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.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterFast, Reliable Gate Repair Across Burlingame
Gate repair in Burlingame usually costs between $225 and $1,400 depending on the failure, and most calls we run in this city involve a gate that won’t latch, a sliding gate that grinds off its track, or an operator that stopped responding. We’re Gate Repair specialists who work in Burlingame every week, so we know exactly what the salt fog off the Bay does to hinges and control boards here. If your gate is stuck, sagging, or dead on the remote, call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll give you a written price before any work starts.
Why Portcullis Gate Repair Is Burlingame’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We’ve worked enough Burlingame driveways to know this city’s gates differently than a crew driving down from San Francisco. The homes in Burlingame Park and Easton Addition aren’t like newer Peninsula construction. They carry original or early-replacement ironwork, automated systems bolted on decades after the gate was first hung, and footings that have spent 70 years fighting Deodar cedar roots. A technician who doesn’t know this will adjust hinges and leave. The gate will fail again within months because the real problem was under the post, not on it.
Dean Prescott leads our team, and every technician who arrives in Burlingame is background-checked and in uniform. You’ll know who’s walking up your driveway. We answer the phone with a live person 24 hours a day, so when your gate fails at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday and your car is stuck behind it, you’re not leaving a voicemail and hoping. We’re an independently owned Kingswell company, held to the same written standard as every other Kingswell location: a written price before work, a real arrival window, a clean job site, and a written 365-Day Done Right Promise on the repair.
Sliding Gate Repair in Burlingame
Sliding Gate Repair in Burlingame is a regular call for us, especially on the wider lots where a swing gate would eat too much driveway space. Burlingame’s older sliding gates were often hung on steel track systems that have spent decades absorbing the marine layer’s moisture, and the rack and pinion components wear unevenly as salt corrosion pits the teeth. When a sliding gate starts grinding, jumping, or binding halfway through its travel, it’s usually the rack, the pinion gear, or the track rollers, and the repair needs to be addressed before the motor burns itself out trying to force the gate through a bind.
Track and Roller Restoration
We see sliding gates in Burlingame that have worn flat spots into their rollers, which then grind a groove into the track. We replace the rollers, true up the track, and re-set the gate so it travels without dragging. The cost for this on a typical Burlingame residential sliding gate runs $275 to $550.
Rack and Pinion Replacement
The rack is the toothed bar along the gate, and the pinion is the gear on the motor that drives it. Salt air accelerates pitting on both, and once the teeth lose their profile the gate jerks and shudders. Replacing a residential rack and pinion on a Burlingame sliding gate typically runs $380 to $700 parts and labor. If the operator itself is worn out, the repair can reach $900 to $1,300.
Wrought Iron Gate Repair in Burlingame
Wrought Iron Gate Repair in Burlingame means working on gates that are often older than the people living behind them. The 1920s through 1950s housing stock in Burlingame Park, Easton Addition, and Burlingame Terrace retains a huge amount of original or early-replacement ironwork, and that iron has been oxidizing in bay-adjacent fog for six to nine decades. Hinges seize, lower rails rust through at the welds, and posts lean as their footings get pushed around by roots. The gate itself might be perfectly salvageable. What it needs is metal restoration and foundation correction, not a trip to the scrap pile.
Hinge and Weld Restoration
When a wrought iron gate drags on its lower hinge or hangs out of square, we’re usually looking at a rusted hinge barrel or a failed weld where the hinge plate meets the gate frame. We cut out the bad metal, weld in new, and re-hang the gate so it swings true. Depending on the extent of rust damage, this runs $300 to $850 on a typical Burlingame side-yard or driveway gate.
Post Reset and Gate Realignment
If a wrought iron gate suddenly stops latching, we look at the post before we look at the latch. In Burlingame’s flatland neighborhoods, Deodar cedar and liquidambar roots regularly lift post footings until the post leans enough to pull the latch out of alignment. Resetting the post in fresh concrete and re-hanging the gate typically runs $450 to $950. It’s more than a hinge adjustment, but it’s the repair that actually holds.
Trusted Brands We Service in Burlingame
We carry parts for the operator brands most common on Burlingame driveways, including Linear, Viking, and DoorKing, and our technicians are trained on all nine major gate-operator manufacturers we service. Because we stock local parts for Burlingame customers, we’re not waiting on a ground shipment from a distributor while your gate sits open. Whether it’s a legacy DoorKing control board or a newer Linear actuator, the tech who arrives already knows the system. We also service Ghost Controls, LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Elite, and Mighty Mule.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Burlingame Homes
- Root-heaved posts that throw the gate out of plumb. The same mature trees that give Burlingame its canopy actively push concrete footings around. A gate that won’t latch is more often a moved post than a bad latch.
