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 Installation Across Kent
Gate installation in Kent, WA typically runs between $2,800 and $9,500 depending on the gate type, ground conditions, and power requirements. Most Kent installations we quote involve either a fabricated steel driveway gate or an automatic operator retrofit, and both take real time to do correctly. We don’t rush a footing pour or skip a safety sensor because a driveway is on a schedule. If you’re planning a new gate in Kent, call (469) 530-2485 and we’ll give you a written price before any work starts.
We know Kent’s streets, from the flat lots along the Green River Valley to the steeper driveways climbing East Hill. Our crews work on Gate Installation in Kent jobs every week, and we schedule installations with realistic timelines: measure, spec, order, dig, pour, cure, mount, wire, test. Each step has a reason. Skip one and you’ll be calling us back in a year to fix a leaning post.
Why Carver Gate Repair Is Kent’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
Homeowners in Kent call us because we answer the phone and we do what we say we’ll do. That’s not a slogan. It’s the two things most gate companies fail at. Our technicians are background-checked and uniformed, so when someone pulls up to your Kent property, you know exactly who you let through the gate. Every job carries a written price delivered before work starts and a full-year guarantee on the installation.
We’re part of the Garrison Partners family, operating to The Garrison Standard since 2008. The Standard is simple: written prices, clean sites, and a guarantee that actually gets honored. If a gate we installed fails inside the guarantee window, we come back at no charge. No argument, no service fee, no chasing a dispatcher. Kent customers hear that and ask why every contractor doesn’t operate this way.
Lonnie Burke leads our Kent-area installations. He’s the one who walks the site, checks the slope and soil, and specs the footing depth before a single post goes in the ground. That’s the kind of oversight that keeps a gate square and true five years later.
Gate Fabrication in Kent
Gate Fabrication in Kent means building a gate to fit your actual opening, your actual driveway slope, and your actual usage pattern, rather than hanging a stock panel from a catalog. We measure every opening on site, then fabricate steel gates to those dimensions, including the rack mount points for slide gates and the hinge geometry for swing gates.
A fabricated gate in Kent usually runs $1,800 to $5,500 depending on width, height, steel gauge, and whether you want solid privacy panels or an open picket design. Powder coating adds cost but holds up better against Kent’s wet winters than raw steel or cheap paint.
Custom Steel Driveway Gates
We weld the frame, set the pickets or panels, and mount the gate on posts rated for the load. On Kent’s East Hill slopes, that often means deeper post footings than the valley side needs. We pour those footings to spec, not to whatever the digger hits first.
Pedestrian and Security Gates
We also fabricate pedestrian gates matched to the main driveway gate, so the property looks deliberate. Security gates get reinforced frames, tamper-resistant hinges, and lock boxes welded in place. These are the details that keep a crank gate from becoming the weak point in your fence line.
Automatic Gate Installation in Kent
Automatic Gate Installation in Kent pairs a fabricated gate with a motor, safety sensors, and the controls that make it work every single time. This is the part where shortcuts show up fast: undersized operators, missing safety edges, and control boards that aren’t weather-sealed for the Pacific Northwest.
Automatic operator installation in Kent typically runs $1,400 to $4,200 on top of the gate itself, depending on the operator type and power work required. A full automatic driveway gate project, gate and operator together, lands between $3,500 and $9,500 in most Kent properties we quote.
Swing and Slide Operators
Kent driveways split between swing gates on wider lots and slide gates on narrower frontages where the gate has to run parallel to the road. We match the operator to the gate, not the other way around. A slide gate on a valley-floor lot needs a rack-and-pinion operator with a loop detector set far enough back to keep the tail of your car out of the right-of-way.
Safety Sensors and Controls
Every automatic gate we install in Kent carries the required entrapment protection: photocells at the leading edge, a reversing edge, and a manual release you can operate without tools. We test reversal pressure before we leave. UL 325 compliance isn’t a checkbox on our work, it’s the reason we do the work at all.
Trusted Brands We Service in Kent
We install and service Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing equipment in Kent, along with the other major brands we carry. That matters because the operator you get should match the gate it’s driving, not whatever box was cheapest at the supplier. We stock common parts for these brands locally, so a failed control board on a DoorKing slide operator doesn’t mean waiting two weeks for a shipment. Kent customers with existing Viking swing operators or Ghost Controls retrofit kits can call us for service as well as for new installation work. Gate Installation is what we do every day, so the brand knowledge carries over to the repair side.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Kent Homes
- Undersized post footings on East Hill slopes. A new gate panel gets blamed for leaning when the real problem is a footing poured 18 inches deep on a slope that needs 36 and a wider hole. In Kent’s clay-heavy hill soils, frost heave and slope creep will move a shallow post within a season. We dig deeper on the hill side for a reason.
