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 Parts & Welding Across Arlington
Gate parts and welding in Arlington, MA typically runs $150-$600 for hinge replacement or rail repair, $400-$1,200 for post resetting, and $250-$900 for custom welding work. Most jobs are done in a single visit. That matters here because Arlington’s housing stock dates from the 1890s through the 1930s, and those old gate posts and iron gates were not built for Massachusetts frost depths. If your gate binds, sags, or won’t latch, call Gatewood Fence & Gate at (877) 610-2993. Hal Gatewood and his crew know Arlington’s streets, its brick pillars, and its winter heave cycle.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Arlington’s Preferred Gate Parts & Welding Company
We are not a national outfit running a dispatch phone tree. Gatewood Fence & Gate has been owner-operated since 2001, and Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every invoice. When a homeowner on a side street off Massachusetts Avenue calls about a gate that won’t close after a nor’easter, the person who shows up knows what those east-facing lots get hit with. Our Gate Parts & Welding team welds on site, in your driveway, so the gate never leaves your property. That keeps the original ironwork intact and the job honest.
Arlington customers see the difference in how we handle the weird stuff: the 1910s brick pillar that moved two inches over the winter, the two-family on a shared driveway where both owners need to sign off on the repair, the wooden picket gate rotting at the base from Spy Pond’s high seasonal moisture. A live person answers every call, around the clock. If the gate is open and unsafe at 2 a.m., you reach a human, not a voicemail. And every job carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it is not right, Hal comes back. No runaround.
Our Gate Parts & Welding Services in Arlington
Hinge Replacement
Hinges fail in Arlington in a particular way: the post heaves out of plumb over winter, the hinge binds, and the gate drags or refuses to latch. Replacing a hinge without correcting the post is a waste of your money. We check the post first, get it square, then weld or bolt the new hinge on. A typical hinge replacement in Arlington runs $150-$350 per hinge, including straightening the leaf and adjusting the gate to sit level. Old ornamental iron hinges on Victorian-era gates respond well to welding rather than drilling, which preserves the original look.
Post Replacement
Post failure is the dominant gate repair need in Arlington because most footings were dug shallow a century ago, long before anyone accounted for 36-48 inch frost penetration. Every winter, the ground under those footings freezes, expands, and lifts the post. By spring, the gate is half an inch out of square and the latch won’t catch. Post replacement in Arlington runs $400-$1,200 depending on whether we drill new concrete footings below the frost line, reset the existing post, or replace the post entirely. In East Arlington, where brick pillars from the early 1900s sit on shallow footings, we often correct both the pillar and the gate to get everything working as one assembly.
Rail Repair
Bent or broken rails are common on Arlington’s narrow side streets, where a car backing out of a tight driveway clips the gate. If the rail is bent but the welds are intact, we straighten it in place. If a weld has cracked, especially at the hinge plate where solid infill gates catch the wind, we grind it clean and re-weld it right there. Rail repair typically runs $150-$450 in Arlington. We see a lot of rail damage on two-family properties on Webster Street and along the streets off Mass Ave, where driveway space is tight and gates open close to the road.
Custom Welding
Custom welding covers anything from fabricating a new steel hinge plate for a 1920s iron gate to welding a broken picket back into a wooden frame with a steel reinforcement plate. We carry steel, aluminum, and wrought-iron stock on the truck, so most custom welding in Arlington happens in one visit. Custom welding jobs in Arlington run $250-$900 depending on the length of bead, the material, and how much prep work the old metal needs. Hal has been welding gates since 2001, and if the existing iron is worth saving, he will tell you so instead of trying to sell you a new gate.
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 Arlington
We service and stock parts for LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule. For Arlington’s automatic gate systems, most calls involve Linear, Viking, and Ghost Controls operators paired with older iron gates that have shifted over time. When a homeowner near Arlington Center needs a new circuit board or a set of safety photocells for a Ghost Controls opener, we usually have the part on the truck or at our shop, ready to go the same day. A live person answers our phone at (877) 610-2993, and Hal can walk you through what part your gate actually needs before we even come out.
Common Gate Parts & Welding Problems We See in Arlington Homes
- Hinge posts heaving out of plumb every winter. The frost line in Arlington reaches 36-48 inches, but most pre-1940 footings only go down 18-24 inches. Every freeze-thaw cycle lifts the post a little, the hinge binds, and the gate stops latching. Fixing the hinge alone doesn’t help because the post is the problem.
