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 Parts & Welding Across Cheney
Most gate failures in Cheney start underground, and the ground here is the problem. The Channeled Scablands put fractured basalt bedrock just 12 to 18 inches below the surface, which is nowhere near the frost depth a hard eastern Washington winter demands. Posts set shallow into that rock heave every spring, gates sag, hinges tear, and welds crack under the strain. We see it weekly. Gatewood Fence & Gate has been fixing these failures since 2001, and we fix them in your driveway, on site, without hauling your gate to a shop. On wide farm gates off Salnave Road or weathered swing gates on EWU rental properties off Washington Street, we bring the welding rig, the right anchors, and the parts to make it right the first time. Hal Gatewood’s name is on every invoice. Call (877) 610-2993 and a live person answers, day or night.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Cheney’s Preferred Gate Parts & Welding Company
Cheney homeowners have a particular kind of gate problem, and we’ve spent 29 years learning exactly how to solve it. This town’s basalt geology means standard dig-and-reset post methods fail repeatedly, yet plenty of gate companies keep trying them anyway. We don’t. Our crew carries surface-mount post anchors and concrete fast-set on every Cheney job, because hitting solid rock at 14 inches is a near-weekly occurrence in the scablands soil profile around town. Standard post-setting methods that work fine in alluvial Spokane Valley soils simply don’t apply here, and a company that doesn’t know that will leave you with a gate that leans again by next spring.
We’re locally owned and owner-operated. Hal Gatewood lives in the region, his shop address is published, and when you call, you don’t get a voicemail or a call center three states away. You get a person. A live person, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our reputation in Cheney is built on showing up when we say we will, welding on site, and standing behind every job with a written 90-Day Done Right Promise. If it’s not right, we make it right. No runaround, no fine print.
Every job is done by background-checked, uniformed people who actually know gate hardware. We service nine major gate brands, including Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing. And we never swap parts that don’t need swapping. If we can fix a hinge in place rather than sell you a new one, we will. That’s the whole point of hiring a repair-first shop rather than a replacement company.
Our Gate Parts & Welding Services in Cheney
Our Gate Parts & Welding team handles the full scope of hardware and steel work on both residential and agricultural gates across Cheney. Most of what we do falls into four areas. Here’s how each one plays out on the ground here.
Hinge Replacement
Hinge failure on a Cheney gate rarely starts at the hinge itself. It starts at the post. When a post heaves out of plumb from freeze-thaw cycling into shallow basalt, the gate’s weight shifts onto the top hinge, which tears loose or shears its bolts. Squared single-family gates near the EWU corridor and heavy tubular steel farm gates both suffer this. We replace the hinge only after we’ve confirmed the post is stable and plumb, which is the difference between a repair that lasts and one that fails again within a year. Hinge replacement in Cheney typically runs $150 to $350 depending on the gate’s weight and steel thickness.
Post Replacement
This is the most common job we handle in Cheney, and it’s the one where local geology matters most. A post reset by standard digging methods will fail here, because the auger hits basalt before it reaches frost depth. We use surface-mount post anchors and structural epoxy or concrete fast-set to lock a new post into the rock properly. When frost heaves the ground, the post stays put. Post replacement in Cheney generally costs $400 to $900 per post, including anchoring hardware and cleanup. The wide farm gates on the agricultural fringe south of town often require heavier steel posts and larger base plates, which pushes toward the upper end of that range and sometimes beyond for double-post setups.
Rail Repair
Top and bottom rails take the brunt of the strain when a gate sags, and on Cheney’s utilitarian farm-style swing gates, cracked rails are common. We weld cracked rails in place on most jobs, reinforcing the steel with gusset plates where the original fabrication was too light to hold up to wind load and frost-driven post movement. Rail repair in Cheney runs $200 to $500 for a typical crack or split, and we quote the full price before any work starts. You’ll know the number before we strike an arc.
Custom Welding
Some gates can’t be repaired with off-the-shelf parts. A wide farm gate with an unusual post spacing, a gate that a previous owner welded poorly, a hinge location that was never quite right. We fabricate on site. Custom welding in Cheney includes crack repair, gusset reinforcement, hinge relocation, latch mounting plates, and full gate modifications. Most custom welding jobs run $250 to $700, depending on steel thickness and how much of the gate we need to cut apart and rebuild. We’ll give you a written number before we begin, and that number will not change at the door.
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 Cheney
We work on gate hardware from nine major brands, and on Cheney jobs we most often find Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing equipment out in the field. We carry the common parts for these brands on our trucks, so we can usually finish a repair in one trip rather than ordering parts and leaving your gate swinging loose for a week. Wide farm gates and long driveway entrances in the Cheney area are frequently fitted with heavier-duty operators from these brands, and we’re certified to service all of them. If your gate has been running for 15 years and finally quit during a January cold snap, there’s a good chance we know exactly what failed before we even open the panel.