- Missing safety photocells and edge sensors. Some installers mount the operator and call it done. Washington code and UL 325 require entrapment protection on every automatic gate. We’ve seen inspectors flag installs in Kent where the photocell was missing or the edge sensor was never wired. You don’t want to find that out after a pet or child has an incident.
- Voltage drop across long valley-lot driveways. Kent’s Green River Valley lots often run long, and running 120-volt power 200 feet to a gate operator without planning for voltage drop leaves the motor straining. The keypad entry glitches, the remote range shrinks, and the board eventually cooks. We spec wire gauge and operator location to the actual distance, not a guess.
- Gate panels hung on hinge posts that weren’t set for the load. A heavy fabricated gate on a post that moves an eighth of an inch at the hinge becomes a gate that drags on the latch side. In Kent, that means the gate you bought looks saggy and scrapes the driveway after one winter. Getting the post right is the whole job.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Kent, WA
Here are the ranges we quote in Kent. A fabricated steel driveway gate: $1,800 to $5,500. Automatic operator installation: $1,400 to $4,200. Full automatic gate project with gate, operator, sensors, and power: $3,500 to $9,500. Ground conditions move these numbers. A flat valley lot with straight trenching is less. An East Hill slope with rocky clay and a 200-foot power run is more.
You get the written price before we start. Not a “rough estimate” that grows once the holes are dug. The number on the sheet is the number you pay unless you change the scope. That’s The Garrison Standard, and it applies to every job in Kent. Call (469) 530-2485 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Kent
Our crews handle gate installation in Renton, Auburn, Federal Way, and Maple Valley alongside our Kent work. If you live in a neighboring city and need the same written pricing and guaranteed work, call the same number. We schedule installations across the south King County area and coordinate dispatch from our Seattle office. The standard doesn’t change at the city line.
Serving Kent, WA – Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Kent 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 About Gate Installation in Kent
A proper gate installation in Kent takes two to five days, not one afternoon. We measure the opening, order or fabricate the gate, dig post holes, pour concrete, let it cure, mount the gate and operator, run power, and test the safety systems. Concrete needs a day to cure before you hang a heavy panel on it. We installed an automatic slide gate on a sloping driveway off James Street in Kent where the old swing gate had ripped its hinge post out of shallow concrete. Our crew dug a deeper, wider footing on the uphill side, poured it to spec, then mounted a rack-and-pinion operator with a safety photocell at the leading edge. After curing we load-tested the gate, dialed in the loop detector so it wouldn’t false-trigger on passing traffic, and walked the homeowner through the manual release and reversal test before we left. Anyone promising a same-day installation is skipping a step you’ll pay for later. Call (469) 530-2485 and we’ll give you a realistic schedule with a written price.
That depends on your driveway and your frontage. On Kent’s narrower residential frontages, especially in the valley where lots sit close to the road, a loop detector reads the vehicle and lets the gate open automatically rather than forcing you to stop on the street. If your driveway is short and you’ll always have room to punch a code before you reach the gate, a keypad entry does the job. We spec the loop placement based on how your vehicle sits, not a default template, because the wrong loop position means the gate opens late or false-triggers when a car drives past on the street. We’ll tell you which setup fits your property and quote it before work begins.
Washington requires every automatic gate to meet the entrapment protection standards in UL 325. That means two independent means of reversing the gate from its travel: typically a photocell across the opening and a reversing edge or pressure sensor on the leading edge of the panel. You also need a manual release that works without tools and clear warnings on the gate. We install all of that as standard on every automatic gate in Kent, wired and tested before we hand you the remote. If you have an older gate without those protections, we’ll flag it and quote the correction.
Often the panel is fine and the post is the problem. If the post is still solid and plumb, we can fabricate a new gate to match the opening and hang it on the existing hardware. If the post has moved, which is common on East Hill slopes in Kent, a new panel will sag within months because the foundation isn’t holding. We’ll check the post level and the footing before we recommend anything, and the price you get covers exactly what the job needs, no upsell. Call (469) 530-2485 and we’ll take a look.
We install and service Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, and Mighty Mule operators in Kent. Your choice should match the gate weight, cycle frequency, and site conditions. We’ll recommend the right operator for your setup and quote the installed price in writing before any work starts. If you already have an operator and need it repaired, we stock parts for those brands and can usually schedule service quickly.
Written by Lonnie Burke, Owner at Carver Gate Repair. Carver operates to The Garrison Standard in Kent, WA.