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 San Mateo
Gate repair in San Mateo typically runs $180 to $340 for most mechanical fixes, with operator and motor work landing between $450 and $1,200 depending on the brand and what failed. We dispatch background-checked, uniformed technicians to San Mateo neighborhoods including Baywood, Aragon, and Shoreview, usually within 24 hours for non-emergency calls. If your gate won’t open, sags onto the driveway, or has stopped responding to the remote, a real person answers when you call (469) 530-2485, day or night. We carry parts for LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule so most repairs on this side of the bay are done in one visit.
San Mateo’s older housing stock brings a specific set of gate failures we see week after week, and the fix is rarely the panel everyone points to first. More on that below.
Why Carver Gate Repair Is San Mateo’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We run every job in San Mateo to the same written standard, called The Garrison Standard, that we’ve operated under since 2008. That means a written price before any work starts, a written guarantee on every repair good for a full year, and a free second visit if the repair fails inside that window. No exceptions, no fine print. San Mateo homeowners tell us the same thing: they’ve been burned by no-shows and prices that moved once the gate was open. Our answer is process, not promises.
Every Carver technician dispatched to San Mateo is background-checked and uniformed, so you know who’s at your gate before you open it. Phones are answered by a live person 24 hours a day, every day, including weekends and holidays. No voicemail tree, no call-back queue. If your gate fails at 11 p.m. in Baywood or before sunrise in North Central, you reach a person, not a recording.
Driveway Gate Repair in San Mateo
Driveway Gate Repair in San Mateo usually means one of three things: a swing gate that’s dragging or sagging, a slide gate that’s binding on its track, or an operator that runs but doesn’t actually move the gate. On San Mateo’s flat blocks, especially the pre-war 94401 and 94402 subdivisions, the first two usually share a root cause that has nothing to do with the gate panel itself.
Hinge, Post, and Realignment Work
San Mateo’s 94401 and 94402 blocks were largely platted before 1940, which means most driveway gates sit on shallow, hand-dug hinge-post footings in adobe clay rather than engineered concrete piers. That’s why a sagging swing gate here usually traces back to the post, not the panel. Clay soil swells and shrinks with the winter rains and summer dry spells, slowly rotating the post until the gate leaf drags on the driveway and the hinges bind. Expect to pay $275 to $600 to pull and reset a post with a deeper footing, and $180 to $350 for hinge replacement and re-leveling a single leaf.
Operator and Motor Repair
When the gate moves but won’t respond to a remote, keypad, or loop detector, the issue is usually in the operator, not the gate. We service FAAC and Viking swing operators, BFT and Linear slide operators, and the LiftMaster models common across San Mateo. Operator repair in San Mateo typically runs $450 to $1,200, with full operator replacement between $1,400 and $2,800 installed when the unit is beyond economical repair. Every job gets a written price before we open the housing.
Gate Welding in San Mateo
Gate Welding in San Mateo comes up most often on older ornamental steel gates where moisture off the bay has worked into cracked welds and rust has thinned the frame. San Mateo’s evening fog and winter rain give rust a head start on any unpainted or scratched steel, especially where the gate meets the post and water sits in the joint. We weld on-site for most repairs, so a cracked hinge plate, split frame member, or broken picket doesn’t mean a new gate.
Rust Repair and Reinforcement
A gate that’s structurally sound but showing rust at the bottom rail or hinge mounts can be welded, ground, and re-coated without replacing the panel. We cut out the thinned section, weld in matched steel, and dress the repair so it takes paint cleanly. This work in San Mateo generally runs $250 to $550 per section depending on how far the rust has traveled.
Frame and Hinge Plate Welds
When a hinge plate cracks or the gate frame has snapped at a weld, the gate usually needs to come off its posts or be supported in place while we work. We bring a portable welder to the driveway, so the gate doesn’t leave your property. Expect $350 to $800 for a cracked hinge plate repair on a typical San Mateo double swing gate, including realignment after the weld cools.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Mateo
We stock common parts locally so San Mateo customers aren’t waiting a week on a distributor. Our technicians are trained on nine motor brands, and three we see constantly in this area are FAAC and Viking on swing systems and BFT on slide operators. If your system runs a Linear board or a Viking arm, we carry the boards, arms, and limit switch parts that fail most often. A part we don’t have on the truck we can usually source the same week from our Bay Area suppliers, which keeps most San Mateo repairs to a single visit for the diagnosis and a short follow-up for the install.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in San Mateo Homes
- Sagging swing gates on pre-war lots. The hinge post footing is too shallow for the clay soil, so the post rotates and the panel drags. The gate panel is fine, but the post has moved, and the fix is a deeper footing rather than a new gate.
