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 North Hollywood
Gate repair in North Hollywood usually costs between $180 and $650 depending on what failed. A hinge or post realignment runs $180-$340, a motor replacement on an automatic gate lands between $450 and $900, and full weld-and-reinforcement work on a sagging steel gate typically sits at $350-$750. We answer the phone with a live person around the clock, and Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop, the invoice, and the truck that shows up in your driveway.
North Hollywood is our backyard. We know the bungalow courts off Burbank Boulevard, the apartment complexes along Vanowen and Oxnard, and the tight shared driveways where a swing gate just will not work. When you call (818) 873-5061, you get a straight answer about what is wrong and what it costs before any work starts. No call center. No estimate that changes at the door.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is North Hollywood’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We have been fixing gates since 2001, and the person who gives you the price is the same person who stands behind the work. Hal Gatewood owns the company, works the jobs, and will hand you his cell number if you want it. That is how a local gate repair business should work in a neighborhood like North Hollywood, where people still check to see whose name is on the truck.
Our 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every invoice, in writing. If the gate is not right, one call brings us back. No runaround, no “we will have to send someone out to look at it again.” We also offer a free second opinion on any written estimate you have from another company, which matters when a national outfit quoted one price on the phone and a bigger one at the curb.
For Gate Repair in North Hollywood, we keep our schedules local. We coordinate from the LA office, but the crews working your gate live and work in the Valley. They know the difference between a 1940s stucco bungalow on a 6,000-square-foot lot and a 1960s garden apartment with a shared driveway off Hatteras Street. That local knowledge is why we can diagnose a gate in half the time and give you a real number before we unload the truck.
Our Gate Repair Services in North Hollywood
Electric Gate Repair
Electric gate repair in North Hollywood most often comes down to the operator, the control board, or the wiring between them. On older apartment complexes built in the 1960s and 1970s, we regularly find undersized wire that was never meant to carry the load of a modern LiftMaster or FAAC operator. We diagnose the whole circuit, not just the symptom. If the board is burned out, we tell you. If the wire is the problem, we tell you that instead of selling you a board.
Automatic Gate Repair
Automatic gate motors in the Valley fail on a schedule, and that schedule is summer. The inland heat pocket around North Hollywood pushes daytime temperatures 15 to 20 degrees hotter than Santa Monica or Venice, which cooks control boards and forces steel rails to expand and bind. We service Gate Repair calls for slide operators from LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, and Linear, and we stock parts locally so a motor swap is not waiting on a warehouse in another state.
Hinge & Post Repair
A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle. That is where we start. In North Hollywood, though, the post itself is often the hidden problem. The 1994 Northridge earthquake, with its epicenter roughly five miles west in Reseda, cracked and shifted thousands of gate post footings across the neighborhood. People patched the cosmetic damage and moved on. Thirty years later, those posts still lean, and hinges wear out twice as fast on a post that was never plumb to begin with. We weld and reinforce posts on site, so your gate stays in your driveway instead of riding away on a flatbed.
Gate Realignment
Gate realignment is the most common repair we do in North Hollywood, and it is almost never just a hinge adjustment. The extreme thermal cycling here, from 40-degree winter nights to 105-degree July afternoons, makes steel expand and contract enough that a gate that closed perfectly in January binds hard by June. Add in the post-shift legacy of the Northridge quake and you get gates that drift out of alignment every few months. We fix the footing and the geometry, not just the visible symptom.
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 North Hollywood
We are certified to service nine major gate brands, and in North Hollywood we work on a lot of LiftMaster and FAAC slide operators on apartment complexes, plus BFT and Linear swing operators on single-family homes. Because we are a repair-first shop, we keep common control boards, safety edges, loop detectors, and rack sections on hand for these brands, which means a repair that needs a part can often be finished the same visit. If the part is obsolete on a 35-year-old Viking or DoorKing system, we will tell you plainly and give you a real answer on whether it is worth replacing or rebuilding.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in North Hollywood Homes
After 29 years in the Valley, including more than two decades of gate work, certain failures show up over and over in North Hollywood specifically. Here is what we see most:
- Afternoon binding on slide gates in summer: The heat pocket effect in the central Valley means steel rails on slide gates expand dramatically between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. When a gate only sticks in the afternoon, that is geometry and thermal expansion, not a dying motor. We set the clearances for the worst heat, not the average day.
- Post and footing failure on 1940s-1960s homes: Nearly every bungalow and garden apartment in North Hollywood sits on a footing that predates 1994. We see lean, settle, and hairline cracks that get repainted instead of repaired. The gate drifts, the hinges eat themselves, and the homeowner replaces hardware when the fix was under the post all along.
