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 Keene
Gate repair in Keene usually starts with the post footing, not the latch. The Blackland Prairie clay under Johnson County expands and contracts so aggressively through wet and dry seasons that a concreted gate post can shift 2 to 3 inches out of plumb in a single year. When that happens, the gate drags, the keypad quits reading, and the operator trips its safety sensor even though every hinge and bolt looks fine. Our crews work on Keene driveways every week and we quote post stabilization as a normal line item, because around here it usually is. Call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll give you a written price before any work starts.
Why Portcullis Gate Repair Is Keene’s Preferred Gate Repair Company
We’re an independently owned Kingswell company, and every Gate Repair job we take in Keene carries the same four written promises: a price before the work, a real arrival window, a clean job site, and a guarantee in writing. Dean Prescott runs our crew, and he’s the one who makes sure the technician at your gate already knows whether you have a Viking slide operator or a Ghost Controls swing arm before the truck pulls in. That matters on Keene’s ranchette lots, where a long driveway gate that won’t open means a family can’t get to work or school.
We answer the phone with a live person 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. No voicemail tree. No “we’ll call you back next business day.” When a Keene homeowner calls about a gate dragging after an ice storm or a post that shifted after spring rains, we pick up and start scheduling. Response times to Keene are usually same-day for emergency calls and within one to two business days for standard repairs. Every repair is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it fails within a year, we come back and fix it at no charge.
Metal Gate Repair in Keene
Metal gate repair in Keene covers everything from ornamental iron swing gates near the Southwestern Adventist University campus to galvanized pipe ranch gates on 5-acre lots off Old Betsy Road. Most of the metal gates we see here are either ornamental iron with welded pickets or welded pipe frames with chain-link infill. Both hold up well to Texas sun, but the posts under them take a beating from the clay. When a metal gate starts dragging at the latch or binding halfway through its swing, the hinges are rarely the root cause. It’s the post underneath, leaning just enough to throw the whole frame out of square.
Post Reset and Realignment
We pull the footing, re-plumb the post, re-set it in concrete, and let it cure before re-hanging the gate. On Keene clay, we often pour the new footing deeper than the original and add steel reinforcement where the soil movement is worst. The result is a gate that swings clean and latches dead center again.
Weld and Rust Repair
North-central Texas summers over 100°F oxidize bare metal fast, especially on older pipe gates that were never painted with a UV-stable coating. We grind out rust, re-weld cracked joints, and treat the repaired areas so they don’t fail again next season. A typical weld and rust repair on a Keene driveway gate runs $180 to $420 depending on how much of the frame needs cutting and patching.
Wood Gate Repair in Keene
Wood gate repair in Keene usually means replacing a sagging frame, re-hanging a gate that’s pulling away from its post, or rebuilding a gate after an ice storm bent the frame. Wood driveway gates are less common on Keene’s newer exurban lots than ornamental iron and pipe, but plenty of older homes near the university still use cedar or pressure-treated pine gates for pedestrian access and rear yard entries. The problem with wood here is the combination of 100°F summer heat and the wet-dry clay cycle. The heat warps the boards. The clay shifts the post. Together they turn a square gate into a parallelogram.
Frame Straightening and Re-Hang
We straighten or replace warped frame members, add anti-sag hardware, and re-hang the gate so it swings free of the ground. Where the post has shifted, we address the footing first, then re-align the hinges. A typical wood gate re-hang in Keene runs $150 to $380 depending on gate size and how much of the frame needs replacing.
Board and Hardware Replacement
Split boards, rusted strap hinges, dead latch hardware: we replace them with materials sized to the gate and rated for Texas weather. If the gate is beyond saving, we’ll say so plainly and give you a written replacement price instead of patching it for a few months.
Trusted Brands We Service in Keene
Our technicians are cross-trained on nine major gate-operator brands, including DoorKing, Elite, LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and Mighty Mule. On Keene service calls, that means the tech who arrives already knows how your specific board talks to your keypad and your safety loops. We stock common control boards, photocells, and limit switches in our service vehicles, so many Keene repairs are done in one visit. If your operator is older and parts are hard to find, we’ll give you an honest replacement quote rather than leaving you with a gate that works intermittently.
