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 Repair Across Pontiac
Gate repair in Pontiac typically costs $180 to $650 depending on whether you’re dealing with a sagging hinge post, a dead operator, or a rusted-through frame. Most hinge and realignment jobs we finish the same day we show up. Hal Gatewood has been running Gatewood Fence & Gate since 2001, and when you call (877) 610-2993, a live person answers. Not a queue. Not a call center three states away. We know the gates in this city because we’ve been welding, resetting, and re-hanging them here for years. If you live off Baldwin Road or near the old GM plant neighborhoods, you know what a Michigan winter does to steel.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Pontiac’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We repair what other outfits want to replace. That is the whole difference, and it matters even more in Pontiac than it does in Auburn Hills or Troy. Pontiac’s housing stock runs older, and the gates on those 1920s bungalows and 1940s worker cottages are often solid steel that simply needs a new post footing or a fresh weld. A national company will tell you to buy a new aluminum gate for $4,000 when the real problem was an $85 hinge pin and two hours of realignment. We won’t do that to you.
Our Gate Repair crew has worked driveways across the 48340, 48341, 48342, and 48343 ZIPs. Homeowners around the Franklin Boulevard corridor and the neighborhood streets west of Woodward know us. We answer the phone day or night, we show up when we say we will, and every job carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not right, we come back and make it right. No runaround.
Our Gate Repair Services in Pontiac
We handle the full range of gate problems you’ll find in this city, but four of them dominate the calls we get from Pontiac homeowners. Here’s how we approach each one, with the local conditions factored in.
Electric Gate Repair
Electric gate operators in Pontiac endure a beating from freeze-thaw cycles and moisture. When snowmelt pools at the base of a 48340 side-drive and seeps into the control board housing, you get a board that works sometimes and dies other times. We diagnose the specific fault, from a failed relay to a shorted capacitor, and we replace only what’s genuinely bad. Hal carries boards and components for a range of older operators, including models other companies won’t touch.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gates in Pontiac almost always fail for one of two reasons: the post shifted and the gate now binds against the operator rail, or the motor seized after years of fighting a misaligned leaf. We check the geometry first. If the post has heaved out of plumb, we reset it before we touch the operator. There’s no point bolting a $600 gearbox to a post that moves half an inch every spring.
Hinge & Post Repair
This is the one we care about most in Pontiac. A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle, and that is where we start. South of 30 to 40 inches, Southeast Michigan frost pushes against concrete and steel every winter. The post heaves. The gate drops. The hinges bind. We dig the footing below the frost line, set the post in fresh concrete, and weld or replace hinges as needed. Fix the panel without the post and you’ll fix it twice. We tell you that before you spend a dime.
Gate Realignment
After we reset posts and replace worn hinges, the gate leaf has to be re-hung true. That means checking the reveal gaps, adjusting the latch catch, and re-leveling the operator rack so the motor isn’t dragging. On the older ornamental iron gates around Pontiac, realignment often reveals secondary issues: a cracked weld at a mid-rail, a latch that no longer nests, a wheel that’s worn flat. We handle all of it on site.
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 Pontiac
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands, and the ones we see most in Pontiac are Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and Elite. A lot of the operator boxes bolted to gates in this city date back 15 to 25 years, which means we’re frequently pulling apart equipment that most companies stopped supporting. We keep a local parts inventory because driving to Pontiac twice in one week for the same gate burns our time and your patience. When the part is on our truck, the job gets done that day.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Pontiac Homes
These are not generic gate issues. These are the ones tied to Pontiac’s housing stock, road salt, and winter freeze-thaw cycle. We see them every week from the 48340 ZIP up through 48343.
- Spring sag from frost-heaved posts. Ground frost penetrates 30 to 40 inches in Pontiac every winter. When the bottom of the post is frozen solid and the top of the gate is pulling down against it, the whole leaf tilts, the latch misses, and the operator stalls. The quick fix of adjusting hinges works for a few weeks until the frost fully releases. Reset the post below the frost line and it stays put for decades.
- Rusted-through hinge pins and bottom rails. Road salt runoff off city streets gets kicked up onto gates all winter. On a chain-link gate along Orchard Lake Road or a steel ornamental gate off Woodward, that salt sits in the hinge barrel and eats the pin from the inside. We see pins that snap clean through when the gate swings open in March. Rust repair and pin replacement are daily work for us here.
