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.
Fast, Reliable Gate Repair Across Van Nuys
Gate repair in Van Nuys runs $150-$375 for most hinge, track, and opener fixes, and we can usually have someone at your property the same day you call. We work up and down Van Nuys Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, and the apartment corridors off Victory and Vanowen every week, so the dispatch time is short because the truck is already in the neighborhood. Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates since 2001, and his name is on the shop and on every invoice. Call (818) 514-7606 and a person answers, any hour.
Why Gatewood Fence & Gate Is Van Nuys’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
Van Nuys gates fail differently than gates anywhere else in Los Angeles. The Valley heat pocket pushes summer afternoons to 105°F and beyond, and that heat does things to steel that coastal repair crews never see. A sliding gate track expands. A rack and pinion seizes. An operator motor overheats and trips its thermal cutoff. We know these failure patterns because we fix them here every week, on 1970s apartment complexes off Van Nuys Boulevard and on postwar tract homes south of Victory. Our Gate Repair team is not guessing at what the heat does. We’ve measured it, repaired it, and come back a year later to find it still working.
We’re locally owned and owner-operated, with a published address and a license number anyone can look up. Every job comes with our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing; if it’s not right, one call brings Hal back. Calls are answered by a live person 24/7, not a voicemail tree. And if you want to look us in the eye before we touch your gate, drive to the shop. The name is on it.
Our Gate Repair Services in Van Nuys
Electric Gate Repair
Most electric gate failures in Van Nuys trace back to the wiring, not the motor. Sustained 100°F-plus stretches UV-degrade wire insulation until it cracks and shorts, tripping safety photocells and leaving gates half-open on Sepulveda Boulevard. We test the full circuit under load, replace degraded wire runs with heat-rated insulation, and bench-test the operator board before we quote a replacement. A typical electric gate repair in Van Nuys runs $180-$320, and we stock the common boards and capacitors in the truck so we’re not waiting on a parts house in Chatsworth.

Automatic Gate Repair
An automatic gate that opens fine at 8 a.m. and stalls at 3 p.m. is the classic Van Nuys failure, and it is almost always thermal expansion in the track or the rack. We do not fix the symptom and leave. We gap the rail, re-shim the post footing, and check the operator’s torque settings, because a heat-soaked operator running against a bound track burns its motor out in a season. LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule - we service all nine, and we carry the heat-rated parts for them.

Hinge & Post Repair
A gate sags in the hinge post, not in the middle, and that is where we start. Van Nuys has thousands of 1970s and 1980s apartment gates with hinge posts rusted through from decades of dry heat and smog. The gate still looks fine until a Santa Ana gust snaps the post and drops the whole panel. We weld on site, in your driveway, so the gate never leaves your property. If the post is salvageable, we repair it; if it’s not, we tell you straight and quote a replacement post, not a replacement gate. Hinge and post repair in Van Nuys typically runs $200-$450 depending on post condition.

Gate Realignment
Van Nuys’s older concrete pads have heaved and settled unevenly over 40 or 50 years, and a gate that started level now drags at one end or cocks off its hinges. Realigning the gate means re-shimming hinge posts, cutting the gate leaf free from its sag, and resetting the latch throw so it actually catches. We also check the track level on sliding gates and re-gap the rollers so the gate rolls instead of grinding. Realignment work usually runs $150-$300, and it is the single most common repair we do on single-family homes in Van Nuys.

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 Van Nuys
We service DoorKing, Elite, Mighty Mule, and LiftMaster systems every week in Van Nuys, plus five more major brands. We keep common boards, safety edges, and remote transmitters stocked for the models most often found on Van Nuys apartments and commercial lots, which means the repair gets done in one visit instead of two. If your opener is a heat-rated LiftMaster on a commercial slide gate off Sepulveda, a Mighty Mule on a residential swing gate, or an aging DoorKing on a 1980s apartment complex, we have the parts and the familiarity to service it without a learning curve.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Van Nuys Homes
- Thermal track binding at 105°F+: Steel slide gate tracks expand in the Valley heat until the gate binds, derails, or stalls its operator during peak afternoon hours. We fix it with expansion-gapped stainless rail and proper roller clearance.
- UV-degraded wiring shorting automatic openers: The same sun that blisters your car dashboard is cooking gate wire insulation under the conduit. Brittle insulation shorts the safety circuit and leaves the gate dead or half-open.
- Hinge posts rusted from decades of dry heat and smog: It does not rust like salt air; it rusts slowly from the inside, then fails suddenly. We see snapped posts most often during Santa Ana events.
- Operator motor burnout on commercial lots: Asphalt lots on Van Nuys Boulevard and Sepulveda radiate heat back up to 130-140°F at surface level. A gate cycling dozens of times a day in that heat kills motors every two to three years.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Van Nuys, CA
Here is honest money, so you can plan before you call. A basic hinge adjustment or latch repair runs $150-$250. Gate realignment on a settled pad runs $150-$300. Electric gate repair, including diagnostic time, runs $180-$320. Hinge and post repair with on-site welding runs $200-$450. A heat-rated operator replacement on a commercial lot runs $400-$900 installed, depending on the motor and controls. You will get a written price before any work starts, every time, and that price does not change at the door. We also give $40 off any repair over $200, no trip charge inside Los Angeles County, and a permanent 10% discount for seniors and veterans. Call (818) 514-7606 for a free estimate, and if you have a written quote from another company, bring it in; we’ll give you a free second opinion on it.
We Also Serve Cities Near Van Nuys
Our crews serve Gate Repair in Van Nuys plus Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Encino, and Reseda, so if you’re just over the boundary or you own property in two of these neighborhoods, the same truck can handle it in one visit.
Serving Van Nuys, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys
The steel track expands in the heat, binding the gate and tripping the operator’s overload. We fix this by replacing the rail with expansion-gapped stainless or re-shimming the existing track so it can move freely at 110°F; this is the most common repair we do on Van Nuys apartment complexes in summer. Call (818) 514-7606 and we’ll diagnose it on site, same day in most cases.
Look at the post, not the panel. If the panel itself is rusted through or warped, replacement may be warranted, but most Van Nuys apartment gates sag because the hinge post has corroded from the inside. We’ll cut a small inspection hole at the base to check post wall thickness, then weld on a repair sleeve if the steel is still sound. That runs $200-$450, versus $700-$1,500 for a new panel that often does not solve the underlying post problem. Call (818) 514-7606 for a straight answer.
Yes. Van Nuys gets some of the most sustained high-UV exposure in LA County, and years of it crack the insulation on low-voltage wiring just enough to short the safety loop and kill the opener intermittently. We replace degraded wire runs with heat-rated insulation and sleeve the exposed sections, which usually costs $180-$320 including the diagnostic. Call (818) 514-7606 for a free estimate.
Asphalt lots radiate heat, and a commercial slide gate cycling dozens of times a day on a hot lot pushes the motor far past its rated duty cycle. We install heat-rated operators sized for the actual cycle count, not the gate’s weight, and we check the track gap so the motor never runs against a bound rail. Call (818) 514-7606 and we’ll quote the right motor for your lot, not the one that came with the gate.
Yes, California requires automatic gates to have entrapment protection including safety edges, photocells, or both, and any replacement operator we install will include them. We test your existing safety edges and photocells during every repair, because UV-degraded wiring in Van Nuys often disables exactly those protections without anyone noticing. Call (818) 514-7606 with any gate question; estimates are free.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Van Nuys since 2001.





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