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 Windcrest
Gate repair in Windcrest typically runs $180-$650 depending on whether we’re welding a broken hinge, resetting a heaved post, or replacing an obsolete operator control board. Most calls inside this 78239 ZIP code get same-day or next-morning service, because Windcrest is small enough that we can cross it in ten minutes flat. If your gate sags, drags, or won’t close, call Hal Gatewood at (877) 610-2993. You’ll get a live person, not a script, and a straight answer about what’s actually wrong before we ever schedule the truck.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Windcrest’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and his name is on the shop. That matters in a neighborhood like Windcrest, where a handshake at the Midcrown Drive hardware store carries more weight than a warranty card from a company headquartered three states away. We live in the soil here. We know what Blackland Prairie clay does to a post set in 1962. When a Windcrest homeowner calls about a gate dragging at the latch, we don’t start by quoting a whole new gate. We start by checking the hinge post, because in this ZIP code, the post is usually the problem.
Our Gate Repair team has walked hundreds of Windcrest driveways, most of them lined with original 1950s and 1960s ornamental iron. Those gates weren’t hung on modern footings. They were set directly into expansive clay that shrinks in August and swells in May. We’ve seen posts lean two inches out of plumb in a single wet spring. That’s not a hinge problem. That’s a geology problem, and if the person you hire doesn’t know the difference, you’ll pay them twice.
Windcrest homeowners have left us strong reviews over the years, and we don’t chase them. We earn them by showing up in the window we promised, finishing the weld the right way, and writing the 90-Day Done Right Promise on the invoice where you can read it. One call brings Hal back. No dispatch queue, no runaround. The phone rings to a live person 24 hours a day, because a gate that won’t close at 2 a.m. is a security problem, not a scheduling problem.
Our Gate Repair Services in Windcrest
Electric Gate Repair
Windcrest has a lot of electric driveway gates that were retrofitted onto 1960s iron panels during the 1990s and early 2000s. Those operator control boards are now 20-30 years old, running outside in San Antonio heat that bakes the capacitors every summer. We repair LiftMaster, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing operators, and we keep common control boards and limit switches on the truck so we can often finish the job the same day. If your gate opens but won’t close, or reverses for no reason, that’s usually an entrapment sensor or limit switch issue, not a dead motor.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gate repair in Windcrest often comes down to two things: the operator and the post. When the post heaves, the gate catches on the strike or drags on the driveway, and the operator fights it until the gear strips or the board faults out. We fix both halves of the problem. We reset the post, rehang the panel, and then re-tune the operator’s travel limits so the gate opens and closes without straining. Pre-UL 325 operators that predate modern entrapment protection can often be brought up to code with new photo eyes and edge sensors, but we’ll tell you honestly when a 25-year-old board isn’t worth feeding parts into.
Hinge & Post Repair
This is the heart of what we do in Windcrest. Those 50-to-70-year-old wrought iron gates corrode at the ground-level welds where the hinge plate meets the post. Add a few decades of clay shrink-swell, and you get a post that leans forward and a gate that sags half an inch every time someone swings it. We cut out the corroded weld, grind the post clean, weld on a new hinge plate in the driveway, and reset the post in a deeper concrete footing when the lean is structural. The gate never leaves your property. Hal welds on site, standing in your driveway, because that’s how you know the repair was done right.
Gate Realignment
Gate realignment in Windcrest is less about bending the panel and more about fixing what pulled it out of line in the first place. A swing gate that drags at the latch side is usually telling you the hinge post tilted. A sliding gate that binds mid-track is usually telling you the track bed settled unevenly. We diagnose the root cause before we touch the panel, because straightening a gate without fixing the post means you’ll call us again in six months. When we rehang a gate in Windcrest, we set the clearances for our soil, which means we leave room for the clay to move without the panel binding.
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 Windcrest
We’re certified to service nine major gate operator brands, and in Windcrest we mostly see Linear and Viking swing-arm operators on older ranch homes, with Ghost Controls and DoorKing on some of the newer installations off Walzem Road and Crestway Drive. Because we work on these systems every week, we know which boards fail hot, which gears strip, and which models are worth keeping alive versus replacing. We keep parts for these brands locally stocked so a Windcrest customer isn’t waiting a week on a control board shipped from Dallas.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Windcrest Homes
- Ground-level weld corrosion: Those original 1960s ornamental iron gates were welded at the hinge plates and the bottom rails, and after six decades of rain, sprinkler splash, and San Antonio UV-driven paint chalking, those welds rot from the outside in. The gate starts to lean and creak long before the weld actually snaps. We grind it back to clean steel and weld on site.
