DFW & Surrounding Areas
Storms damage gates in three distinct ways, and they need different responses. The one that matters most is the least visible: a gate that still moves but has lost its safety devices is more dangerous than one that has stopped.
How we approach gate not working after a storm
Safety risk
Storm-damaged gates can have intact-looking operators and damaged safety devices, which is the dangerous combination. Do not cycle it repeatedly to see if it recovers.
Some causes of gate not working after a storm you can resolve yourself in minutes. We would rather you found one than paid us to.
The most common post-storm fault is also the cheapest. Reset the GFCI near the operator and check the panel. A large share of gates are working again at this point.
Look at both photo-eye housings for knocks, water inside the lens, or damaged cabling, and check their indicator LEDs. If a sensor is damaged, do not return the gate to normal operation until it is repaired — that is the protection that stops it closing on something.
With the operator released, move the gate through its full travel. Binding, scraping or new noise means physical damage. Look for debris in the track and for a leaf that no longer sits square.
If you may claim on insurance, photograph the damage, the debris and the position of the gate before anything is moved or repaired. It is much harder to evidence afterwards, and it costs a minute now.
Checked all that and it is still gate not working after a storm?
Tell us what you found — it shortens the visit.
The first is electrical surge. Lightning does not need to strike the gate — a strike on the network induces a spike that travels the supply, and the transformer, control board and loop detector are the usual casualties. This can leave a gate completely dead or working with one function missing.
The second is water. Driven rain finds its way into enclosures whose seals have aged, into photo-eye housings, and into loop splices in the driveway. These faults often appear a day or two later rather than immediately, and they may come and go as things dry.
The third is physical. Wind moves gate leaves hard against their stops, debris hits them, and a large leaf acts as a sail. That bends track, knocks photo-eyes out of alignment, strains hinges and occasionally shifts a post. Physical damage is the one that most often leaves a gate that still runs but is no longer safe.
A dead gate announces itself. A storm-damaged gate that still opens and closes may have a photo-eye knocked out of alignment, an edge sensor with a severed cable, or a loop detector reading permanently — and those faults remove the protection that stops the gate closing on a vehicle or a person without preventing it from closing.
That is why the checks on this page are about the safety devices rather than about getting the gate moving again. A gate that has been through a storm should have its entrapment protection verified before it goes back into normal service, and that is not something that can be confirmed by watching it complete one cycle.
Each of these looks different at the gate. The “how to tell” line is what separates it from the one above.
Most storm damage is repairable and a good deal of it is inexpensive — a reset, a realignment, a dried splice. Surge damage to boards is the costly end, and it is the one worth preventing: if a storm has taken a board out once, surge protection is cheaper than the next board.
North Texas sits in one of the most active severe-weather corridors in the country, with a spring and an autumn season of straight-line winds, large hail and heavy lightning. Gate equipment is outdoors, tall, metallic and at the end of a long buried run, which is close to the worst combination available.
The wind is the underrated part. A solid gate leaf is a sail, and the straight-line winds that come off these storm lines routinely exceed what a gate’s stops and hinges were designed to absorb. Hail damages photo-eye lenses and enclosure seals. A gate that survived the storm intact still deserves a look at its sensors, because the damage that matters most is the kind that leaves it working.
Sometimes, but check the GFCI first — moisture tripping the outlet near the post is the most common post-storm cause and it is free to fix. If the GFCI is fine and the supply is live but the operator is dead, then surge damage to the transformer or board becomes the likely answer.
Yes, and specifically the safety devices. Wind and debris knock photo-eyes out of alignment and damage sensor cables without stopping the gate, which leaves a gate that closes normally but no longer detects an obstruction. That is the one storm outcome that is genuinely dangerous.
That is between you and your insurer, but photograph everything before anything is moved or repaired — the damage, the debris, and the gate’s position. We can provide a written description of the fault and the repair for a claim. Evidence is much harder to produce after the repair.
Surge protection is the single most effective step if a board or transformer has been lost, and it costs a fraction of the part it protects. Beyond that, keeping enclosure seals in good condition and having sensor cabling properly strain-relieved deals with the water and flex damage that follow storms.
Water. Moisture that got into an enclosure, a photo-eye housing or a loop splice during the storm takes time to reach a terminal and start causing trouble, and the fault may come and go as things dry out. Delayed failures after rain are one of the more reliable signatures we see.
Include what you found in the checks above — where it stops, what you heard, whether it moves by hand. It genuinely shortens the visit, and it means we arrive with the right part more often.
We answer the phone 24/7. If you are stuck, call and we will talk you through the manual release before anyone arrives. See what counts as a gate emergency.
