How much is an electric gate repair?

£95 to £350 for most faults. Adjustments and photocell work sit at the bottom of that range, motor or control board replacement at the top.

My gates opened then went straight back. Why?

Almost always the safety beams: a spider web, a knocked bracket or a dirty lens is enough. It is one of the cheapest visits on the list.

Can you repair a gate installed by someone else?

Yes, and most call-outs are exactly that. Bring the make and model of the motors if you have the paperwork, it speeds up parts and saves you money.

How do I open the gates in a power cut?

Use the manual release, normally a keyed lever on each operator. It disengages the drive so the gates move by hand. If nobody has ever shown you, ask for a demonstration at the next visit.

Are call-out charges separate from the repair?

The written quote shows the visit and the work as separate lines, so you can see exactly what you are paying for before agreeing to anything.

Electric gate repairs in Teesside

Most electric gate repairs on Teesside cost £95 to £350: control board faults, failed photocells, worn hinges and bearings, seized motors and remote or receiver problems. The fault is diagnosed on site and priced before anything is replaced.

Get Quote From £95

A gate automation ram arm motor and control box on a brick gate pillar

What usually goes wrong

Automated gates fail in a small number of predictable ways, and knowing which one you have saves you paying for the wrong part.

Common electric gate faults and typical repair cost
Symptom	Usual cause	Typical cost
Gate opens then reverses straight away	Photocell misaligned or dirty, or an obstruction detection fault	£95 to £160
One leaf moves, the other does not	Failed motor, broken cable or a burnt output on the board	£150 to £350
Nothing at all, no lights	Tripped RCD, water in the control box, blown fuse	£95 to £180
Remotes stopped working	Receiver failure, flat batteries, lost programming	£95 to £190
Grinding, juddering or scraping	Worn hinge pins, dry bearings, a dropped leaf or track debris	£120 to £300
Gate closes too hard or too slowly	Force and speed settings drifted out of adjustment	£95 to £150

Water and salt are the two main culprits

Control boxes on Teesside entrances live outdoors through wet winters, and the single most common dead-gate call-out is moisture inside an enclosure with a perished seal or an unsealed cable gland. Near the coast at Redcar, Marske, Saltburn and Seaton Carew the salt makes it worse, corroding terminals, hinge pins and the fixings on photocell posts. Repairs there should use stainless or galvanised replacements as a matter of course, and the enclosure should be resealed properly rather than taped shut.

The parts question

Older installations sometimes use kit whose manufacturer has moved on. Boards and motors for the mainstream brands are readily available, but obscure imports occasionally are not, and then the honest answer is a motor-and-board replacement using a current system rather than chasing a part that no longer exists. A fair quote tells you which situation you are in, and prices the repair route and the replacement route side by side where a genuine choice exists.

Repair, or is it time for a new system?

A rough guide: if the gates themselves are sound and only the automation has failed, repair or re-motorising is almost always the better spend. If the leaves have dropped, the frames have opened up at the joints or the posts are moving, the motors will keep failing however many boards you buy, because they are fighting the gate. That is the point where replacement makes sense, and the quote should say so plainly instead of selling you a fourth call-out.

Safety comes with the repair

Any competent repair visit re-checks the safety layer before leaving: photocells aligned and tested, closing force measured with a gauge at the leading edge, manual release working and demonstrated. Force settings drift over years as hinges wear, and an old gate that shuts harder than it used to is a genuine hazard, not a quirk. Where a repair uncovers a bigger safety gap, you get it in writing with the cost to put it right, and the decision stays yours.

Emergency and stuck gates

A gate stuck shut across the only vehicle access is an urgent job, and the first thing to know is where your manual release key lives. Every compliant installation has one, usually a keyed lever on each motor that disengages the drive so the gates push by hand. Find it now rather than at seven on a wet Monday. If a gate is stuck open, leaving it that way overnight is normally safer than forcing it, and the make-safe visit is the priority.