- Operator and loop detector faults after winter rains. Where a driveway crosses a low, poorly-drained grade, water finds its way into loop detector housings and operator enclosures, causing intermittent failures that clear up in dry weather and return with the next rain.
- Slide gate rack and pinion wear. On older San Mateo driveways where the track has shifted, the operator keeps pushing against a misaligned rack until teeth wear down and the gate jerks or stalls mid-travel.
- Keypad and entry system failures. Salt air and rain take a toll on external keypads and intercoms, particularly on gates that face the hills and catch afternoon wind. We replace keypads, card readers, and wired intercom panels as part of the same visit.
Pricing for Gate Repair in San Mateo, CA
Most mechanical gate repairs in San Mateo run between $180 and $600. A simple hinge or latch fix lands at the low end; a post reset or welded frame repair lands at the high end. Operator repair runs $450 to $1,200. Full operator replacement runs $1,400 to $2,800 installed. New gate installations, including groundworks, power run, safety edges, and reversal testing, start around $4,500 and are quoted on a measured, written basis. You get the price in writing before we start, and the number on the invoice matches the quote. Approve the repair, approve the cost. That’s the whole arrangement.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Mateo
Our Gate Repair team covers the full San Mateo area, and we dispatch the same background-checked crews to nearby cities as well. If you’re in Burlingame, Belmont, Millbrae, or San Carlos, call the same number and you’ll reach the same live person. The written price, the one-year guarantee, and the uniformed technician don’t change when the city on the work order does. We’re the San Mateo gate repair company that shows up squared away, wherever your driveway is.
Serving San Mateo, CA – Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Mateo 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 Repair in San Mateo
Because the hinge post has moved, not the panel. San Mateo’s pre-war flat blocks were built on adobe clay, and most original hinge post footings were dug by hand and poured shallow. The clay swells in winter and shrinks in summer, slowly rotating the post until the gate drags. The fix is a deeper post footing, not a new gate. Call (469) 530-2485 and we’ll tell you if the post is the culprit before quoting anything.
Yes. Every automatic gate in San Mateo, residential or commercial, must reverse when it encounters an obstruction, which means photocells, edge sensors, or both, tested for correct reversal force. We include safety device testing on every operator repair we complete. If your photocell has failed or the gate isn’t reversing properly, that’s a safety issue we address in the same visit.
Water intrusion is the usual cause. In San Mateo, driveways that cross low grades and lots with poor drainage let rain find its way into loop detector housings and operator enclosures mounted near the ground. The board shorts or the loop detector faults, the gate stops responding, and the problem often clears in dry weather. We seal enclosures, replace water-damaged boards, and relocate sensors where water keeps coming back. Call for an exact diagnosis and a written quote.
A proper installation includes groundworks, a concrete footing, the power run, vehicle detection loops, safety photocells and edge sensors, reversal testing, and operator programming. That’s why installations are measured, ordered, and scheduled rather than done same-day. We quote installations in writing after a site visit, not over the phone. The figure includes everything above, and the price is fixed before we begin.
Yes. When a slide gate’s rack teeth wear down or the track has shifted, the gate jerks or stalls mid-travel and the operator strains against the misalignment. We replace the rack section or the pinion gear, re-level the track if it has moved, and re-commission the operator so it cycles smoothly. Slide gate rack repair in San Mateo typically runs $300 to $700, depending on how much track work is required. Call (469) 530-2485 for a written quote.
Call Carver Gate Repair for Gate Service in San Mateo
If your gate is sagging, binding, or dead in the driveway somewhere between El Camino Real and Alameda de las Pulgas, call (469) 530-2485. A live person answers, we schedule the visit, and you get a written price before any work starts. Every repair is backed by our 365-Day Done Right Promise, in writing, good for a full year. If it’s not done right, we make it right at no charge. That’s how we’ve run gate repair in San Mateo since 2008, and it’s how we’ll run your job too.
Written by Lonnie Burke, Owner at Carver Gate Repair, serving San Mateo and the surrounding Bay Area.