- Investor-flipped properties hiding bad footings. Pontiac has a lot of investor-rehabbed homes. The fence gets painted, the hardware gets shined, and the cracked post footing gets buried behind fresh gravel. Then a new gate operator goes on and fails within a month because the post shifts under load. We check the footing before we hang any new hardware. A pretty panel on a broken post holds no gate.
- Obsolete operators on gates built before modern safety standards. Many gates in Pontiac were hung in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s. The original operator may have no photocells, no reversing edge, no current sensing. We can often retrofit new safety hardware onto an old operator if the motor and board are still sound. When the unit is beyond repair, we’ll tell you honestly and quote a replacement that fits the existing gate without butchering it.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Pontiac, MI
A hinge pin replacement or latch adjustment on a chain-link or ornamental gate in Pontiac typically runs $180 to $260. Gate realignment with post checks runs $250 to $400 depending on the gate size and how far out of plumb it sits. Resetting a frost-heaved post in fresh concrete runs $450 to $650 per post, including full-depth excavation, re-setting, and re-hanging the leaf. Automatic gate operator repairs run $280 to $750 depending on whether it’s a capacitor, a control board, or a full gearbox replacement. Motor replacements for swing gates generally run $700 to $1,200 installed. Every job gets a written price agreed before any work begins. No surprise invoice at the door. No trip charge anywhere inside Oakland County, and we take $40 off any repair over $200 straight off the bill. Seniors and veterans get a permanent 10% discount. Free second opinion on any written estimate from another company.
We Also Serve Cities Near Pontiac
While this page is focused on Pontiac, our crews are on the road daily to Auburn Hills, Waterford, West Bloomfield Township, and Troy. If you are just over the city line, Gate Repair in Pontiac is the page for you, or you can call us directly at (877) 610-2993. Scheduling and dispatching are coordinated from our Detroit office, and Pontiac is served by the same local crew every week.
Serving Pontiac, MI - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Pontiac 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 Pontiac
Your post is heaving. Pontiac’s ground frost reaches 30 to 40 inches deep each winter, and when the frozen soil swells, it pushes the gate post up just enough that the leaf drops and the hinges bind. Adjusting the hinges is a bandage. We dig below the frost line, set the post plumb in fresh concrete, and the sag does not come back in April. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll come look at it free.
Usually we can repair it. Older operators from the 1990s and early 2000s were built with serviceable components. We stock control boards, capacitors, and gearboxes for Legacy brands like Viking and DoorKing, and we can retrofit modern safety photocells and reversing edges onto an old motor. Replacement only makes sense when the board is fried and the gearbox is stripped. We’ll show you the failed part and tell you honestly what a repair costs versus a replacement.
Half the time, yes. If the post is structurally sound above the rust line and only the base plate or lower few inches are corroded, we can cut out the rot, weld in fresh steel, and reinforce the joint with a gusset. But if the rust has compromised the post below the concrete line, a patch will hide the problem until the post folds under gate weight. We’ll inspect it and tell you which case you have. In Pontiac’s salt-heavy environment, base rust is common, and a real repair starts with knowing how deep it goes. Call us at (877) 610-2993 to schedule a look.
We reset posts year round, including winter. Digging through frozen ground to the frost line is harder work, but it’s the same job. We use excavation equipment, pour fast-setting concrete designed for cold weather, and often brace the gate in a temporary position until the footing cures. There is no point waiting months with a gate that won’t close. If your post heaved and the gate is binding, call us in December. We’ll fix it in December.
The cold is shrinking the metal and the post movement is binding the leaf against the operator rail. In Pontiac, this is a late-January and February complaint because the frost has fully gripped the post footing and shifted it a fraction of an inch, which is all it takes. The operator’s force sensor may be tripping or the rack and pinion are fighting the misalignment. We check the post first, then adjust or replace the rack, then recalibrate the opener’s force limits and travel distance. That order matters. Most companies start at the opener and never find the post. We fix the first thing first.
If your gate is sagging, stalling, rusted, or dead, call Gatewood Fence & Gate at (877) 610-2993. Hal Gatewood answers his own phone most nights, and a live person is on the line 24/7. We’ll quote the job before we start, show up in the window we promised, and stand behind the work with the 90-Day Done Right Promise. Written on every invoice. No fine print.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Pontiac since 2001.