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 Installation Across Converse
A new Gate Repair - Converse project typically runs $1,800 to $6,500 installed, depending on whether you’re replacing a wooden swing gate on an existing frame or building a full sliding-gate setup with an operator. Most installations we schedule in Converse take one full day on site, and we always put the price in writing before a single post hole is dug. If you’re calling from Converse, you’ll reach a live person 24/7 at (940) 412-7340, and we’ll give you an honest range over the phone before we ever step on the property.
We know Converse gates differently than a company that just lists the ZIP code on a service-area page. The clay soil here, the aging 1980s and 1990s tract-home stock around JBSA-Randolph, and the wear patterns we see on original cedar gates all shape how we quote, dig, and build. That local familiarity means we don’t guess at footing depth or bolt a new gate panel onto a hinge post that’s already leaning. Our Gate Installation team works Converse weekly, and Dean Prescott, who runs this Kingswell location, has walked enough of these properties to know exactly what the soil does to a post after a wet season.
Why Portcullis Gate Repair Is Converse’s Preferred Gate Installation Company
We’re an independently owned Kingswell company, and every Converse job carries the same four promises: a written price before any work starts, a real arrival window, a clean job site, and a written guarantee on the installation. Not a verbal promise. Written, on the invoice, with the Kingswell Guarantee stamped on it. If something we installed fails within 365 days, we return and correct it at no charge under the 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Around Converse, our reputation gets around the same way every good contractor’s does: one neighbor on a street like Fields of Converse mentions we showed up in the window we gave, left the post-hole diggings cleaned up, and didn’t add a dollar at the end. That’s the Kingswell Way: say the price before the work, show up when we said, leave the place cleaner than we found it, put the guarantee in writing, come back if it fails.
Our technicians are background-checked, arrive in uniform, and carry service training on nine major gate-operator brands, including LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule. When a Converse homeowner has an older Linear or LiftMaster board behind a failing gate, the tech in the truck already knows that system, not just in theory, but from having serviced the same board on other Converse homes.
Driveway Gate Installation in Converse
Driveway Gate Installation in Converse starts with understanding what the original builder put in decades ago, then deciding whether the posts, the frame, or the whole assembly needs to come out. On most 1980s and 1990s homes here, the cedar swing gate was hung on a shallow concrete pour that the Blackland Prairie clay has been working against for 30 or 40 years. Bolting a fresh gate panel onto that old post is throwing money away. We pull the post, inspect the footing, and if it’s cracked or undersized, we re-dig to 30 to 36 inches with an oversized bell footing before setting anything new.
A standard driveway swing-gate replacement on an existing opening in Converse runs $1,800 to $4,200, cedar boards and hardware included. If the posts are sound and only the gate panel and hinges need replacing, you’re at the lower end. If we’re re-setting both posts and adding steel reinforcement, plan for the upper end. Every quote is written, and the number we agree on before the dig is the number on the invoice.
Post Replacement and Footing Work
The clay under Converse shrinks during summer drought and swells when the rains return, and that movement works on post footings like a slow pry bar. A footing poured 18 inches deep, which is common for old fence lines, will heave and crack within a single wet season. We dig deeper and wider specifically because of this soil cycle.
New Cedar Gate Panels
Cedar boards in Converse take a beating from the Bexar County sun. A properly framed gate with diagonal bracing and heavy strap hinges will hold plumb far longer than what the original builder hung. We frame with pressure-treated internals and use gate-specific hardware, not fence-grade straps, so the panel stays square through the shrink-swell seasons.
Sliding Gate Installation in Converse
Sliding Gate Installation in Converse is often the right answer when a driveway slopes toward the street or when a swing gate would arc into a car or a fence line. A slide gate rides on a track and rollers, so it doesn’t care about the gate posts the way a swing gate does. The track still has to be set on a stable base, and in Converse that means a concrete pad poured below the frost line and sized for the clay movement. A full sliding gate with an operator, track, and safety sensors in Converse typically runs $3,200 to $6,500.
On flat Converse lots with enough side clearance, a cantilever slider or a wheeled track gate works equally well. The bigger question is usually the operator. If you’re coming from an old swing-gate setup, the operator rarely transfers. We’ll be straight with you when a retrofit makes sense and when you’re better off with a new board matched to the new gate.
Track and Foundation Work
A slide gate is only as good as the concrete the track sits on. We pour a continuous base with a widened heel for the roller path, sized so the seasonal clay heave doesn’t crack the track and bind the rollers. This is the single most common point of failure on cheap slide-gate installs in Converse.
Operator and Safety Retrofit
If your old operator is pre-UL 325, meaning it was made before entrapment protection became a federal requirement, it doesn’t belong on a new gate. We mount current operators with photo-eyes and edge sensors, wired to code, and we explain exactly what each safety component does before we leave.
