FAAC Welding & Fabrication Nationwide | Gatewood Fence & Gate

FAAC Welding & Fabrication: The Arlington Owner’s Guide

We stock FAAC-compatible weldments and fabrication components for gate repair in Arlington, with typical installed pricing running $220 to $480 depending on what cracked, sheared, or rusted through. Hal keeps the common FAAC hinge pins, frame corner gussets, and operator mounting plates on the truck, so most welding jobs get finished the same day we see them. You’ll usually notice the problem as a gate that drags on the opener side, a panel that sits crooked in the frame, or a crack running through a weld that was never prepped right in the first place – and around Arlington’s clay soil that heaves with every wet-dry cycle, we see that more than anywhere else.

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Which FAAC Models This Applies To

Most of our welding and fabrication work in Arlington involves FAAC swing gate operators from the 400, 750, 770, 844, and C720 series, plus the 390-series slide gate drives. The welding isn’t done to the operator itself – it’s done to the steel the operator pushes against: hinge barrels on ornamental columns, mounting plates that bolt to brick or stone piers, receiver posts, and the gate frame itself on heavier iron or steel panels. If you can read the model number off the label on your FAAC control board or the cover of the operator, that tells us stroke length, thrust capacity, and duty cycle – but the fabrication side depends more on gate weight, leaf width, and what the original installer did to the steel. One gotcha we run into weekly: a 750-series FAAC pushing a 16-foot iron gate needs a reinforced hinge post and heavy-gauge mounting plate, while the same operator on a 12-foot lightweight aluminum panel does fine with standard brackets. We’ll measure before we cut anything.

On the OEM-versus-aftermarket question: FAAC’s branded brackets and post kits are well made, but for custom plate work, gussets, and hinge rebuilds, we fabricate in-house from 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch steel plate that often outlasts what came with the original install. We’re an independent shop – not affiliated with FAAC – so we’re free to tell you when OEM makes sense and when a fabricated piece in your driveway is the better fix.

Signs Your FAAC Welding & Fabrication Is Failing

• The gate sags on the latch side, and the opener strains at the start of every cycle. This almost always traces back to a hinge barrel pulling loose from the post or the post itself cracking at the weld line. The operator is pushing harder than it should, which shortens motor life fast.
• You hear a metallic pop or groan when the gate reverses direction. That’s a cracked weld flexing. In Arlington’s humid summers and freeze-thaw winters, surface rust gets into a weld that was never sealed, and the crack runs from the inside out. It won’t heal itself.
• The operator’s mounting bolts have worked loose or one has sheared off. The plate behind the bolts is probably flexing – either too thin for the load or cracked around the holes. We fabricate a heavier plate and typically add a backing brace.
• A visible crack runs through any steel part of the gate frame, hinge, or post base. The moment you can see it, it’s past the “keep an eye on it” stage. Cracks on the bottom rail near the hinge are the classic Arlington failure: water pools there, rust blooms, and the steel goes.
• The FAAC unit trips its obstacle detection or fault light for no obvious reason. The motor may be sensing the extra drag from steel that’s binding or out of alignment. We clear the fault by fixing the steel, not by turning up the force dial – that’s the shortcut we’ve spent 24 years undoing for other companies.

Replacement Cost & What’s Included

In Arlington, most FAAC-related welding and fabrication work lands between $220 and $480 installed. At the low end you’re looking at a single cracked weld re-prepped and rejoined, or a small gusset plate added to stop a hinge from flexing. The higher end covers custom-fabricated mounting plates, hinge barrel rebuilds, or reinforcement to a gate post that’s cracked at grade. Material cost tracks steel plate stock – a 3/8-inch plate cut and drilled runs $40 to $90 in raw material – and the rest is labor, which we quote before striking an arc. Every price is agreed before any work starts, and since we weld on site in your driveway, you watch us do it. The work carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing: if the weld or the alignment isn’t holding, one call brings Hal back. Inside Tarrant County, there’s no trip charge, and we take $40 off any repair over $200 – seniors and veterans save 10% on top of that, always.

DIY or Call Us?

Here’s the honest split. You can absolutely inspect your own gate: look at each weld for hairline cracks, check the hinge bolts with a wrench, and watch whether the gate moves true through its full arc. What you should not do is fire up a stick welder on a loaded gate frame without bracing the panel. A swing gate under tension will shift the instant a weld is cut or heated, and a 400-pound iron leaf pinning you against a brick column is not how you want your Tuesday to end. Welding on gate steel also carries the usual electrical and fire hazards – hot slag near dry grass, wiring, and your FAAC control board is a real risk. If the crack is structural, let us handle it. We’ll show up, brace the gate, prep the joint properly, and weld it so it doesn’t crack again in eighteen months. Call (817) 241-4067 and talk it through with us – if it turns out to be something you can safely do yourself, Hal will tell you that, too.

FAQs

Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for FAAC Welding in Arlington

Hal Gatewood grew up near Pantego on the southwest side of Arlington and has been fixing gates around this city since 2001, back when he was running a truck with a busted AC and learning one broken hinge at a time. He took welding and metal fabrication at Tarrant County College before he ever touched a gate opener for a paying customer, and over 24 years he’s earned a reputation for showing up when he says he will, doing clean work, and not leaving a mess for the next guy. The name is on the shop, and the shop is down the road – that’s the oldest accountability there is. If your FAAC gate is cracking, sagging, or straining, call (817) 241-4067 for a free estimate. A live person answers – no voicemail, no queue, no runaround.

Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner, Gatewood Fence & Gate at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Arlington and nearby areas.