- Failing apartment-complex operators with no parts: North Hollywood’s high-crime era of the 1980s and early 1990s led to a wave of security gate retrofits on multi-family properties. Those systems, mostly DoorKing, Viking, and early Linear, are now 30 to 40 years old and many have no replacement parts available. We can often retrofit a modern operator onto the existing gate and track rather than replacing the whole system.
- Warped wooden driveway gates: Wood gates in the Valley dry out and warp faster than almost anywhere in LA. Full sun, no marine layer, and summer days over 100 degrees pull moisture out of cedar and redwood until stiles twist and the gate will not latch. We rebuild with steel reinforcement when that is the right call, so the wood can still look good without losing its shape.
Pricing for Gate Repair in North Hollywood, CA
Here is what gate repair actually costs in North Hollywood, based on the jobs we do every week in the neighborhood. A hinge reset or simple realignment runs $180-$340. Replacing a broken hinge set or welding a cracked weld runs $250-$450. A new automatic gate motor, including the operator, wiring check, and safety edge setup, typically lands between $450 and $900 depending on the brand and the condition of the existing track or arm. Full post replacement or footing re-set with welding starts around $400 and can reach $1,200 if we are digging and pouring new concrete on a shared driveway. Every price is quoted and agreed in writing before any work starts. No trip charge inside the county, $40 off any repair over $200, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Call (818) 873-5061 and we will give you a real number.
We Also Serve Cities Near North Hollywood
Beyond North Hollywood, we serve Studio City, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, and West Hollywood with the same live-answer phone line and the same 90-Day Done Right Promise. If you are just over the line from North Hollywood in any direction, call (818) 873-5061 and ask. No trip charge inside the county means the drive does not cost you anything.
Serving North Hollywood, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the North Hollywood 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 North Hollywood
Your gate binds in the afternoon because steel expands as the day heats up, and North Hollywood sits in a heat pocket that runs 15 to 20 degrees hotter than coastal neighborhoods. The rail or gate frame swells, the clearance closes, and the gate drags or trips the safety edge. By evening it cools and works again, which tells you the motor is fine and the geometry is wrong. We set clearances for peak afternoon heat so the gate opens clean at 2 p.m. in August. Call (818) 873-5061 for an exact diagnosis, free.
Yes, and in North Hollywood this usually means the post footing, not the hinges. If the hinge keeps wearing or the gate keeps drifting, the post is moving underneath the hardware. A lot of these problems trace back to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when the epicenter five miles away cracked footings that were never reset. We fix the footing first, then the hinges. Free second opinion on any written estimate. Call (818) 873-5061.
Yes. Under current California gate safety requirements, automated vehicle gates must have a monitored reversing mechanism, which means photo-eyes, a reversing edge, or both, depending on the operator and the gate type. Many 1980s and 1990s apartment gates in North Hollywood were installed before these standards and are not compliant. We can retrofit safety edges and photo-eyes onto existing operators so the gate is legal and safe without replacing everything. Call (818) 873-5061 and we will check what you have.
Yes. We work on shared driveways and narrow side yards all over North Hollywood, where swing gates simply will not work and slide gates are the only option. That means understanding easements, working in tight clearance, and keeping access open for neighbors while we work. If the driveway is shared, we do the work in place and keep the gate operational as much as the job allows. Call (818) 873-5061 to talk through what will fit.
Wood warps in the Valley summer because North Hollywood gets full inland sun, no marine layer, and sustained 100-plus degree days that pull moisture out of the wood far faster than coastal air. Cedar and redwood both lose moisture unevenly, the stile twists, and the gate stops latching. We repair warped wood gates by rebuilding the frame and adding steel reinforcement where it matters, so the wood looks the same but holds its shape through the next Valley heat wave. Call (818) 873-5061 for a free look.
Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for Gate Repair in North Hollywood
Last July on a shared driveway off Hart Street, one of our crews faced a slide gate with a LiftMaster operator that kept tripping its safety edge at 2 p.m. every afternoon. The post footing had never been re-set after the Northridge quake, and in 105-degree heat the rail expanded enough to bind. We plumbed the post, replaced the warped rack section, and set the loop detector to ignore the fixed steel column. The gate has opened clean ever since.
That is the kind of problem we solve in North Hollywood every week. Not by swapping a motor and hoping, but by finding the footing, the heat expansion, the old wiring, the actual cause. If your gate is binding, sagging, drifting, or dead, call (818) 873-5061. You will get a live person, a straight answer, and a written price before any work begins. The 90-Day Done Right Promise comes with every job, in writing. The name is on the shop, and the shop is down the road. That is the oldest accountability there is.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate.