(945) 335-9880

gate welding repair

Welding, Hinge & Post Repair in Plano, TX

Everything above the operator is structure, and structure is what North Texas is hardest on. Blackland Prairie clay walks gate posts out of plumb over a couple of seasons, and a swing gate on a leaning post drags, binds, and eventually tears out its own hinges. Hail dents leaves and pickets and chips the coating that was keeping rust out of a joint, and straight-line wind through storm season loads a wide leaf hard enough to find any weld that was never quite right. And then there is impact: gates get hit by vehicles regularly, usually by someone who did not wait for the leaf to finish opening. We weld, re-hang, re-plumb and re-square, and where a gate is ornamental we match the existing ironwork rather than patching it with whatever is in the truck.

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When a Gate Sags, Suspect the Post First

A gate that scrapes the drive or has dropped at its latch edge is usually still square. Put a level on the hinge post before blaming the leaf: if the post is out of vertical, the gate is hanging from something that is no longer plumb, and re-hanging it buys a few months at most. Worn hinge pins and a cracked weld in the frame produce the same droop, so the first job on site is working out which of the three you actually have.

Blackland Prairie Clay Moves Footings Every Season

The soil under Collin and Denton counties is expansive clay that swells through a wet spring and shrinks hard through a run of 100°F afternoons. Each cycle shifts a footing a fraction, so a post leaves plumb over several seasons rather than all at once — which is why nobody notices until the gate starts dragging. The lasting repair is a new footing sized for the leaf it carries, cured before the gate is hung back on it.

Vehicle Impact Is the Other Half of This Work

The rest arrives all at once: someone reverses into a leaf, or drives at one that has not finished opening. On ornamental steel, repair generally beats replacement, because a new leaf will not match the one beside it while pickets, scrolls and rails can be remade. A comprehensively twisted frame or a cracked footing pushes it the other way. Either way the gate has been loading its operator since the impact.

How long does it take? A cracked weld or a hinge replacement is often 2–4 hours. Re-setting a post means concrete and cure time, so that is staged over two visits. Impact damage and ornamental matching are quoted after we see it — there is no honest generic answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

My swing gate is dragging on the ground. What causes that?
Nearly always the post rather than the gate. The Blackland Prairie clay under most of this area expands when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, and over repeated cycles that walks a post out of plumb. The gate is still square — it is hanging from something that is no longer vertical, so the free edge drops. The other causes are worn hinge pins, which produce the same droop, and a gate frame that has sagged at a failed weld. Which one it is determines whether the fix is hinges, welding, or concrete.
Someone hit our gate with a car. Can it be repaired?
Usually, and repair is generally both cheaper and better-matched than replacement, particularly on an ornamental gate where a new leaf will not match the one beside it. What matters is what took the impact. A bent frame member can be drawn back or cut out and replaced. Damaged pickets or scrollwork can be remade. The things that push a job toward replacement are a comprehensively twisted frame and damage to the post footing, because the footing is the expensive part to put right.
Why do welds crack on a gate?
Fatigue, corrosion, or both. A gate is a large lever that moves under power thousands of times, and every cycle loads the joints — so a weld with an inclusion or poor penetration will eventually find it. Corrosion accelerates the whole process by removing material from inside the joint where nobody can see it, which is why a weld can look sound right up until it goes. Hail speeds it up: a dent that chips the coating opens a path for rust straight into the joint underneath.
Can you match the ironwork on an older or custom gate?
In most cases, yes. Pickets, scrolls, finials and rails are fabricated, and matching an existing pattern is ordinary work for a fabricator. It takes longer than bolting on a stock part and we say so in the quote. This comes up most on the older streets around the historic square in McKinney and on custom estate gates in west Plano, where an obviously mismatched repair is worse than the damage was.
How do I know if the post needs re-setting or just the hinges?
Check the post with a level, which anyone can do. If the post is plumb and the gate still droops, the problem is the hinges or the gate frame. If the post is out of vertical, re-hanging the gate on it just moves the problem — the gate will drag again as soon as the clay moves. Re-setting a post means excavating, plumbing it, and pouring a new footing sized for the gate, then letting the concrete cure before the gate goes back on.
Will a repaired weld rust straight away?
It will if the finish is not made good, and that is the part cheap repairs skip. Welding burns off galvanizing and paint around the joint and leaves bare, heat-affected steel — in this climate that will show rust quickly, and quicker still on a joint hail has already chipped the coating off. A proper repair means cleaning back, treating the bare metal, and restoring the coating so the repair is not the first place the gate fails next time.
Can you weld an aluminium gate?
Yes, though it is a different process from steel and worth flagging when you call so the right equipment turns up. Aluminium gates are common on newer installations because they do not rust, which is a real advantage in this climate. The trade-off is that aluminium is softer and takes impact damage more readily, and heat-treated alloys lose strength around a weld — so on a structural member, repair sometimes means replacing the section rather than adding a bead to it.
Does a leaning post damage the operator too?
Yes, and this is the part owners usually do not connect. A swing operator is force-sensing: when the gate binds because the post has moved, the operator works harder on every single cycle. That shortens the life of the arm, the gearbox and the motor, and it will eventually trip the entrapment protection and leave you with a gate that stops halfway. Fixing the post is often what actually fixes the operator that has been 'failing'.

Related Services

These related repairs often turn up on the same gate — we can take care of them in the same visit:

Sliding Gate Off Track

Gates that have jumped the guide, bind halfway, or grind along the track. Rollers, V-track, guide posts and bent frames put back into line before the damage compounds.

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New Gate Installation

Ornamental iron, aluminium and wood driveway gates, swing or slide, with the automation, power, safety devices and access control designed in from the start rather than added later.

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Gate Operator Repair

Operators that hum, stall, run one way, or stop mid-travel. Control boards, capacitors, limit switches, drive gears and chain — diagnosed on site and usually repaired the same visit.

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  • Answered locally, not a national call center
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Gate stuck open? Call (945) 335-9880 — we prioritize gates left open and vehicles shut in.

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