Common Gate Parts & Welding Problems We See in Cheney Homes
- Post footing heave in shallow basalt. Cheney’s scablands geology means posts pivot when frozen ground expands, and shallow-set posts rock out of plumb. That movement transfers force into the gate, stressing hinges until the welds crack.
- Sagging swing gates on neglected EWU rental properties. The student rental corridor produces a lot of deferred maintenance. Worn hinge posts, seized latches from frost, and gates that have dragged against the ground for so long they’ve bent their own frames.
- Solar gate opener battery failure in hard winters. Cheney’s sustained sub-freezing periods drop panel output while battery chemistry slows, leaving wide farm gates inoperable without a manual override. If the manual override was never installed or has seized, the gate becomes a very heavy chore.
- Cracked welds on tubular steel frames. Repeated freeze-thaw cycling, wind load on the open plateau at 2,400 feet, and the weight of a wide gate pulling against a post that has shifted all combine to stress welds until they fail. Often the crack appears at the hinge mount or where the rail meets the post side.
Pricing for Gate Parts & Welding in Cheney, WA
Here is what we actually charge in the Cheney market, in writing, before you commit to anything. A hinge replacement typically runs $150 to $350. A post replacement, which in Cheney almost always involves surface-mount anchoring into basalt rather than a simple dig-and-set, runs $400 to $900 per post. Rail repair lands between $200 and $500. Custom welding work spans $250 to $700 for most residential and light agricultural jobs. A full gate repair involving a post and a hinge or a rail and a latch might run $600 to $1,400 on the high end.
What pushes cost up is the post situation. When we hit basalt at 14 inches and have to switch to rock anchors, that’s more material and more time than a standard Midwest-style posthole job. But the price is agreed before we begin, in writing, and it won’t change when we’re done. We also offer $40 off any repair over $200, no trip charge inside the county, a free second opinion on any written estimate from another company, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Call (877) 610-2993 for an exact quote on your gate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Cheney
If you’re just outside town, we regularly work in Airway Heights, Spokane, Dishman, and Opportunity, and the same live-answer phone line connects you to us. Our Gate Parts & Welding in Cheney work extends to the agricultural parcels around every one of these communities, so if you’re on the edge of a service boundary, call and we’ll tell you honestly if we can get there this week.
Serving Cheney, WA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Cheney 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 Cheney
Because Cheney’s soil profile is channeled scabland, with fractured basalt bedrock sitting 12 to 18 inches below grade, which is far shallower than the frost depth that a hard plateau winter reaches. A standard dig-and-reset job sets the post into barely enough ground to survive one winter before the next freeze-thaw cycle starts rocking it again. The fix is a surface-mount post anchor set into the basalt with structural epoxy or concrete fast-set, which locks the post to the rock rather than relying on dirt. That is the method we use on every post reset in Cheney. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll quote your post by address.
We weld in place every time it’s safe and practical, and on Cheney’s farm gates it almost always is. Hauling a 300-pound gate to a shop is the kind of thing replacement companies prefer, but it costs you time and money. Our welding rig comes to your driveway, we grind out the crack, weld it, and reinforce with a gusset plate where the original steel was too light. If a gate is too far gone to weld safely, we’ll tell you that too, with a written reason and a repair alternative before you pay anything.
Solar openers do work year-round in Cheney, but only if they’re set up for it. Cheney’s sustained sub-freezing periods drop panel output and slow battery chemistry, and many failures in January and February are batteries that weren’t sized for the plateau. We test the panel’s output, check battery capacity against the gate’s draw, and if needed we add a winter charging regime or a larger battery. If the gate opener is beyond saving, we service and install Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing operators that we can have working before the next cold snap. Call (877) 610-2993 and ask for a free winterization check on your opener.
A hinge replacement swaps the moving hardware; a hinge post replacement fixes the foundation. On a sagging gate, the hinge usually isn’t the root cause. The post has moved, and as it leans, the gate’s full weight pulls against the top hinge until something fails. If you replace only the hinge, the post keeps leaning, and your new hinge fails again within a year. In Cheney, where posts heave out of plumb continuously, we always check the post first. That’s the difference between a $200 repair and a $200 repair that becomes a $900 repair next spring.
You stop digging and you anchor. Digging further into fractured basalt is a losing battle, and the post won’t survive Cheney’s freeze-thaw cycles at that depth anyway. We use a surface-mount post anchor designed for rock, drill into the basalt, set studs or bolts with structural epoxy or concrete fast-set, and mount the post base plate on top. The post is then locked to the rock, not set in dirt, and frost heave can’t pivot it. That’s the standard we use on every Cheney post job, and we carry the anchors and fast-set on every truck. Call (877) 610-2993 to schedule a post assessment.
If your gate is leaning, dragging, or dead in Cheney, call (877) 610-2993. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the invoice, the shop address is published, and every job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. Estimates are free, and a live person answers around the clock.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Cheney’s gate parts and welding needs since the shop opened in 2001.