Common Gate Repair Problems We See in Keene Homes
- Posts out of plumb from Blackland Prairie clay. The expansive soil under Keene soaks up spring rain and dries hard in summer, cycling posts 2 to 3 inches out of vertical. When the post leans, the gate sags, the latch misses, and the operator’s safety sensors get confused.
- Slide gates on long ranchette driveways. Many Keene properties have 1 to 5-acre lots with driveway entrances that can’t accommodate a swing gate’s arc. Slide gates are the norm, and their rack-and-pinion drives need regular alignment to the fence line or they eat rollers and stall mid-travel.
- Operator faults after ice storms. Johnson County ice storms hit harder than areas north of Fort Worth, and when a gate freezes or gets pushed by ice, the operator loses its travel limits. The gate might still move, but it opens too far, closes too hard, or triggers the entrapment reverse constantly until the limits are re-learned.
- Dead keypads and loop detectors after rain. Wet soil and shifting posts pull on conduit runs and throw wiring connections loose. A keypad that worked in March might read nothing in May because the post it’s mounted to moved a half inch and stretched a wire connection.
Pricing for Gate Repair in Keene, TX
Here’s what we tell Keene homeowners before we ever touch a wrench. A post reset and re-plumb on a swing gate typically runs $350 to $750, depending on the footing depth and whether we’re re-setting one post or two. Replacing a Gate swing or slide operator in Keene runs $850 to $2,200 installed, with the brand and board complexity driving most of the price difference. A hinge and latch realignment is usually $120 to $280. Weld and rust repair lands between $180 and $420. Wood gate re-hangs sit at $150 to $380. The price you hear on the phone is the price on your written quote, and you approve it before any work begins. Call (940) 412-7340 for a free estimate, and we’ll put the numbers in writing.
We Also Serve Cities Near Keene
If you’re in Cleburne, Joshua, Alvarado, or Burleson, we run service calls there too. Gate Repair in Keene is our focus, but the same crews, the same written Kingswell Guarantee, and the same 365-Day Done Right Promise cover the whole Johnson County area. Call us and we’ll give you a real arrival window like we do for Keene customers.
Serving Keene, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Keene 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 Keene
The post under your gate has almost certainly tilted out of plumb from the Blackland Prairie clay expanding and contracting through Keene’s wet and dry seasons. When the post moves, the gate sags at the latch even if every hinge is tight. The fix is a post re-plumb and footing reset, not just new hinges. Call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll check the post first.
If your driveway is narrow at the entrance, has a steep edge, or sits on a ranchette lot where a swing gate’s arc would cross the right of way, yes. Slide gates are common on Keene’s larger parcels because they travel parallel to the fence line and don’t need open swing clearance. We can tell you which option fits your entry and give you a written price for both.
Check the operator’s power and the circuit breaker first, then look at whether the gate itself moves by hand with the operator disengaged. Ice storms routinely knock Keene openers off their travel limits, so even if the board has power, the gate may be running too far or not far enough and faulting. If the gate moves freely but the operator won’t run, it’s likely a limit setting or a photocell misalignment, both repairable in one visit. Call us at (940) 412-7340 and we’ll walk through it with you on the phone before we even schedule.
Yes. Any automatic gate system in a residential setting should have working entrapment protection, typically a reverse mechanism and either contact edges or photocells. This is a safety issue, not an optional upgrade. If your Keene gate is missing or bypassing its entrapment protection, we’ll flag it and quote the correction as part of any repair. Don’t operate an automatic gate without proper safety devices.
We repair both. Wood gates are common on older Keene homes, especially pedestrian and rear yard gates near the university area. We straighten frames, replace warped boards, install anti-sag hardware, and re-hang the gate so it clears the ground. If the post has shifted, we fix that first, because even a rebuilt wood gate won’t work on a leaning post.
If your gate is dragging, binding, or refusing to open, call (940) 412-7340 now. We’ll give you a straight answer, a written price, and a real arrival window. The 365-Day Done Right Promise backs every repair we do in Keene.
Written by Dean Prescott, Owner at Portcullis Gate Repair, serving Keene since founding the company in 2008.