FAAC Welding & Fabrication Nationwide | Gatewood Fence & Gate

FAAC Welding & Fabrication: The Grand Prairie Owner’s Guide

We weld and fabricate FAAC gate parts here in Grand Prairie, and we stock the common pieces on the truck. Most welding and fabrication repairs on FAAC swing and slide gates run $180 to $460 installed, and we can usually get to you the same day you call. The way most folks find out a weld has failed is simple: the gate starts sagging, the hinge tears away from the post, or the operator bracket cracks and the gate won’t open all the way. If that sounds like your gate, you’re in the right place.

Call (903) 829-4499

Here’s the honest picture: FAAC builds solid operators and good hardware, but the steel around them lives outside in Texas sun, rain, and the occasional ice storm. Grand Prairie’s clay soil shifts, posts move, and welds that were barely adequate when new eventually crack under the load. We fix that. Gatewood Fence & Gate is an independent service provider, not affiliated with FAAC, and we’ve been welding FAAC gates back together since 2001.

Which FAAC Models This Applies To

Welding and fabrication work applies to almost every FAAC gate system, but the specifics depend on what you have. The FAAC swing gate arms (the 400, 402, 412, 415, and 750 series) mount to a bracket that gets welded or bolted to the gate frame. The slide gate operators (the 740, 741, 844, and 884 series) ride on a steel rack that gets welded to the gate beam. If your gate is tubular steel or wrought iron, the hinge plates, operator brackets, and rack mounts are all welded points that fail over time.

Here’s the compatibility gotcha most Grand Prairie owners run into: FAAC operators are Italian, built to metric specs, and their mounting brackets are drilled for specific bolt patterns. A fence company that welds on a generic bracket without matching the FAAC bolt spread will have you drilling new holes through the operator housing or shimming it with washers. That’s sloppy. We match the bracket to the model, not the other way around. When a part can’t be welded back cleanly, we use quality aftermarket steel that’s equal to or better than what came on the gate, and we’ll tell you which one makes sense before we start.

Signs Your FAAC Welding & Fabrication Is Failing

• The gate sags toward the latch side. Nine times out of ten in Grand Prairie, this isn’t a bent gate. The hinge weld at the post has started to tear, or the post itself has shifted in the clay soil. Welding the panel without addressing the post gets you six months, maybe less.
• You hear a metallic groan or pop when the gate opens. That’s a weld under stress releasing and re-gripping. It’s the sound of a crack that hasn’t fully separated yet. Catch it now and the fix is one weld. Wait for the full break and you’re welding plus straightening.
• The operator bracket rattles or flexes when the arm moves. FAAC arms push and pull with real force. A loose or cracked bracket turns that force into leverage against the gate frame, and the crack spreads fast. We see this a lot on 412 and 415 arms in Grand Prairie.
• The slide gate jumps or grinds on the rack. On FAAC slide systems, if the rack welds break loose even an inch, the pinion gear loses bite and the gate shudders down the track. Left alone, it chews the gear teeth and you’re buying operator parts you didn’t need.
• Rust bleeds through the paint at the welds. Weld points are where moisture sits and where factory coatings are thinnest. Rust at a weld is a structural warning, not a cosmetic one. We grind it back, weld it solid, and seal it so it doesn’t come back next spring.

“Tell me what it’s doing, and I’ll tell you what it needs. No runaround.”

Replacement Cost & What’s Included

Here’s what we charge in Grand Prairie, and we’ll quote the number before any work starts:

• Weld repair, single point (hinge, bracket, or rack): $180 to $260
• Weld repair, multiple points or cracked frame: $240 to $360
• Fabrication and install of a new operator bracket matched to your FAAC model: $220 to $320
• Fabrication and install of a replacement steel rack for FAAC slide gates: $280 to $460

The range comes down to how much grinding and straightening the old metal needs before we weld, and how accessible the point is. Every price includes the welding, the steel if we’re fabricating a new bracket or rack, on-site labor, and cleanup. The price we quote is the price you pay, agreed before the torch comes out. And every welding job carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing: if it’s not done right, we make it right.

DIY or Call Us?

You can safely check a few things yourself: look for cracked paint or rust trails at the welds, push gently on the gate to see what flexes, and watch the operator mount while the gate runs. That’ll tell you where the problem lives. What we’d ask you not to do is fire up a welder and try to fix it in the driveway. Welding overhead, on a tilted gate, next to a live operator with capacitor-discharge voltage is how people get hurt, and a bad weld on a gate that weighs 400 pounds can fail when someone’s walking under it. If you’re not a trained welder, this is the one job where the risk outruns the savings.

We do on-site welding so the gate stays in your driveway, and Hal Gatewood has been welding in Grand Prairie since 2001, back when he picked up the trade at Tarrant County College’s vocational program before going out on his own. Call (903) 829-4499 and we’ll tell you straight whether it’s a weld repair or a replacement part, and what it’ll cost.

FAQs

Call for a Straight Answer and a Real Price

If your FAAC gate is sagging, popping, or rattling at the welds, don’t wait for the full break. Call Gatewood Fence & Gate at (903) 829-4499 for a free estimate. Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop, the shop is down the road, and every weld carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. We stock parts for FAAC, LiftMaster, Mighty Mule, and Ghost Controls, and we’ll tell you exactly what the gate needs before any work begins.

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