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 San Mateo
If your gate is sagging, stuck, or the motor quit in San Mateo, here is the short answer: most gate repairs here run $220 to $680, and we can usually get to homes in San Mateo the same day you call. Gatewood Fence & Gate has been fixing gates since 2001, and we handle everything from a rusted ornamental iron side gate in a 1950s ranch home in the Aragon neighborhood to automated driveway gate operators in the bay-front 94404 zip code. We do the work in your driveway, quote the price before we start, and back every job with our 90-Day Done Right Promise. Call (877) 610-2993 and a person answers. Not a voicemail. Not a call center.
Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop, his license number is published, and the people who show up at your gate are the same ones who will come back if anything is not right. That is the whole point of hiring local in San Mateo.
Key takeaways:
- Most San Mateo gate repairs run $220 to $680, with operator replacements higher.
- Same-day service is available for repair calls in San Mateo.
- We weld on site. We do not haul your gate away unless it genuinely cannot be saved.
- $40 off any repair over $200. No trip charge inside the county for repair work.
- 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing on every job.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is San Mateo’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We are not a franchise. We do not send a rotating cast of subcontractors. Hal Gatewood founded this company in 2001 and still runs it himself, and his crew works the same neighborhoods year after year. Homeowners in San Mateo have seen us at the hardware store, in the permit office, and at their neighbor’s house. We have a published address and a license number anyone can look up. If you want to know who you are hiring, that is a good sign.
Reviews from San Mateo customers mention the same things: the person who answered the phone actually knew about gates, the crew showed up in the window they promised, and the price quoted was the price on the invoice. We answer calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a live person. If your gate dies on a Saturday morning before a house full of weekend guests, you reach a human being who can help.
Response time to San Mateo is typically same day for repair calls, and often within a few hours depending on your neighborhood. We know the difference between a 94404 bay-front property and a 94402 hillside estate, and that matters more than you might think. The hinge that fails on Burlingame Avenue is not the same hinge that fails on a lagoon-facing driveway in Mariners Island.
Our Gate Repair Services in San Mateo
We are the Gate Repair team that fixes the gate you have before we talk about replacing it. A lot of companies in the Bay Area would rather sell you a new gate and a new operator and be gone by noon. Hal would rather weld the crack, replace the hinge, and send you a bill for a fraction of that. We still replace gates when replacement is cheaper than repair, but that is your call after we show you the actual condition of what you have.
Electric Gate Repair
A San Mateo Gate Motor & Opener deals with two things most of the Peninsula does not: persistent marine-layer moisture and, in the eastern zip codes, actual salt-air particulate. We repair corroded control boards, dead transformers, failed limit switches, and wiring that has oxidized at the terminals. If a board can be rebuilt or conformal-coated and put back in service, we do that before we quote you a new operator. We service FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, and five other major brands, so you are not locked into calling the manufacturer and hoping for the best.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic driveway gates with safety photocells, loop detectors, or edge sensors often fail not because the motor is bad but because a sensor is misaligned or a hinge has sagged enough to throw the gate off track. In San Mateo’s HOA communities, especially newer developments in 94403 and 94404, many gates are tied into Gate Access Control in San Mateo systems so a faulty operator can shut down access for an entire building, not just your driveway. We diagnose the actual failure before we touch anything, and the repair price is agreed on before we start the work.
Hinge & Post Repair
A gate does not sag in the middle. It sags at the hinge post. That is where we start every time. In San Mateo’s bay-front zip codes, hinge posts rust through at the footing faster than almost anywhere else on the Peninsula, because the soil stays damp from the high water table and the air carries salt from the bay. We cut out the rotten section or replace the post entirely, then handle San Mateo Gate Parts & Welding right in your driveway, and set everything back to true. Fix the gate panel without addressing the post and you will fix it again next year. We would rather do it once.
Gate Realignment
Older side gates on San Mateo’s 1940s through 1960s ranch homes often drag on the ground after rainy weeks, not because the gate warped but because the post shifted in saturated soil. We realign the gate by re-hanging it on reinforced hardware rather than trimming the bottom of the panel, which only hides the problem. If you live on a hillside property in 94402 near Hillsborough, your gate may also be fighting the slope every time it swings, and we account for that in how we set the hinges and the closer tension.
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 San Mateo
We are certified to service nine major operator brands, but in San Mateo the ones we see most often are FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Viking. Each has its own failure patterns, and each needs different replacement parts that are not interchangeable. We keep a rolling stock of common parts for the brands we service, which means a Linear operator that loses its limit switch in San Mateo does not have to wait two weeks for a part to ship from a warehouse in Texas. Faster turnaround, and we only put in a part that was made for that operator, not a universal workaround that costs you more later.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in San Mateo Homes
- Salt-air hinge and frame pitting in 94404 and bay-adjacent lagoon streets. Ferrous metal gates near the water show structural rust within five to seven years of a standard installation, and hinge posts can fail at the footing where salt and groundwater meet. We quote marine-grade stainless hinges as the default for bay-front properties because standard galvanized hardware simply does not last here.
