Automatic gate repair · Dallas, TX
Automatic Gate Repair in Dallas, TX
A gate that has quit with the car already pointed at it goes very quiet. We do automatic gate repair across Dallas.
The structure, the hardware that carries it, the operator driving the whole arrangement. The equipment residents and staff use to get past it. Motors and control boards. Hinges, tracks and rollers. On-site welding where the frame itself is the casualty. Sliding or swing, at a private drive or a commercial frontage. Estimates cost nothing.
Free estimates · Dallas, TX
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Tell us what the gate is doing and where it is.
The work
What we repair on Dallas gates
Below: what we work on. What Dallas asks of a gate that crosses a fire lane. And what the city’s older gated streets put at the end of a driveway.
Everything the gate hangs on
A gate is a heavy thing in constant motion. The parts bearing it wear on a schedule of their own. Hinges. Tracks. Rollers. Once those go out of true, the gate fights its own hardware on every cycle. The noise usually arrives before the failure does. We repair those parts and we replace them. Where the frame has cracked or a post has given way, we weld it on site. Bolting sound parts onto a broken frame buys a few weeks at best.
The operator
Two things have to agree before a gate moves. The motor that drives it, and the board that tells it when. Either can be the fault. From the outside they look identical. We handle both. Repairing where that is honest, replacing where it is not. You get told which of the two you have before anything is ordered. Gate opener repair covers how those failures separate.
Whatever people press, tap or speak into
Keypads and card readers, telephone entry, intercom. We install that equipment and we repair it.
A broader account of what a gate repair actually involves sits on the automatic gate repair page.
What the city requires
What Dallas requires of a gate across a fire lane
Dallas writes its own rules for gates that block a fire lane. They sit in Appendix O of the city’s fire code, in a section called Limited Access Gates.
Start with what opens the gate. At apartments, hotels, gated residential communities and institutional properties, it has to open electro-mechanically, using equipment the fire code official approves. General business occupancies can be approved for manual Knox entry equipment instead.
Where the city’s own radio receiver is used, it “shall override all other opening systems.” Whatever else opens that gate, the fire department’s signal comes first.
Then there is how fast it has to move. “When activated, the gate shall open at a minimum speed of 1 foot per second and remain open until closed by the fire department.”
A foot per second. The code puts a number on it.
Gates also have to sit back at least 20 feet from public access roadways.
Behind that sits the backup. “A manual back-up system shall be provided for all electro-mechanical gates,” reachable from the entry side. If the powered system fails, someone still has to get through.
On swing gates, one person has to be able to open it by hand. On slide gates the release device sits within ten feet of the gate. It lives in a red weather-resistant box labeled “Fire Dept.”
Two things are ruled out entirely.
- Not allowed
“Barrier arms in front of access gates are not allowed.”
- Prohibited
Magnetic locking devices wired into the city’s radio receivers.
There is also an annual permit for operating a gate like this, and an annual performance test.
To be clear about what we do here
None of that is our work. We do not supply, install, service or certify radio receivers or Knox hardware. We do not file or renew permits, conduct the performance test, verify compliance, or coordinate with Dallas Fire-Rescue. And we cannot tell you from here which of these requirements applies to your gate. Requirements also change. Dallas Fire-Rescue is the authority on what any specific property needs, and the fire code official is who to ask.
How Dallas was built
Dallas's established estate gates
Preston Hollow is not one neighborhood with one gate at the front of it. It is several separate gated enclaves. It began as its own municipality and was annexed into Dallas in 1945. The deed restrictions and lot-size minimums it was built under kept the density low. Large lots. Long drives. Walls and mature planting between the house and the street.
So what does that have to do with your gate?
Where the gate sits, mostly.
On a property like that, the gate is not at the house. It is at the street, at the end of a long private drive. Whoever is standing at it cannot simply be seen from a window. That is why intercom and telephone entry turn up at these entrances so often. Both are equipment we install and repair.
It also means one gate, one household, one person deciding what happens next. There is no board to consult and no manager to call. When the gate stops, the decision is yours, and it is usually being made from the driver’s seat.
What it does not tell you is which part has failed on any given gate. The shortlist is long. A roller worn oval. A board that has stopped switching cleanly. An intercom that has spent a decade in the weather at the end of the drive. That shortlist only narrows in person.
How the entry equipment itself works is covered on the access control page.
Who the gate belongs to
Estate, HOA and commercial property gates
Private estate and driveway gates
The owner notices, the owner decides, and usually the owner is standing at the gate while deciding. No meeting required.
Gated enclaves and associations
Here the gate is jointly held property, so authorising the repair is a separate question from diagnosing it. The board answers the first. The gate answers the second, and it answers the same way it would anywhere.
Commercial sites
Offices, yards, industrial frontage. A gate that will not open at six in the morning is not a maintenance issue by eight. It is a queue at the entrance and a line of people who cannot start work.
Work at associations and commercial sites is set out on the commercial gate repair page.
Questions
Common questions about gate repair in Dallas
Do I need a permit for a gate in Dallas?
Yes, for a gate that obstructs a fire lane and opens electro-mechanically. The city requires an annual permit for its operation and maintenance, and a performance test annually. That process is between the property owner and the city.
What does Dallas require for a gate across a fire lane?
Dallas sets its requirements in Appendix O of the fire code. Where the city's radio receiver is used, it overrides all other opening systems. The gate has to open at a minimum speed of one foot per second. Barrier arms in front of access gates are not allowed. The city's code carries the full requirements.
Do you service all of Dallas?
Yes. Dallas is one of the eleven cities we work in, listed in full on the service areas page.
Next step
Free estimates
Estimates cost nothing, whether the gate guards a private drive or a loading yard. Describe what it has started doing and we will come and see it.
Plenty of these calls come from someone managing the property rather than living behind the gate. That is entirely normal here.
Reach us on {{PHONE_NUMBER}}, or put the details in the form and we will come back to you.
- Free estimates
- Licensed and insured
- Over a decade in business