Swing Gate Repair in Houston
Swing gates fail in a recognisable sequence. The hinge pins wear, the latch side of the leaf drops, the gate starts scraping the driveway, the latch stops catching, and the operator — now dragging a gate across concrete — begins reversing or straining until something in the drive gives out.
Every step of that sequence is cheap to fix at the start and expensive at the end. We see a lot of gates where a straightforward hinge job became a hinge, post, latch, and operator job because it waited a year.
Diagnosing a Sagging Swing Gate
“Sagging” describes a symptom, not a cause, and three different problems produce the same crooked gate.
- ✓The post has moved — put a level on it. Houston clay pushes shallow footings out of plumb season by season, and no amount of new hinges fixes a leaning post
- ✓The hinges are worn — lift the latch end. If it rises before the hinges take the load, the pins or bushings are gone
- ✓The frame has racked — sight down the top rail. A curve or a twisted corner means the gate itself needs fabrication work, often after a vehicle impact
What a Proper Hinge Replacement Involves
- ✓The leaf is blocked level and disconnected from the operator before anything is cut
- ✓Old weld-on hinges are ground off and the surfaces cleaned to bare metal
- ✓New hinges are sized to the actual gate weight — heavy ornamental iron needs bearing or grease-fitted hinges, not whatever came on it
- ✓The gate is re-hung true with correct latch gap and ground clearance for your driveway slope
- ✓The latch or strike is repositioned and the operator limits and force recalibrated
- ✓Fresh welds are primed and coated before we leave, or they start rusting within days in this climate
Posts, Frames, and Vehicle Damage
When the post is the problem, a reset means excavating, re-plumbing, and adding concrete; a replacement goes 30 to 36 inches deep with a belled footing so the clay cannot lift it again. Posts carrying an operator take more work because the operator has to come off and go back on calibrated.
For impact damage, minor bends in rails and frames can be heated and worked back true. Severe twisting, cracked welds, or crushed ornamental elements mean rebuilding the affected section — which we can do in our own shop and match to the original pattern.
What This Includes
- ✓Full-system diagnostic — $89, applied to the repair
- ✓Hinge replacement with correctly rated bearing hardware
- ✓Gate re-hung level with corrected latch gap and ground clearance
- ✓Post resetting and full post replacement with belled footings
- ✓Latch, strike, and drop-rod repair
- ✓Frame straightening and section rebuilds after vehicle impact
- ✓In-house fabrication for matching ornamental pickets and scrollwork
- ✓Swing operator repair and recalibration
- ✓Weld priming and finish matching
Read More in The Gate Guide
We write up the questions we get asked most often. These cover this service in more depth:
Frequently Asked Questions
Q
My gate drags on the driveway. Can it just be adjusted?
If the hinges are the adjustable type and the wear is minor, adjustment buys time. If the pins are worn, the sag comes right back — the real fix is new hinges sized to the gate. And if the post has moved, adjusting the hinges will not help at all.
Q
Can you repair a dual swing gate where only one leaf is bad?
Yes, but we check both. Leaves wear at similar rates, so if one set of hinges has failed the other is usually not far behind, and doing both in one visit costs less than two trips.
Q
A car hit my gate. Is it repairable?
Usually. We straighten what can be worked true and rebuild what cannot, matching the original design in our shop. Send us a photo and we can give you a good idea before the visit.
Q
Why does my operator keep reversing?
Most often because the gate has become mechanically stiff and the operator reads the resistance as an obstruction. Turning up the force masks it and defeats the safety system. Fix the gate and the reversing stops.