Fences & exterior
Fence, Gate & Exterior Hardware Repair
Sagging gates, loose boards, failed latches, leaning sections and the exterior hardware that has stopped doing its job.
The honest version
What this actually involves
A gate that will not latch is the most common exterior repair request there is, and it is almost never the latch. A gate is a rectangle held up on one edge, and gravity spends every day trying to turn it into a parallelogram. Once it has racked, the latch and the strike no longer line up, and no amount of adjusting the hardware will fix a frame that is out of square.
The real repair is diagonal bracing, and the direction matters: the brace has to run from the bottom of the hinge side up to the top of the latch side, so it works in compression. Run the other way, it is in tension, it does very little, and the gate sags anyway. Half the braced gates we see are braced backwards.
The other half of gate problems is the post. A gate post carries the whole weight of the gate on a lever arm, and if that post has moved, rotted at grade or was never set deep enough, the gate is only ever going to be as good as the post is. Repairing the gate without addressing the post is a temporary fix by definition.
Send us these photos and we can usually answer without a visit
- The gate closed, from several feet back, showing the gap all round
- The hinge post at ground level
- The latch and strike close up
- The full fence run so we can see whether it is one section or the whole line
- Any rot, insect damage or ground contact on posts and rails
A single gate repair is usually two to three hours. Post replacement adds concrete cure time, which typically means a return visit. Fence section repairs depend on run length.
In scope
What's included
Specific enough that you can check your own list against it before you send anything.
- Sagging gate correctionSquaring the frame and installing or correcting diagonal bracing so the gate holds its geometry instead of dropping again in three months.
- Latch, hinge and hardware replacementGate latches, self-closing hinges, drop rods, cane bolts and the hardware that has rusted, bent or worn past adjustment.
- Loose and broken board replacementIndividual pickets, rails and boards replaced and refastened, matched to the existing profile as closely as available material allows.
- Post repair and resettingLeaning and loose posts reset or braced. Posts rotted through at grade need replacement, and we will tell you which situation you are in.
- Section realignmentLeaning runs pulled back to plumb and refastened where the framing is still sound.
- Exterior hardware and fixturesMailboxes, house numbers, hose reels, flag brackets, shutters, address plaques, exterior hooks and light fixture mounts — the mounting, not the wiring.
- Deck and porch board repairIndividual deck boards, loose railings and failed fasteners on sound framing. Structural framing repair is a different scope.
- Pool and safety gate hardwareSelf-closing and self-latching hardware on pool enclosures, which is a code and liability matter as much as a convenience one.
From actual jobs
What this looks like in real life
Our own photos, not stock. Some of these are the state a property was in when we arrived, which is the honest version of this work.
Out of scope
What we won’t do, and why we say it up front.
Every list has at least one item that belongs to somebody else. Naming it early costs you nothing. Finding out after the work has started costs you a second contractor, a second schedule and sometimes a second repair to undo the first one.
There is also an insurance dimension people underestimate. Unlicensed work in a licensed category can give a carrier grounds to deny a claim later. That risk is yours, not ours, which is exactly why we will not quietly take the job.
- New fence installation, or full fence replacement requiring layout and permitting
- Structural deck framing repair — joists, beams, ledgers and posts carrying load
- Retaining wall repair or construction
- Electrical connection of exterior fixtures or gate operators
- Automatic gate openers, access control and driveway gate motors
- Property line disputes or survey questions — where the fence should go is not ours to decide
- Work requiring a permit, HOA approval or a survey
How it runs
From your photos to a finished job
You should know where you stand by step two, before any money is involved.
Photograph the gate closed and the post at ground level
The closed gate shows how far out of square it is. The post at grade shows whether the actual problem is below the visible repair.
We diagnose frame versus post
A racked frame and a failed post produce identical symptoms and need completely different repairs. Getting this right is the whole job.
Square, brace, refasten
Frame brought back to square, bracing installed in the correct direction, hardware aligned to the squared position rather than the sagged one.
Test through the full swing
Opened, closed, latched, and checked for drag through the whole arc, including at the ground where gates catch first.
