FAAC Welding & Fabrication Nationwide

FAAC Welding & Fabrication: The Austin Owner’s Guide

If your FAAC gate has a cracked hinge, a snapped mounting bracket, or a weld that’s let go on the operator post, we can fabricate and install a replacement, typically for $220 to $480 parts and labor depending on the piece and the steel thickness involved. Most Austin owners discover the problem the hard way: the gate starts dragging, sags visibly at the free end, or the operator strains and trips its internal breaker because the geometry is no longer straight. We carry common FAAC mounting plates and hinge weldments on the truck and fabricate non-standard pieces in our Austin shop, usually same week.

Call (254) 280-0629

This page covers the welding and fabrication work FAAC operators and gates actually need in Central Texas, what it costs, and when a repair is smarter than a full replacement. If you’re staring at a cracked weld right now, call (254) 280-0629 and describe what you see. We’ll give you a written price before any work starts.

Which FAAC Models This Applies To

We handle welding and fabrication across the FAAC lines we see most in Austin: the 400-series swing operators, the 390 and 402 hydraulic units, and the C720/C721 slide operators, along with the older 415 and 770 models still running in neighborhoods like Tarrytown and Mueller. The welding work generally falls into two buckets. First, the operator mounting plate or post bracket, which is the steel plate that anchors the actuator to the concrete pad or steel post. Second, the gate’s own hardware: hinge weldments, pickup points, and reinforcement gussets where the actuator arm transfers force into the gate leaf.

Identifying your part before you call saves a trip. Look for the FAAC model tag on the actuator body, usually a silver or white label with the series number printed on it. Then measure the mounting bolt pattern, center to center. FAAC 400-series operators use a different bolt spread than the 390 hydraulic units, and the 770’s post bracket is taller than most homeowners expect. If the tag is faded or missing, a photo of the operator next to a tape measure works fine. We match OEM plates where the original thickness matters, and for gate-side fabrication we typically cut from the same gauge steel FAAC specifies, then coat it for Texas weather.

One compatibility gotcha worth knowing: FAAC changed the mounting-hole spacing on the 400 series around 2011. A bracket from an older unit will not drop onto a newer operator without re-drilling, and drilling the wrong spot weakens the plate. We keep both patterns in stock so we are not modifying a bracket in your driveway with a hand drill.

Signs Your FAAC Welding & Fabrication Is Failing

• The gate sags at the latch end. Usually a hinge weldment or the gate frame itself has cracked and the leaf is no longer supported evenly. The operator keeps working harder to compensate, which shortens its life.
• The operator visibly shifts or rocks when the gate moves. The mounting plate or post bracket has cracked or pulled loose from the concrete. You’ll often see a hairline crack radiating out from a bolt hole.
• The gate groans or pops when opening or closing. That sound is steel flexing at a compromised weld. It gets worse until the weld fails completely, usually at the worst possible time, like a Friday evening.
• The actuator arm or piston is scraping against the gate or the post. The pickup point has moved because a weld let go, and now the arm’s travel arc is wrong. Left alone, it scores the piston and wrecks the operator.
• Rust staining runs down from a bracket or hinge. In Austin’s humidity cycles, water sits inside hairline cracks and the rust bleeds out. The stain is the visible symptom; the crack underneath is the real problem.

Replacement Cost & What’s Included

In Austin, FAAC welding and fabrication work runs from about $220 for a straightforward hinge re-weld with reinforcement up to $480 for a fabricated mounting plate or custom pickup point in heavier steel, parts and labor included. If the gate leaf itself has cracked and needs a section plated or a gusset added, you are in the $300 to $450 range depending on access and the amount of weld time. Every quote includes grinding back the old weld, prepping the surface, the fabrication itself, and a finish coat matched to the existing gate color as closely as practical.

The spread mostly comes down to two things: how thick the original steel is, and whether we can work with the gate in place or need to remove a leaf and work in the shop. A 1/4-inch plate takes longer to weld than 1/8-inch, and overhead welds on a sagging gate take longer than bench work. We quote the price in writing before any bolt comes off, and the Kingswell Guarantee covers the work for 365 days. If the weld fails inside a year, we come back and fix it at no charge under the 365-Day Done Right Promise.

DIY or Call Us?

What you can safely check yourself: look for visible cracks around the hinge welds and mounting bolts, and push gently on the gate at the free end to see how much flex is in the frame. That tells you whether you have a weld problem or a geometry problem. What you should not do is attempt a structural weld repair with a home flux-core welder unless you have real experience. A gate leaf weighs several hundred pounds, and a cold or porous weld on a hinge or pickup point can fail without warning and drop the gate on a person, a car, or a pet. Same goes for the operator mounting plate: if it breaks loose mid-cycle, the operator can swing into the driveway under power.

We see do-it-yourself repairs in Austin that lasted six weeks and then tore out, taking more steel with them than the original crack did. Grinding that mess out and redoing it properly costs more than doing it right the first time. Call (254) 280-0629 and tell us what the gate is doing. We will tell you what it costs before we pull out a single tool.

FAQs

Call Portcullis Gate Repair Austin for FAAC Welding & Fabrication

If your FAAC gate has a cracked weld, a sagging hinge, or a mounting plate that has pulled loose, call us at (254) 280-0629. A live person answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you will get a written price before any work starts. Dean Prescott and the crew at Portcullis Gate Repair Austin serve homeowners across Austin, from South Congress to Round Rock, and we stand behind every weld with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. Tell us what the gate is doing wrong, and we will tell you what it costs to fix it.

Written by Dean Prescott, Owner, Portcullis Gate Repair Austin at Portcullis Gate Repair Austin, serving Austin and nearby areas.