Gatewood Fence & Gate in Minnesota
Gatewood Fence & Gate has been fixing gates across Minnesota since 2001, and Hal Gatewood still answers the phone himself. Whether it’s a sagging farm gate outside Mora, an automated driveway gate that quit mid-winter in Brainerd, or a welded iron pedestrian gate that’s taken one too many hits from a snowplow, Hal and his crew repair what other companies want to replace entirely. As part of the Locally family, every Gatewood job comes with the same promise: the price on the phone matches the price on the invoice, the owner puts his name on the work, and you can drive to the shop if something needs sorting out.
Why Minnesota Homeowners Choose Gatewood Fence & Gate
Minnesota winters are hard on gates. The freeze-thaw cycle works hinges loose, ice jams operators, and that first heavy snow finds every weak weld. Hal knows this because he’s been crawling under frozen gates in January since before some of his competitors were in business. When he says he’ll be there himself, he means it. His cell number goes on every invoice, and he lives twenty minutes from most of his regular stops.
The 90-Day Done Right Promise isn’t buried in fine print. It’s stamped on every job sheet in writing: one call brings him back, no runaround, no charge for the callback. That matters when you’re seventy miles from the nearest city and the last company you called sent a subcontractor from three counties over who couldn’t get parts.
Hal fixes gates in your driveway. He welds on site. He doesn’t haul your gate to a shop you’ve never seen and quote you for a full replacement when a hinge pin and thirty minutes of welding would do. He’s certified on nine major brands - LiftMaster, FAAC, BFT, Linear, Viking, Ghost Controls, DoorKing, Elite, and Mighty Mule - so when your automated operator throws a code, he’s not guessing. His technicians are background-checked, uniformed, and they carry his name on their shirts, not some national logo.
Calls get answered by a live person, around the clock. No voicemail maze, no call center in another time zone, no chatbot asking you to rephrase your question. And the pricing is laid out upfront: $40 off any repair over $200, no trip charge inside the county, a free second opinion on any written estimate you want checked, and a standing 10% discount for seniors and veterans that doesn’t require haggling or remembering a promo code.
Hal’s name is on the shop, his address is published, and his license number is there for anyone to look up. Ask anyone on your street who’s been burned by a national outfit that quoted one price on the phone and charged another at the door - they’ll tell you what that verification is worth.
Backed by the Locally Family
Locally started in 1997 when a retired county extension agent named Ward Selby got tired of hearing the same story: out-of-state plates, a quote that tripled at the door, and a phone number that stopped working the minute something went wrong. He wrote down what a homeowner could actually verify in five minutes - a local phone number a person answers, an address you can drive to, the owner’s name and face, and a license number you can look up - and offered his name to any company that would publish all four. That list is still the entire standard.
Every Locally company lives by the L.O.C.A.L. code: Local roots with an address in the county, On time with a window that means something, Community first in hiring and spending, Accountable with the owner answering the phone, and Loyal enough to want your business for twenty years rather than one big ticket. Gatewood Fence & Gate carries that code across Minnesota. The person who answers is the person who shows up, and the price he says is the price you pay.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving Minnesota since 2001.