Wrought iron
Wood & steel frame
Farm & ranch
Sliding driveway gates
LiftMaster operatorsFree 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.
Get your free estimateFast, Reliable Gate Repair Across San Mateo
Gate repair in San Mateo comes down to two things: knowing the equipment on the gate, and knowing how San Mateo’s older homes and narrow driveways shape the job. We’re Latch and Post Gate Repair, part of the Cedarwell family, and we’ve been working on gates since 2009. Our Gate Repair team handles everything from sagging wrought iron to slide-gate drives that grind after a foggy morning. If you’re in San Mateo and the gate won’t open, won’t stay open, or is dragging against the concrete, call (628) 227-2771. A live person answers, day or night, and we’ll give you a written price before any work begins.
Why Latch and Post Gate Repair San Francisco Is San Mateo’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
San Mateo homeowners call us because we show up with a plan, not a guessing game. Cody Beckman leads our crews, and every technician is background-checked, uniformed, and factory-trained on the brands families in San Mateo actually own: LiftMaster, FAAC, Linear, Viking, and Ghost Controls among them. Before we walk through your gate, we walk you through the price. A written quote lands in your hand first, every visit, with no pressure to accept.
Inside your home, we follow the Cedarwell C.A.R.E. values: shoe covers and drop cloths before we step on your floors, a photo of the cleanup before we leave, and quiet tools when kids are asleep. We’ll ask before we move or touch anything. That’s the part most gate companies skip, and it’s the part families remember. We coordinate dispatch from our San Francisco Bay Area office, with crews serving San Mateo locally, so response to your neighborhood is quick and direct.
Styles & brands we work with
Sliding Gate Repair in San Mateo
Sliding gate repair in San Mateo usually means one of three things: a rack-and-pinion drive that’s seized or stripped, rollers that have worn flat on the track, or a post that has shifted and thrown the whole gate out of line. In neighborhoods like Baywood, where morning fog lingers and winter rain soaks untreated steel, we see corrosion on the rack teeth and the drive gear. The motor keeps trying, the gate binds, and the entrapment sensors start tripping for no reason. That grinding noise you hear after a damp night is often rust flaking into the gear track. We clean and re-lubricate where the corrosion is light, replace the rack section or drive gear where it’s not, and reset the travel limits so the gate doesn’t over-torque on open or close.
Rack and Roller Replacement
On most San Mateo slide gates, the rack is a steel strip bolted to the gate frame. Fog and rain work into those bolt holes and rust the surrounding metal. We replace damaged rack sections with new steel, grade the bolts, and shim the rollers so the gate rides level again. No more metal-on-metal howl.
Limit Switch and Sensor Reset
A gate that slams into its stops and reverses, or stops six inches short, usually has a limit switch that’s drifted. We re-set the limits, test the safety photocells and loop detector, and run the gate through five full cycles before we call it done.
Wrought Iron Gate Repair in San Mateo
Wrought iron gate repair in San Mateo is as much about the hinge post as it is about the iron itself. San Mateo’s older homes, especially in Aragon and Baywood, sit on clay soil that swells in winter and shrinks in summer. That movement leans hinge posts, which makes the gate sag, scrape the driveway, and bind against the latch. We re-set post footings with deeper concrete where the lean is structural, then re-hang the gate and true the hinges. After that, we address the iron: grinding out rust blooms, welding cracked scrollwork, and sealing the surface against the fog.
Hinge Post Re-Setting
A sagging gate isn’t always a hinge problem. When the post itself has moved, new hinges won’t fix it. We dig out the old footing, pour a deeper one, and brace the post plumb before re-hanging the gate leaf. The difference in swing is immediate.
Rust Treatment and Welding
For ornamental work, we cut out rusted sections, weld in matching steel, and grind the repair smooth. Then we coat the gate with a rust-inhibiting primer and paint matched to the original finish. The goal is a repair that doesn’t look like one.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Mateo
We’re factory-trained on the operators and accessories San Mateo homeowners rely on. That includes Linear and DoorKing swing and slide operators, Ghost Controls residential openers, and Viking access systems. Because we don’t just repair these brands, we also stock common parts and control boards for them in our Bay Area inventory, which means a quicker fix for your gate in San Mateo. If your opener is older and the control board has failed, we can often match it same week rather than ordering blind and making you wait. The right part, the first visit, no second guessing.
