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 Repair Across Dunbar
Gate repair in Dunbar runs anywhere from $140 for a simple hinge adjustment to $900+ for a full post reset and weld repair after the Kanawha River does its spring work. We get to Dunbar homes fast, usually same day or next morning, because we know a gate that won’t close isn’t just annoying when you’re on Dunbar Avenue at 6 a.m. with the truck running. Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and the person who shows up is the kind who will tell you honestly if a post can be saved or if it’s time to dig a new footing. Call (877) 610-2993 and you’ll talk to a live person, not a recording.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Dunbar’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Dunbar homeowners see our trucks on the same streets they drive every day – 10th Street, Grandview, and the river flats west of Route 25. We’ve been in and out of those neighborhoods long enough to know which gates were hung in the 1950s and which ones got a Lowe’s special sometime around 2008. That history matters. A gate that has sagged in the hinge post for 20 years needs a different fix than one that got knocked out of plumb last winter.
Our Gate Repair crew works Dunbar regularly, and the guy who welds your hinge back square is likely the same guy who answers when you call back in July with a question. There’s no dispatch queue and no voicemail tree. You call, Hal or one of his crew answers, and you get a time window that actually holds. Local homeowners know the difference. We carry parts for the brands already installed all over Dunbar’s post-WWII housing stock, so we don’t have to order something from a warehouse while your gate hangs open for a week.
Every job carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s written on the invoice, not mentioned in a radio ad. If the gate binds again, call and we come back. That’s it. Hal stands behind the work because his name is on the shop, and people in Dunbar know where to find him.
Our Gate Repair Services in Dunbar
Electric Gate Repair
Electric gate repair in Dunbar often means replacing circuit boards, keypads, loop detectors, and safety photocells that have cooked through years of Kanawha Valley humidity and airborne grit. We service LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking systems every week. If your opener hums but the gate won’t move, call us before you force it. Forcing it usually eats the gear and turns a $180 fix into a $600 one. We stock common circuit boards on the truck so we can often repair in one trip.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gates in Dunbar have a specific set of problems, and most trace back to the same two things: rust-thick hinge resistance and control boards shorted by spring moisture. A gate that works fine in October and then refuses to open in April is usually running on a corroded safety edge or a photo eye that’s been coated in river silt. We’ll diagnose it on site, quote you a number before any work starts, and you’ll know exactly what you’re paying before a wrench turns.
Hinge & Post Repair
This is where Dunbar’s clay soil makes its presence known. A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle, and in Dunbar the hinge post sits in expansive clay that heaves every freeze-thaw cycle from December through March. We dig out rotted or cracked footings, set new concrete with the right depth for this soil, and weld hinge brackets back square. A hinge and post repair in Dunbar typically runs $220 to $550 depending on whether we’re resetting one post or both. Fix the panel without the post and you’ll fix it twice, and whoever quoted you half the price knows that as well as we do.
Gate Realignment
Realignment after flooding or frost heave is one of our most common Dunbar calls. The gate drags across the driveway, the latch won’t reach the post, or the swing arc is off by an inch and a half. We’ll measure the reveal on both sides, find where the post moved, and get the gate swinging true again. Realignment in Dunbar runs $140 to $300 for a straightforward job. If the cracks in the concrete footing suggest the post will move again, we’ll tell you, show you, and quote the footing replacement before you decide 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 Dunbar
We repair every major gate brand you’ll find in Dunbar, but four names come up constantly on the post-WWII ranches and river-proximate properties here: FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking. Our truck carries control boards, remote transmitters, safety photocells, and keypads for all of them, which means no waiting on a parts shipment from a distributor when your gate is stuck halfway open. If your opener is an older LiftMaster on its last legs, we’ll tell you that too, and we won’t pretend a new circuit board will resurrect a motor that’s been soaking in valley humidity for 25 years. We’d rather weld new hinge plates for a third year of service than sell you a part that won’t fix the real problem.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Dunbar Homes
- Weather-shifted posts from Kanawha Valley freeze-thaw cycles. Dunbar’s clay soil holds water through winter, freezes, and heaves footings out of alignment. By March, gates that were plumb in the fall are binding or dragging an inch out of level. We reset the post, not just the gate.
