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 Access Control Across Arlington
Gate access control in Arlington, TX typically costs $350-$1,800 depending on whether you’re adding a keypad to an existing opener, retrofitting a safety photocell, or replacing an obsolete 1980s control board with a modern system. Most Arlington calls involving a keypad entry or remote control repair are completed the same day, though full smart-access installations with video intercoms are scheduled, quoted in writing, and done right the first time. We know Arlington’s gates, and we know the clay soil that moves under them. If your keypad clicks but the gate won’t release, call (817) 241-4067 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Arlington’s Preferred Gate Access Control Company
Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and his name is on every invoice. We’re not a national outfit that quotes one price on the phone and charges another at the door. We publish our address, we carry our license, and we answer the phone around the clock. When an Arlington homeowner calls about a keypad that stopped working or a gate that grinds after a February freeze, the person who shows up is background-checked, uniformed, and knows which subdivision you live in because he’s probably fixed three gates on that street already.
We serve Arlington with a repair-first mindset. If a control board can be rebuilt or a post can be reset, we fix it in your driveway and charge you for a repair, not a replacement. That’s the difference Hal built this company on. The 90-Day Done Right Promise comes in writing on every job. If it’s not right, one call brings us back, no runaround. And there’s no trip charge inside the county, plus $40 off any repair over $200. Seniors and veterans get a permanent 10% discount. No haggling. That’s how we’ve always worked.
Our Gate Access Control Services in Arlington
Keypad Entry
Keypad entry systems in Arlington run $350-$750 installed, and they’re the most common upgrade we make to the aging wood privacy gates that dominate central and east Arlington’s 1970s-1990s ranch subdivisions. If you’re still carrying a gate key on a fence built when Gerald Ford was president, a keypad beats digging for a key at night. We wire the keypad into your existing opener, mount it where it’s reachable from the driveway, and program codes so you can change them whenever a contractor or babysitter stops needing access. We install keypads that integrate with LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule operators.
Remote Control
Remote control systems for Arlington gates cost $150-$400 depending on whether you need a new receiver, additional transmitters, or a full transmitter-receiver pairing after a power surge cooked the board. We see a lot of remotes that stop working after one of Arlington’s summer thunderstorms or the periodic ice events North Texas gets, like the February 2021 freeze. A smart local repair means testing the receiver sensitivity, the antenna placement, and the opener logic. We don’t just hand you a new remote and hope. We make sure it actually opens the gate from your car, every time.
Phone Entry
Phone entry systems let you buzz open your gate from a call or app, which is genuinely useful for Arunton houses with long driveways or absentee owners checking on a rental. These systems run $800-$1,800 in Arlington because they typically involve a cellular or Wi-Fi-enabled controller plus wiring into the opener. We program them properly for older operators, and we’ll tell you straight if your 1985 opener needs a retrofit kit to work. If a guest calls your phone and you can’t hear the gate open from the kitchen, the system isn’t right. We get that fixed.
Card Reader
Card reader access for Arlington’s south-side master-planned communities and gated neighborhoods costs $600-$1,400 installed, depending on reader type and how many users you need to program. We see card readers on ornamental iron and automated driveway gates more often in south Arlington, where the housing stock shifts toward newer builds. We install proximity readers, keypad-card combos, and systems with audit trails so you know who entered and when. If your card reader is wired to a DoorKing or Ghost Controls operator, we already have the wiring diagrams in the truck.
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 Arlington
We’re certified to service nine major gate brands, and for Arlington customers that matters because shipping a control board back to a manufacturer can take weeks. We stock common DoorKing and Ghost Controls parts locally for faster turnaround, and we’ve rebuilt enough Elite and Mighty Mule openers on Arlington gates to know which model years have known failure points. Whether your system was originally installed when the house was built or added later, we can source the right part, get it in hand fast, and stand behind the fix with a written promise. If the brand on your opener is obsolete, we’ll tell you that honestly and quote you a retrofit, not a string of short-term patches.
Common Gate Access Control Problems We See in Arlington Homes
- Keypads that click but don’t release the latch: In Arlington’s heavy clay soil, the gate post heaves sideways over wet-dry cycles, so by August the latch won’t line up with the strike plate. The keypad is fine. The post foundation isn’t. Adjusting the hinges without resetting the post means you’ll be back here in the spring.
- Obsolete 1980s control boards dying from heat or power surges: Those original opener boards in Arlington’s 1975-1985 subdivisions were never designed for modern safety photocells or entrapment protection. When they fail, there’s no retrofit path. We quote a modern board replacement and make sure the new system meets today’s safety requirements.
- Slide gates grinding after a freeze: North Texas ice events, like February 2021, snap hardware and seize operator motors on south Arlington’s slide gates. If the rack and pinion is stripped or the gate has sagged into the driveway path, the operator is fighting the gate. We fix the gate first, then the operator.
