road. We’ve worked on all of it. The Gate Installation team at Gatewood Fence & Gate has a local reputation built over more than two decades, and it’s built on showing up when we say we will and doing the job right the first time.
Reviews from Pimmit Hills customers mention the same things: the person who answers the phone knows gates, the person who shows up is the same person you talked to, and the price on the written estimate is the price you pay. No bait-and-switch at the door. Hal Gatewood owns the company, and if something’s not right, his cell number is on the paperwork. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped in writing on every job. If it’s not done right, we make it right. No fine print, no runaround.
We’re not a national chain with a call center three states away. Dispatch and scheduling run from our Washington, DC metro office, and crews serve Pimmit Hills locally. That means someone who actually knows Pimmit Hills’s clay soil and 1950s gate construction is the one standing in your driveway. Call (877) 610-2993 and a live person answers. That’s been true for 24 years, and it’s not changing.
Our Gate Installation Services in Pimmit Hills
We install every type of gate you’ll see around Pimmit Hills, from a simple pedestrian gate on a walkway to a full automated driveway system on a teardown-rebuild lot. Here’s what we do most often in 22043.
Driveway Gate
Driveway gates in Pimmit Hills run $3,200 to $9,800 installed, depending on width, material, and automation. The newer custom homes along Magarity Road and Pimmit Drive often get dual swing gates with keypads and intercoms, while the original ramblers get a simpler single swing or slide gate. We’ll match the gate to the house and the lot, not sell you more than you need. Free measure and written price before anything starts.
Pedestrian Gate
A pedestrian gate in Pimmit Hills usually runs $900 to $2,800 depending on whether it’s a basic chain-link gate or a custom ornamental steel gate with a keypad lock. The 1950s homes here often have walkway gates hung on poured concrete without proper footings, so if we’re replacing one, we’re likely pouring new piers too. Doesn’t make sense to hang a new gate on a post that’s been heaving in Fairfax County clay for 60 years.
Sliding Gate
Sliding gates work well on the flatter lots in Pimmit Hills, especially where the driveway slopes toward the house and a swing gate would drag. We install cantilever slide gates as well as wheeled and tracked systems, and we pay close attention to the concrete pad. Slide gates on teardown-rebuild homes here are often set on slabs poured too thin, and they crack within two years. We pour for the long haul, which in this soil means a deeper, reinforced footer than whatever was there before.
Swing Gate
Swing gates are the most common style in Pimmit Hills, and they’re also the style most likely to fail if the posts aren’t right. We install single and double swing gates on new 42-inch-deep concrete footings, because anything shallower than that just moves with the freeze-thaw cycle. If you’re replacing a 60-year-old iron gate that’s leaning outward every March, the fix isn’t straightening the gate. It’s cutting out the old 18-inch post holes and doing it right.
Custom and Security Gate Options
We also handle double gates, estate-style gates, and security gates with keypads, intercom, and vehicle detection loops. If you’re off Route 7 or near the I-495 corridor and want privacy from cut-through traffic, an automated gate is a real answer. We’ll talk through steel gauge, finials, openers, and safety edges, and we’ll write it all down in a fixed price before you commit to 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 Pimmit Hills
We’re certified to service LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule, and we keep common parts stocked so Pimmit Hills customers aren’t waiting a week for a circuit board or an arm. Recently we’re seeing more Viking and Ghost Controls operators going in on the new custom builds around Pimmit Hills, and we know those systems inside and out. If you’ve already got a brand you trust, we’ll work with it. No need to swap a good operator just because the gate itself is done.
One thing worth saying plainly: if you have a LiftMaster, DoorKing, or Elite swing gate operator that’s reversing randomly on your Pimmit Hills driveway, it’s rarely the motor. It’s almost always a failing photocell, a misaligned safety edge, or a control board that’s seen too many humid Fairfax summers. We fix the actual problem, not the symptom.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Pimmit Hills Homes
We work on a lot of original Pimmit Hills gates, and the failures are predictable. Here’s what we see most often.
- Post footings from the 1950s are only 18-24 inches deep. The original homes in Pimmit Hills had walkway and driveway gates hung on concrete poured right at the surface, nowhere near the 42-inch frost depth Fairfax County now requires. Every winter, the clay heaves those posts, and by March the gate’s leaning outward again. Patching doesn’t work. The fix is cutting out the old footer and pouring a new one below frost depth.