What drives cost
We can't quote a number here. We can tell you what moves it.
Anyone publishing a flat price for this category is either padding it heavily or about to revise it on site. Here is what actually changes the figure.
- Whether the post is sound is the biggest single variable. Bracing a gate is a modest job; resetting or replacing a post is a substantially larger one.
- Matching existing material can be difficult on older fences — board profiles, dimensions and treatments change over the years and an exact match may not exist.
- Board count and run length drive repair cost on fence sections.
- Access along the fence line matters. Overgrowth has to be cleared before the fence can be worked on, and that is a separate line.
- At some point repair stops being economical. If more than about a third of a fence needs work, we will tell you replacement is the better spend.
Travel and setup are charged once whether we do one item or nine. If there is anything else on your mind, add it to the list — the marginal cost of item two is a fraction of item one.
We stop and tell you before doing anything else, and you decide. We do not expand a job on the fly and hand you a revised invoice at the end.
Field notes
Four ways this gets done wrong
Mostly these are things we get called out to repair after somebody else — or a well-meaning weekend — got there first.
Bracing a gate in the wrong direction
The brace must run from the bottom hinge corner up to the top latch corner so it carries the load in compression. Fitted the other way it is in tension, it does almost nothing, and the gate sags again. This is the single most common error in the category.
Adjusting the latch instead of squaring the gate
Moving the strike to meet a sagging gate works for a few weeks and then the gate drops further. You are chasing the symptom down and it only goes one direction.
Repairing a gate on a failed post
A perfectly squared gate on a post that has rotted at grade or moved in the ground is still going to sag, because the post is the thing that moved. Fix the post first or accept it will come back.
Setting posts without drainage
A post set in a concrete cup with no way for water to escape sits in a bath and rots at the exact point where the strength is needed. It is why so many posts fail right at grade.
Questions
Fence & Gate Repair — common questions
My gate drags on the ground. Can it be fixed?
Can you match my existing fence boards?
Do you build new fences?
How do I know if the post needs replacing?
Can you fix my pool gate so it latches properly?
My whole fence is leaning. Is that repairable?
Where we do this
Fence & Gate Repair across the Lake Norman region
Each of these pages covers what's different about this work in that specific town — housing eras, permitting authority, and what we actually see there.
Fence & Gate Repair in Statesville
Home base. Same-week scheduling is usually realistic here.
Fence & Gate Repair in Mooresville
Core service area. We are in Mooresville most weeks.
Fence & Gate Repair in Denver
Core service area across east Lincoln County.
Fence & Gate Repair in Troutman
Core service area, minutes from home base.
Fence & Gate Repair in Lake Norman
All four shoreline counties. Waterfront access details matter — tell us up front.
- Fence & Gate Repair in Cornelius, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Davidson, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Huntersville, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Sherrills Ford, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Terrell, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Mount Mourne, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Lincolnton, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Hickory, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Newton, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Conover, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Catawba, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Claremont, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Maiden, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Iron Station, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Stanley, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Harmony, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Union Grove, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Olin, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Cleveland, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Barium Springs, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Stony Point, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Taylorsville, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Kannapolis, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Concord, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in Salisbury, NC
- Fence & Gate Repair in China Grove, NC
Usually sent together
Related work people add to the same list
Handyman Repairs
General handyman repair for the accumulated list — hardware, trim, mounting, adjustments and the small fixes that make a house feel unfinished.
Yard Cleanup
Leaves, limbs, storm debris, overgrowth and years of accumulation cleared and hauled — including the parts of the property nobody has walked in a while.
Pressure Washing
Driveways, walks, patios, decks, fences and siding cleaned at pressures the surface can survive — soft wash where pressure would do damage.
Doors & Hardware
Doors that stick, latches that miss, hinges that sag, locks that bind — diagnosed properly and adjusted rather than replaced by default.
Next step
Have fence & gate repair on your list? Send it with everything else.
Photos, notes, an inspection report, a screenshot of your notes app — whatever you have. We read every one and reply with a straight answer, including the parts we're not the right fit for.