- Remote controls that only work from 10 feet away: Summer heat and old wiring degrade receiver sensitivity on Arlington gates that have been through 20 or 30 Texas summers. Antenna placement, receiver grounding, and opener logic all matter. A new remote doesn’t fix a receiver that’s deaf.
Pricing for Gate Access Control in Arlington, TX
Here’s what you can expect to pay for Gate Access Control work in Arlington. Keypad entry installation runs $350-$750. Remote control repair or replacement runs $150-$400. Phone entry systems run $800-$1,800, and card readers run $600-$1,400 depending on reader type and user count. Safety photocell retrofits run $200-$450 per photocell installed and wired. Those are Arlington market prices, and they’re quoted and agreed before any work starts. You won’t see a bigger number at the door. If a post reset is needed because the clay soil walked it out of plumb, we’ll tell you before we dig, and that price is part of the written estimate. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll come look at your gate, give you an exact number, and you decide. Estimates are free.
If you’ve got a written estimate from another company, bring it to us. We’ll give you a free second opinion. If we can do the job for less, you’ll know. And $40 off any repair over $200 runs all year in Arlington.
We Also Serve Cities Near Arlington
If your gate is on the edge of Arlington or your neighborhood touches Kennedale, Fort Worth, Hurst, or North Richland Hills, we serve those areas too. The clay soil doesn’t stop at the city line, and neither do we. Whether you’re in Arlington proper or two blocks past the border, call the same number and ask for Hal. (817) 241-4067.
Serving Arlington, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Arlington 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 Access Control in Arlington
Because Arlington sits on expansive clay soil that heaves and shifts gate posts with every wet-dry cycle. Your post was probably set in a shallow concrete collar in the 1970s or 1980s, and decades of seasonal movement have walked that post sideways. In the wet spring the clay swells and the gate aligns. By August the clay dries, shrinks, and the post has moved just enough that the latch binds. No hinge adjustment fixes this long-term. The fix is digging out the post, pouring a belled footing below the clay’s active zone, and resetting the hinge point. That’s the repair that holds. Call (817) 241-4067 and Hal will explain what your particular post needs. The estimate is free.
Yes. We add keypad entry to older Arlington wood gates all the time, typically for $350-$750 depending on your existing opener and whether the post needs rebuilding before we wire anything to it. The most important question is whether the gate itself is sound. If the 1980s post has rotted or heaved, the keypad will work but the gate still won’t open smoothly. We fix the gate first, then mount and program the keypad. Your codes are yours, and we’ll show you how to add or delete them. Call (817) 241-4067 for an exact quote for your gate.
In Arlington, it’s almost always a post problem. The gate panel itself may look fine, but the post has been walked out of plumb by clay-soil heaving, and the gate is hinged to that post. Fix the panel without fixing the post and you’ll fix it twice. We see this on hundreds of Arlington gates every year, especially in the 1975-1985 subdivisions through central and east Arlington where posts were set shallow. A gate that sags in the hinge post needs that post set deeper and trued before any access control hardware will hold alignment. Our techs reset a heaved hinge post for a wood swing gate on a 1980s ranch in the Woodland West neighborhood after the homeowners showed us a keypad entry that would click but not release the latch. The LiftMaster operator was cycling fine, but the loop detector kept triggering because the gate had sagged into the driveway path. We dug out the shallow collar, poured a belled post footing below the clay’s active zone, rebuilt the hinge point, and the keypad, safety photocell, and operator all held alignment through the next wet-dry cycle. That’s the difference between a repair that lasts and one that doesn’t.
Most don’t. Automatic gate operators built before UL 325 entrapment protection standards took effect generally lack safety photocells, reversing edges, and proper warning signage. On Arlington’s 1970s-1990s gates, the original 1980s control boards often can’t even accept a retrofitted safety photocell. If your gate opens automatically and has no photocell or reversing edge, it can close on a child, a pet, or a car. That’s not a scare tactic. That’s the reality of old equipment. We can retrofit safety photocells for $200-$450 per photocell and upgrade the control board where the old board can’t support modern safety logic. If your gate is old and you don’t know whether it has entrapment protection, call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll inspect it for free.
Because ice and freezing temperatures seize the rollers, snap cold-welded hardware, and strip the rack and pinion teeth on slide gate operators. South Arlington’s newer master-planned communities have a lot of ornamental iron and automated driveway gates, and those gates take the same freeze damage that the February 2021 event delivered to the whole region. The grinding sound is usually the operator fighting a gate that’s no longer rolling true, or a pinion stripped by ice-locked hardware. Forcing it to keep cycling destroys the operator. Let us check the gate alignment, the rack, and the pinion before you burn out a motor. Call (817) 241-4067 and we’ll get there fast. A live person answers around the clock.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Arlington since 2001.