- The original gates were built before modern safety requirements existed. A 1960s ornamental iron gate in Pimmit Hills doesn’t have photocells, doesn’t have an entrapment edge, and doesn’t have any of the UL 325 protection that’s now standard. Homeowners don’t realize this until a home inspection flags it. We can retrofit some of it, but on a badly worn gate, replacement is usually the cheaper answer than trying to make a 70-year-old frame code-compliant.
- Legacy operators on original homes are obsolete. A lot of the old chain-link and ornamental gates in Pimmit Hills never had an operator at all, or they had a 1990s model that’s now discontinued. Control boards fail in the humidity, limit switches wear out, and remote receivers give up. Some of these can be retrofitted with a modern operator. Some can’t, because the gate frame itself is too light or too corroded to carry an opener safely.
- Rack and pinion slide gates on newer builds are set on undersized slabs. We’re seeing teardown-rebuild homes in Pimmit Hills with automated slide gates where the concrete pad was poured as an afterthought. Five inches of unreinforced concrete over un-compacted fill. Within two years the slab cracks, the rack binds, and the motor overloads from fighting the gate. A slide gate needs a properly engineered pad, and that’s not what we’re finding when we get called out.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Pimmit Hills, VA
Here’s what we quote on the regular for Pimmit Hills. A basic chain-link pedestrian gate on new posts: $900 to $1,500. A single ornamental steel swing gate, manual: $2,400 to $4,200. An automated driveway swing gate with an operator, photocells, and keypad: $4,800 to $8,900. An automated slide gate on a proper concrete pad: $6,500 to $46,000 depending on length and whether it’s a cantilever design. Double gates add 30-50% over single. These are the ranges you’ll see on a written quote in 22043, and it all depends on what’s already there and what has to be pulled out before we can pour.
Every quote is fixed and agreed before any work starts. No trip charge inside the county. $40 off any repair over $200, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free estimate, and we’ll put the price in writing.
We Also Serve Cities Near Pimmit Hills
If you’re in Dunn Loring, Idylwood, Tysons Corner, or Falls Church, you’re close enough that we’re in your neighborhood most weeks. We cover all of those areas with the same crew and the same promise. Check the Gate Installation page for the full scope of what we do, or read more about Gate Installation in Pimmit Hills to see how local soil and housing age change the work. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll sort out where you are and when we can get there.
Serving Pimmit Hills, VA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Pimmit 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 Installation in Pimmit Hills
The lean is usually from shallow post footings. Back in the 1950s, builders in Pimmit Hills set gate posts in 18-24 inches of concrete, because the code didn’t demand more and the clay wasn’t going anywhere fast. But Fairfax County’s freeze-thaw cycles heave that shallow concrete every winter, and the hinge post slowly walks outward until the gate drags or the latch won’t reach. The fix is a new post, but it has to go in a 42-inch-deep concrete pier. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free look at your leaning gate.
Yes, if the gate frame is still structurally sound and the posts are deep enough to carry the added load. If the posts are shallow and the gate’s been heaving for decades, the honest answer is usually no, not without redoing the footings. Once you’re pulling the posts anyway, you might as well put in a gate that’ll last another generation. We’ll tell you straight, and the estimate is free.
Most automated driveway gate installations in Pimmit Hills require a county permit because the operator has to meet UL 325 entrapment protection requirements, which means photocells or edge sensors, proper warning signage, and a specific set of photo-eye placements depending on the gate type. We handle the permit paperwork as part of the installation. That’s part of what a written quote covers in 22043. Call (877) 610-2993 to get the process started.
Oversized gates on undersized slabs. The new custom homes in Pimmit Hills often get a slide gate that’s 16 or 18 feet long, but the concrete pad was poured as part of the driveway package and it’s 4 or 5 inches of unreinforced slab over compacted fill. Within two years the slab cracks, the rack binds, and the motor trips every cycle. We see it at least once a month. If you’re building new, talk to us before the slab goes in, not after.
Usually it’s a failing photocell or a misaligned safety edge, not the motor. The humid summers in Pimmit Hills corrode the contacts inside the sensor housing, and then the operator reads a false obstruction and reverses. Sometimes it’s the control board. When we open the box and hook up test leads, we can tell you in about 20 minutes which one it is. If we can fix it, we will, and we won’t sell you a new operator to “simplify” the job. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free second opinion on any written estimate you’ve already got.
If you’re done with the leaning gate, the rusted hinge post, or the operator that only works when you’re parked in the right spot, call us. Hal Gatewood answers the phone at (877) 610-2993, and if you’d rather, drive to the shop and look him in the eye. The name is on the 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 Pimmit Hills since 2001.