Sagging, Dragging, or Stuck Driveway Gate? We Fix It.

Across Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio, expansive clay soil swells when it rains and shrinks in a drought, and a gate post buried in it shifts with the ground every season. Add an undersized footing under a heavy iron gate, plus hinge-side load hammering the same spot thousands of times a year, and the post works loose gradually rather than all at once. A leaning post also throws off an automated opener's geometry, so the operator strains and faults before the lean is obvious to the eye. The fix is resetting the post in a properly sized footing, not shimming the hinges again every few months.

Start at the cheapest step and work up. Tighten or replace worn hinges first, since that alone often corrects an early sag. If the panel is heavier or further gone, a diagonal brace or an anti-sag cable kit lifts and holds the latch-side corner square. A support wheel on smooth, flat concrete carries the weight directly for very heavy panels. Reset the post only if it is genuinely out of plumb, not just the hardware riding on it. Fixing the sag first matters on an automated gate: a dragging panel is a common hidden cause behind opener failures, since the motor fights that drag on every cycle.

On a flat, hard driveway, yes. A spring-loaded support wheel carries the latch-side weight of a heavy gate and takes the load off the hinge post, and it holds up as a permanent fix over concrete. On gravel, a slope, or a rutted driveway, the wheel binds and creates a new problem instead of solving the old one. One nuance worth knowing for an automated swing gate: the wheel adds drag the operator has to overcome on every open and close cycle, so pair a new wheel with a force and limit readjustment rather than leaving the operator's settings untouched.

Most structural gate repairs get quoted from a free, on-site estimate rather than a flat number, since a hairline crack and a fractured hinge post are very different jobs. As a general range, welding and structural repair on a gate frame typically runs $250 to $1,500 depending on the extent of the damage and whether a post has to come out. We would rather look at the gate and give you a real number than guess over the phone.

Yes. We dispatch technicians across Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving, and Garland as part of statewide coverage across all 36 Texas cities we serve. Call (888) 601-6005 and we confirm your area and the next available window.

It depends on what "won't close" means for your property. A gate stuck open on a home that needs to stay secured overnight is a real exposure worth calling about right away. A gate that is cosmetically sagging, drags a little, or will not latch flush but still closes and holds is not an emergency and can usually wait for a scheduled visit.

No. Texas does not license fence, gate, or general contractors at the state level, and there is no separate welding trade license for this kind of structural repair work. Pros On Call is licensed as a Texas DPS security services company, License #B19847, which we carry as our company credential on every job, not as a claim that gate operator work itself requires state licensing. That is a different credential from the unlicensed welding and fabrication side of gate repair. We carry it anyway because it is the credential that does apply to the part of our work that is regulated, and we are glad to have you verify it.