Trusted Brands We Service in Converse
We stock and service parts for the brands already common on Converse gates: Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing, along with LiftMaster and the rest of the major operators. If your current gate has a Ghost Controls opener and you want to keep that system when the new gate goes in, we can usually make that work if the board and safety components are sound. We’d rather match the new gate to a known-good operator than sell you a brand swap you don’t need. When we do install a new operator, it’s often a LiftMaster or Linear because the local parts availability in the San Antonio market means faster turnaround if a board ever fails during the guarantee period.
Common Gate Installation Problems We See in Converse Homes
- Shallow original footings under Blackland clay. The 1980s and 1990s tract-home builders around JBSA-Randolph poured gate posts to fence depth, not gate depth. A single wet season heaves the footing, throws the post out of plumb, and the gate drops and drags within months.
- Pre-UL 325 operator boards without entrapment protection. We regularly find original Linear and LiftMaster boards in Converse homes that predate federal photo-eye and edge-sensor requirements. Cracked photo-eyes or missing edge sensors are common, and retrofitting an obsolete board onto a new gate is rarely the honest fix.
- Cedar gates sagging at the hinge side. Converse summer heat accelerates warping and splitting in cedar boards, especially on un-braced panels. The gate sags, the latch no longer lines up, and homeowners start shimming instead of fixing the frame.
- Deferred maintenance on PCS-rotation rental properties. With the constant turnover of military families on PCS orders at JBSA-Randolph, many Converse gates have gone years without hinge lubrication, post inspection, or board service. What looks like a broken latch often turns out to be corroded hinges, a cracked bottom rail, and a leaning post all at once.
Pricing for Gate Installation in Converse, TX
Here are the numbers we quote most often in Converse. A driveway swing-gate replacement on existing sound posts runs $1,800 to $3,400. Re-setting two posts with deeper footings and steel reinforcement brings that to $3,000 to $4,200. A full sliding gate with track, operator, and safety sensors lands between $3,200 and $6,500 depending on gate length and whether we’re pouring a new track base. A basic single pedestrian gate replacement runs $700 to $1,400. The price you hear on the phone is a range, and the price on the written estimate is the number you’ll pay. Call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll give you a real range for your specific setup before we schedule anything.
We Also Serve Cities Near Converse
Beyond Gate Installation in Converse, our crews regularly run to Universal City, Schertz, Cibolo, and the northeast side of San Antonio. If you’re near the Converse border, in Cibolo Valley Ranch or along FM 78 toward Schertz, call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll tell you honestly whether your address falls in our normal route or needs extra scheduling lead time.
Serving Converse, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Converse 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 Installation in Converse
Because Converse sits on Blackland Prairie expansive clay, which shrinks in the summer droughts and swells during the rains, and that movement works on a shallow footing until it cracks and heaves the post out of plumb. We dig 30 to 36 inches down with an oversized bell footing, which is deeper than what works on the rockier or sandier soil in other parts of the county, and it’s the single most important thing we do differently here. Call (940) 412-7340 and we’ll explain what your current footing looks like and what a proper replacement involves.
It depends on the operator’s age and whether it has working UL 325 entrapment protection, meaning functional photo-eyes and edge sensors. If the board is pre-UL 325 or the safety components are cracked or missing, we won’t mount it on a new gate, and we’ll explain exactly why in plain terms before any work starts. A working current-generation operator can often stay if it has the pull strength for the new gate’s weight.
Almost always yes, provided there’s enough side clearance for the gate to slide open along the fence line. We pour a proper track base sized for the clay movement, set the rollers, and mount the new slide gate with a current operator and safety sensors. The old hinge post comes out, the new track base goes in, and the gate never relies on a post at all.
We install the gate and operator, run the control wiring, mount a keypad and a receiver for remotes, and cut and install a loop detector in the driveway that senses your vehicle and opens the gate automatically. The loop is the same one used at commercial properties, and we coordinate the wiring so the keypad, remotes, loop, and safety sensors all talk to the operator board correctly.
Yes. We service solar operators and the majors already on Converse gates, including Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, and LiftMaster. If your solar panel has shaded out or the battery is no longer holding charge, we’ll tell you whether a panel relocation, a battery swap, or a full operator replacement makes more sense for your setup, and the price is written before we touch anything.
For a straight answer on your Converse gate, call (940) 412-7340. You’ll get Dean or a member of his team, a real dollar range, and a scheduled window before we ever put a shovel in the ground.
Written by Dean Prescott, Owner at Portcullis Gate Repair, serving Converse and northeast Bexar County.