- Brick gate pillars settling independently. On residential side streets off Massachusetts Avenue through East Arlington, original early-1900s brick pillars frequently settle at different rates. That leaves a gate simultaneously out of plumb and out of square, which means the latch won’t line up no matter how many times you adjust it.
- Wooden gate posts rotting at the base. Low-lying areas near Spy Pond and along the Mystic River side of town see elevated seasonal ground moisture. The base of a wooden post sits damp for weeks, creating rot that makes the whole gate sag and drag on the driveway.
- Weld cracks at the hinge plate from wind load. Solid infill gates catch nor’easter winds and torque against century-old shallow footings. The highest stress concentrates at the hinge plate, and that’s where the weld eventually cracks. We re-weld that joint and often add a gusset for strength.
Pricing for Gate Parts & Welding in Arlington, MA
Here are the numbers we quote in Arlington, in writing, before any work starts:
| Hinge replacement | $150 - $350 per hinge |
| Post reset or replacement | $400 - $1,200 |
| Rail repair or straightening | $150 - $450 |
| Custom welding | $250 - $900 |
| Latch and lock repair | $120 - $280 |
| Gate roller replacement | $180 - $400 |
What affects the price: whether the post footing needs re-digging below the frost line, whether we are welding original wrought iron or modern steel, and how far the gate is from where we can park the truck. Your price is quoted and agreed before any work begins. If a post is too far gone to save, we show you why and tell you what a replacement costs before we touch it. There is no trip charge inside the county, we offer $40 off any repair over $200, and seniors and veterans get a permanent 10% discount. Estimates are free. Call (877) 610-2993 and ask Hal to come look.
We Also Serve Cities Near Arlington
Our crews serve Gate Parts & Welding in Arlington and the surrounding towns, including Belmont, Winchester, Medford, and Watertown. If you’re just over the line, we’ll know the neighborhood and the age of your house before we arrive. Call (877) 610-2993 and tell us where you are.
Serving Arlington, MA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Arlington 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 Parts & Welding in Arlington
Because the hinges were never the real problem. In Arlington, your hinge post sits in a footing that was dug 18-24 inches deep a century ago. Frost goes down 36-48 inches here. Every winter the ground under that footing freezes, heaves, and lifts the post out of plumb. The hinge binds, the gate sags, and it looks like a hinge problem, but it’s a post problem. Until the post is reset below the frost line or re-squared, any hinge work will fail again within a season. We see this every spring in Arlington. Call (877) 610-2993 for an on-site assessment, free of charge.
Every automatic gate has a manual release mechanism. On most LiftMaster, Viking, Linear, and Ghost Controls swing gate operators, there’s a release handle or key that disengages the drive arm. With the power out, you pull that release, the gate swings free, and you can open it by hand. In Arlington, we recommend checking where that release is before a nor’easter hits, because if the gate is solid infill and parked in high wind, you don’t want to be prying at it during the storm. If your release is rusted shut or you can’t find it, call us at (877) 610-2993 and we’ll get it freed up and show you how it works.
Yes, and we prefer to. Most of the original ironwork we see on Arlington’s Victorians and Colonial Revival homes is better material than what’s sold today, just older. We can weld new hinge plates to original iron, repair cracked scrollwork, replace rusted latches with period-appropriate hardware, and re-set the original posts. We don’t replace a gate that can be saved. On a side street off Massachusetts Avenue in East Arlington, our crew reset a 1910s brick gate pillar that had settled 3 inches out of square, then welded a new steel hinge plate to the original iron gate. The gate stayed with the house, as it should. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll come see yours.
Usually not. In Arlington, the brick pillars on early-1900s homes settled independently because each one sits on its own shallow footing. One pillar drops, the other stays, and the gate is suddenly out of square. We can often lift and re-level the settled pillar, bed it on a new footing below the frost line, and have the gate latching again without rebuilding from scratch. We replaced the LiftMaster swing gate operator’s safety photocells after reinstalling the pillar on that East Arlington job, because the old ones were aimed at a post that no longer existed in its original plane. If your pillar moved, call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll tell you what’s recoverable.
Yes, and if your gate operator was installed after 2001, it should already have UL-listed entrapment protection, meaning safety photocells or contact edges that stop and reverse the gate if a person or vehicle is in its path. Arlington follows Massachusetts building and electrical codes on this, and any reputable gate service will tell you never to defeat those sensors. If a previous contractor bypassed them or aimed them wrong, that’s a repair we will flag and fix. Call (877) 610-2993 for an on-site safety check and a free estimate.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Arlington, MA. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free estimate, any hour.