- Rusted-out hinges and latches from Chemical Valley air. The same industrial particulates that hang in the air along the Kanawha River coat your gate hardware and speed up rust. Hinges seize, latches snap, and we replace them before the day the gate swings free into the street.
- Flood-silted gate tracks and loop detectors on slide gates. Spring high water pushes silt into tracks, packs loop detector housings, and breaks rack and pinion gears. We see it every year on river-side properties in Dunbar’s 25064 ZIP.
- Warped and split wooden gate frames from repeated saturation. Riverside gates that get submerged in a spring crest dry out warped. We weld steel reinforcement or rebuild the frame, and if the gate is worth saving, Hal will tell you straight.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Dunbar, WV
Here are the numbers we actually quote in Dunbar. A hinge replacement runs $140 to $260 depending on size and weld access. Post resets with new concrete run $350 to $550 per post. Full gate realignment runs $140 to $300. Circuit board replacement for an automatic opener is $180 to $450 depending on the brand and your opener’s age. Weld and rust repair work on a steel gate runs $180 to $700 depending on how far the rust has gone and how much fitting we need to do on site.
We quote you a price before any work starts, and that price doesn’t change unless we find damage that genuinely changes the job and we talk to you about it first. Inside the county, there’s no trip charge. You also get $40 off any repair over $200, and a free second opinion on any written estimate you bring us. Seniors and veterans always get a permanent 10% discount. Call (877) 610-2993 for an exact quote. Estimates are free.
We Also Serve Cities Near Dunbar
Our crews also cover Gate Repair in Dunbar‘s neighboring communities: South Charleston, Cross Lanes, Saint Albans, and Nitro. If you’re just outside the Dunbar line, call us anyway. We’ll come out, and if it’s not our job, we’ll tell you who to call instead of selling you something.
Serving Dunbar, WV - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Dunbar 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 Repair in Dunbar
The river’s spring crest saturates the clay around your gate posts, and saturated clay loses strength, letting the post lean in its footing. When the water recedes, silt packs the hole, the post stays tilted, and the gate binds or drags. We see gates that were plumb in October sag a full inch or more by June. The fix is a post reset in new concrete, not a gate adjustment. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll measure the lean before you spend money on anything else.
The legacy industrial air corridor along the Kanawha River carries elevated particulates that settle on metal and accelerate oxidation, so hinges and latches in Dunbar rust through measurably faster than gates just a few miles inland. We’ve pulled hinge pins that looked fine on the outside and were paper-thin inside. The practical answer is that Dunbar gates need hardware replacement more often than the same gate would in Nitro or Cross Lanes. We stock the hinges and latches to do it same-day.
If the power is out and you need to open the gate, use the manual release on the opener, usually a small lever or keyed mechanism on the motor housing. It disengages the drive so you can push the gate by hand. Don’t force the gate without releasing it; that strips the gear. If the gate won’t release or you don’t know where the release is, call us, and we’ll walk you through it over the phone or drive out. Your safety matters more than getting the truck out. After a bad storm, especially with flooding, call us to check the loop detector and safety edges before you rely on the automatic function again.
Yes, and we see it on riverside Dunbar properties every spring. Floodwater pushes sediment into the rack teeth and the pinion gear, and when the opener tries to move the gate, the silt grinds the gears or jams the drive outright. Loop detectors fail the same way when silt packs the housing. After a flood event, we check the rack and pinion, the loop detector, and the track before the gate gets tested, because running it dirty is how you turn a cleanup job into a new drive system. If the floodwater touched your gate, call us before you hit the remote.
Dunbar’s post-WWII homes were built with gate footings that are undersized for the valley’s expansive clay. That clay absorbs water during floods, freezes in winter, and heaves, slowly cracking the concrete around your posts. After 50 to 70 years, the footing is often too broken to hold the post plumb, and no amount of gate adjustment will fix it. We dig the old footing out, set new concrete with proper depth and drainage, and reset the post square. The gate stays where it belongs, not where the clay pushes it. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free estimate on a post reset in Dunbar.
Gatewood Fence & Gate serves Dunbar from our Charleston office, and Hal Gatewood is at the shop and on the phone. Call (877) 610-2993 any time. A live person answers, 24/7, and we’ll give you a straight answer before we ever set a foot on your driveway.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Dunbar since 2001.