See the difference
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AfterCommon Gate Repair Problems We See in San Mateo Homes
- Hinge-post lean from clay soil movement. Post footings shift with the wet-dry cycle, and the gate starts dragging or binding. We re-set the footing and re-hang the gate true.
- Fog-corrosion on slide-gate racks and drives. Baywood’s morning fog leaves a fine film on exposed steel. Over a season, that turns into rust that seizes rack-and-pinion drives and trips sensors.
- Wood gate swelling in damp air. Older wood gates on mid-century San Mateo homes absorb moisture and stick against posts. They also push photo-eyes out of alignment, which older chain-drive openers cannot compensate for.
- Tight setbacks causing contact damage. On the narrow 10-foot driveways common in Aragon and Baywood, gates strike the house or fence when travel limits aren’t calibrated precisely. We adjust limits and sensor placement for the actual clearance available.
Pricing for Gate Repair in San Mateo, CA
You should know what gate repair costs in San Mateo before you call, so here’s the straight answer. A standard gate-latch replacement runs $120 to $260. Re-setting a shifted hinge post runs $350 to $800 depending on how much concrete needs to come out and go back in. A slide-gate rack-and-roller rebuild typically lands between $400 and $900. Replacing a control board on a Linear or DoorKing operator runs $250 to $600 including the part. Wrought iron rust repair and welding runs $300 to $1,200 depending on damage extent. Every single one of those numbers gets written down and handed to you before we start. Nothing is billed that wasn’t agreed. Call (628) 227-2771 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Mateo
Our Gate Repair in San Mateo crews also run calls to Burlingame, San Carlos, San Bruno, and South San Francisco. If you’re just over the border and your gate failed overnight, call us. We’ll route the nearest technician and keep the same written-price promise.
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
The hinge post has likely shifted in San Mateo’s expansive clay soil, and new hinges cannot fix a moving post. The post footing swells and contracts with seasonal moisture, leaning the post and dropping the gate. Permanent repair requires re-setting the post in a deeper concrete footing, then re-hanging the gate. We do this work in Baywood and Aragon regularly, and the sag does not return once the post is plumb and braced.
Yes. The trick is limiting the gate’s travel and placing the operator arm where it produces the most swing with the least tail. We set travel limits so the gate stops with safe clearance from the house or fence, and we position safety photocells for the actual geometry of the driveway. In Aragon, we’ve retrofitted LiftMaster and Ghost Controls operators onto original steel gates and kept three inches of clearance to the house. It takes custom brackets and careful calibration, but it works.
Most likely, yes. Fog and rain accelerate rust on untreated steel racks and drive gears. The grinding is metal flaking and catching as the gear turns. We clean light corrosion, replace damaged rack sections or gear teeth, and re-lubricate with a fog-resistant compound. If the noise is accompanied by sensor trips, the corrosion is likely affecting the gate’s movement speed, which entrapment sensors read as a fault. Call (628) 227-2771 and we’ll diagnose it on site.
For a heavy bespoke gate, an underground operator is the cleanest solution, no visible arm or box on the post. It also distributes force along the gate’s bottom edge, which is gentler on the hinges and scrollwork. The tradeoff is that underground operators sit in a buried box that must drain properly or they fail early in wet winters. We install and service them, include proper drainage, and stock common replacement parts. For a high-end ornamental gate, the extra cost is worth it if the install is done right.
A gate that reverses when you stand in its path has functioning entrapment protection. If it keeps moving when blocked, or it does not reverse within two seconds of contact, it is not safe and should be serviced immediately. We test the photocells, edge sensors, and force settings on every automatic gate repair call in San Mateo. We recommend a professional handle any high-tension spring, underground operator, or wiring issue, as these components carry serious risk if mishandled.
If your gate in San Mateo needs a technician who will treat your home like their own, call Latch and Post Gate Repair at (628) 227-2771. We’ll give you a written price before we touch anything, protect your floors with shoe covers and drop cloths, and back every repair with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. Cody Beckman and our team answer live, every hour, every day.
Written by Cody Beckman, Owner at Latch and Post Gate Repair, serving San Mateo since 2009 as part of the Cedarwell family.