- Salt-fog corrosion on hinges and operator hardware. The daily marine layer off the Bay accelerates rust on exposed metal. Ten years in Burlingame does what twenty years does in San Mateo.
- Obsolete control boards on legacy operators. Many Burlingame homes still run original LiftMaster, FAAC, or BFT boards from the 1990s and 2000s. Moisture cycling and power surges kill these boards, and the gate either won’t respond or runs in one direction only.
- Worn sliding gate track systems. Older steel tracks rust and pit in the fog, and worn rollers groove the track surface. Left alone, the motor works harder until it fails outright.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Burlingame, CA
Most gate repairs in Burlingame fall between $225 and $1,400. The low end covers hinge replacements, latch adjustments, and sensor realignment. The high end covers full sliding gate track replacement, post resets with new concrete, or replacing a dead operator. A typical swing gate actuator swap runs $600 to $1,000 parts and labor. A post footing reset runs $450 to $950. A control board replacement on a legacy operator runs $350 to $700. We give you the exact number in writing before a single bolt is turned, and that’s the number you pay. Call (940) 412-7340 for a free estimate, and we’ll quote it over the phone or in person.
We Also Serve Cities Near Burlingame
Burlingame is our focus, but we run calls in the surrounding Peninsula regularly. You’ll find us in San Mateo, Millbrae, San Bruno, and Belmont most weeks. If you’re near the border and your gate is acting up, call us and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can get to you. For more on how we serve this area, see Gate Repair in Burlingame.
Serving Burlingame, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Burlingame 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 Burlingame
Because the latch is rarely the real problem. In Burlingame’s flatland neighborhoods, tree roots from mature Deodar cedars and liquidambars push concrete post footings out of position. The post leans, the gate drops, and the latch stops meeting the strike. We reset the post in fresh concrete and re-hang the gate, which is a $450 to $950 job on most Burlingame gates. It holds because it fixes the foundation, not just the hardware. Call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll diagnose it properly.
Yes, and we do it regularly. The gate itself is usually still sound; what it needs is a modern operator mounted to solid posts, along with the safety photocell and edge protection required by UL 325. We recently retrofitted a 90-year-old swing gate on Burlingame Avenue with a new LiftMaster operator and safety photocell after resetting the hinge post. The owner kept the original iron and gained modern automation. Expect $1,200 to $2,800 depending on the operator and post condition.
The marine layer off San Francisco Bay carries salt that settles on metal surfaces and accelerates corrosion, especially on hinges, latches, and the exposed components of gate operators. Burlingame gates rust faster than gates even a few miles inland in San Mateo or Foster City. We use marine-grade hardware and rust-inhibiting treatments on repairs here, and we recommend an annual inspection to catch corrosion before it seizes a hinge or kills a control board. Call us and we’ll take a look.
It depends on how far the teeth have worn. Light wear can sometimes be corrected by adjusting the pinion engagement and lubricating the rack. Significant pitting from salt corrosion means the teeth no longer mesh cleanly, and the rack, the pinion, or both need replacement. The grind is metal chewing metal, and every cycle makes it worse. Replacing a residential rack and pinion in Burlingame runs $380 to $700. We’ll tell you honestly which side of that line your gate is on, and the price is written before we start.
Yes. We regularly repair and retrofit legacy LiftMaster, FAAC, and BFT operators that are still running original control boards. When a board fails, we look at whether a direct replacement is still available, and if not, we quote a retrofit board or a full operator replacement with the same footprint. Burlingame has a lot of these older systems still in service on original 1920s to 1950s gates. The replacement route usually runs $350 to $700 for a board, or $900 to $1,800 for a full operator swap. We’ll quote the exact number before any work starts.
Call Portcullis Gate Repair in Burlingame
If your gate is stuck, sagging, grinding, or simply not responding, we’ll answer the phone, give you a real arrival window, and hand you a written price before any work begins. No callbacks, no voicemail trees, no inflated invoices. That’s the Kingswell Way, and it’s how we’ve operated since 2008. Call (940) 412-7340 for a free estimate, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Written by Dean Prescott, Owner at Portcullis Gate Repair, serving Burlingame and the surrounding Peninsula.