- Post heave from Blackland Prairie clay: This is the defining Windcrest gate problem. The clay under a 2-foot post footing swells after a wet spring and shrinks during a dry summer, and the post slow-leans a little more each year. You straighten the panel and it sags again, because the post is still moving under the ground.
- Obsolete operator boards: Automatic gate operators installed before UL 325 entrapment standards took full effect often lack proper reversal sensors. After the February 2021 freeze, we got a wave of calls in Windcrest from operators that had seized in the cold and never fully recovered, usually because the control board had cracked solder joints or a capacitor had swollen.
- Latch and strike misalignment from driveway settling: Concrete driveway approaches in Windcrest settle with the clay, and when the driveway dips, the gate’s latch post tips and the strike plate drops. The fix is resetting the post or re-hanging the gate to match the settled grade, not just shimming the latch.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Windcrest, TX
Here’s what we actually charge in Windcrest. A hinge plate reweld runs $180-$280. A gate realignment, including resetting one post in a new concrete footing, runs $300-$500. Replacing a worn hinge set on a double swing gate runs $250-$400. A new control board for a LiftMaster or Linear operator runs $350-$650 installed, depending on the model. Full gate removal and rehang, when the panel is worth saving, runs $450-$800. We quote the price before any work starts, and the number we quote is the number you pay. All Windcrest jobs carry the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing, and you can knock $40 off any repair over $200. Seniors and veterans save 10% permanently. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll give you an exact number over the phone, not a range.
We Also Serve Cities Near Windcrest
If you’re searching for Gate Repair in Windcrest but actually live just outside the 78239 line, we cover Converse, Live Oak, Kirby, and Universal City too. Same crew, same upfront pricing, same 90-Day Done Right Promise, and no trip charge anywhere inside the county.
Serving Windcrest, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Windcrest 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 Windcrest
Your post is leaning because the Blackland Prairie clay under the footing is shrinking and swelling with each wet-dry cycle, not because the panel is bent. Windcrest sits on expansive clay that behaves differently than the limestone bedrock under most of San Antonio. A post set in a shallow 1960s footing will heave and tilt a little more every season until the gate drags. The actual fix is resetting the post in a deeper footing, often with compacted base material that resists swell. Straightening only the panel means you’ll fix it twice. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll dig down and see what the soil is doing under your post.
In most Windcrest homes, a 1960s ornamental iron gate can be retrofitted with a modern operator, but only if the posts are sound and the hinge welds are intact. We look at the post footings first, because a gate that heaves with the clay will tear up a new operator within a year. If the iron work is structurally solid, we weld on mounting plates for a modern Ghost Controls or LiftMaster operator, add photo eyes and safety edges to meet current UL 325 standards, and set the travel limits so the gate closes fully without slamming. If the gate is rusted through at multiple welds or the posts are leaning more than we can reasonably reset, replacement becomes the cheaper long-term answer, and we’ll tell you that straight. Call (877) 610-2993 for a free assessment.
The freeze likely cracked a solder joint on the operator’s control board or damaged a limit switch that wasn’t rated for sub-freezing temperatures. Older operators in Windcrest, many of them installed pre-UL 325, often have boards that fail after thermal stress. When the board starts sending false signals, the gate reverses mid-travel or stops dead partway. We test the board and the limit switches on site, and often the fix is a new board, not a whole new operator. But we’ll open the housing and show you what we found before we replace anything. Call (877) 610-2993 to get on the schedule.
Yes, and it’s not November. Windcrest is known across Texas for its Christmas lights tradition, and that means gate repair and decorative iron refinishing calls spike hard every October as homeowners prep their properties. If your gate is dragging or rusting, schedule it for January through September. The ground is also drier in late summer, which makes post resets faster and cleaner. But if it’s already November and your gate just failed, call (877) 610-2993 anyway, because we answer the phone at midnight and we’ll fit you in.
If the gate opens fully but reverses or stops short only in one direction, it’s usually a limit switch that’s out of adjustment or failing. If the gate behaves erratically, opens on its own, or the remote works intermittently, that’s more often the motherboard inside the operator housing. In Windcrest, where many operators are 20-plus years old and have survived multiple 100-degree summers and at least one hard freeze, the board is frequently the culprit. We diagnose it on site with a meter before we order a single part. Call (877) 610-2993 and we’ll walk you through what we’re seeing.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Windcrest since 2001.