- Corroded operator circuit boards and motor housings in 94403 and 94404. The marine layer keeps humidity high even during dry sunny stretches, and that moisture works its way into control boards over time. We have opened operators in Mariners Island where the board looked like it had been dipped in seawater, even though the housing was still sealed.
- Motor overload and burnout on steep hillside driveways in 94402. Estate gates on grades near Hillsborough were sometimes installed with operators that were not properly slope-compensated, so the motor works harder on every cycle and burns out years early. We check slope load as part of every hillside repair, not just the motor itself.
- Worn swing hinges on original 1950s and 1960s ornamental iron gates. Many of the side and rear yard gates on San Mateo’s post-war ranch homes are now 60 to 70 years old, with decades of marine-layer moisture cycling through the hinges. They typically need new hinge barrels or freshly welded hinge plates rather than full gate replacement, which a lot of companies will not tell you because it is more profitable to sell a new gate.
Pricing for Gate Repair in San Mateo, CA
Here is what gate repair actually costs in San Mateo, so you have a frame of reference before you call. A simple hinge replacement or gate realignment typically runs $220 to $380. Weld and rust repair on an ornamental iron gate usually falls between $300 and $550 depending on how many sections are compromised. Electric gate operator repair, including diagnostic work and parts, generally runs $350 to $680. Full operator replacement for a Viking, FAAC, or BFT unit on a standard single driveway gate in San Mateo typically lands between $1,100 and $2,400 installed, with the higher end reflecting larger estate gates or hillside installations in 94402 that need slope compensation. Every price is quoted and agreed on in writing before any work starts. You will never get a surprise invoice at the end. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free estimate. We also take $40 off any repair over $200, and we do not charge a trip fee for repair calls inside the county.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Mateo
If you are in Foster City, Belmont, Hillsborough, or Redwood Shores, we cover those areas regularly from our San Francisco Bay Area offices. Many of our San Mateo customers refer us to family across the city line, and we are glad to help. The same crew, the same 90-Day Done Right Promise, and the same direct line: (877) 610-2993.
Serving San Mateo, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Mateo 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 San Mateo
Because 94404 sits directly on the bay shoreline, and the air carries salt particulate that settles on bare metal and accelerates oxidation year-round. A standard galvanized hinge that might last 15 years in an inland city like San Jose will often show structural pitting and fatigue within five to seven years on a Mariners Island lagoon-facing property. That is why we quote marine-grade stainless hinges for bay-front gates as standard, and why we do not reuse old hardware when we re-hang a gate in that part of San Mateo. Call (877) 610-2993 for an inspection if your hinges are flaking or the gate is starting to lean.
In many cases it can be repaired. We open the housing and look at the actual condition of the board. If the corrosion is limited to the connectors and the board itself still reads clean, we can clean the terminals, replace the affected wiring, and conformal-coat the board so it withstands future moisture cycles better. If the board has visible corrosion across the traces or the transformer has shorted, replacement is typically cheaper than repeated repairs, and we will tell you that straight. We repair before we replace. If replacement is the honest call, you will see the board yourself before you decide.
Look at the hinge post first, especially if your home is on the flatlands or near the bay where the soil holds water. The post shifts when the ground saturates, and the gate drops with it. You may also see the gate panel itself sagging if the original hinge barrels are 60 years old and worn. Do not trim the bottom of the gate. That just hides the real problem. We can tell you whether the post needs resetting, the hinges need replacing, or both, and we will show you the wear before we quote the work.
Yes. California follows UL 325, which requires automatic gate operators to have entrapment protection such as monitored photocells, reversing edges, or both, depending on the installation. That applies to the automated sliding driveway gates common in San Mateo’s HOA and condominium developments in 94403 and 94404. If your gate closes on a vehicle or pulls against an obstruction without reversing, your operator is out of compliance and needs attention immediately. That is a safety issue, not a nuisance. We inspect and calibrate entrapment sensors as part of every automatic gate repair.
Because the operator was likely sized or calibrated for a flat-grade installation, and on a steep driveway the motor works against gravity on every cycle. Over time, that constant overload overheats the windings and burns out the motor years earlier than it should. We see it regularly on hillside estate gates near the Hillsborough border. The fix is not just a new motor. The operator may need to be reconfigured for slope load, or in some cases replaced with a higher-torque unit that is built for grade work. If you are in 94402 and your motor has failed more than once, call (877) 610-2993 and ask for a slope-load check before you replace anything.
Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for Gate Repair in San Mateo
If your gate is sagging, rusted through, stuck open, or the motor stopped responding, call (877) 610-2993. A live person answers, day or night. We will give you a straight answer, an honest price, and a time that we will actually show up. And if the job is not done right, the 90-Day Done Right Promise means one call brings us back. No runaround. No fine print. That is how we have done it since 2001, and that is how we do it in San Mateo.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving San Mateo since 2001.