Ghost Controls Welding & Fabrication Nationwide

Ghost Controls Welding & Fabrication: The Burbank Owner’s Guide

We stock and install Ghost Controls-compatible welded gate parts in Burbank, and most fabrication repairs – a cracked hinge mount, a snapped gate bracket, a bent post plate – run between $180 and $420 installed, depending on the part and how much cutting or re-welding the gate frame itself needs. We carry common Ghost Controls brackets, hinge plates, and post mounts on the truck, so most Burbank jobs are done the same day we arrive. The way owners usually find us: the gate starts dragging on one corner, or it shudders when it opens, or the motor runs but the gate only travels halfway before binding. That’s a structural part telling you it’s done.

Call (213) 577-1120

Which Ghost Controls Models This Applies To

This applies to the full Ghost Controls residential swing-gate line: the AXP, RSP, and TSS series, plus the earlier AXDP and GTR models still running on plenty of Burbank driveways. Ghost Controls uses a fairly standardized post bracket and gate bracket design across those lines, but there’s a compatibility gotcha owners miss: the post pivot brackets changed mounting-hole spacing between the pre-2020 and current production runs. If you have an older unit and order a new bracket without measuring the bolt spread, you’ll end up drilling new holes in your post. We always measure before we quote – it takes thirty seconds and saves a second trip.

On the OEM versus aftermarket question: Ghost Controls OEM brackets are decent, but the gate-side weld plates are where we see failures. Aftermarket equivalents from sellers like Phoenix or generic Amazon listings often use thinner steel – 1/8 inch instead of the 3/16 inch the OEM spec calls for. In Burbank’s summer heat, thin steel fatigues faster, especially on heavy wooden gates. We’ll install either, but we won’t install a part we know is going to sag within two years. If you bring us a bracket you bought, we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s worth putting on.

Signs Your Ghost Controls Welding & Fabrication Is Failing

• The gate drags or scrapes at the latch end. The hinge-side weld plate has cracked or shifted, dropping the gate a half inch or more. You’ll see stress marks where the plate meets the gate frame.
• The gate shudders or hops while opening. A post bracket with a worn pivot hole lets the gate arm travel in a slight oval instead of a clean arc. The motor works harder and the motion gets rough.
• The motor runs but the gate stops mid-travel. A bent or broken gate bracket is binding against the opener arm. The opener’s force sensor trips and shuts it down, which is the unit protecting itself.
• You see fresh rust staining around a weld. That’s a crack holding moisture. On Burbank’s dry-season/dust-season cycle, a small crack fills with fine grit and grinds itself wider every cycle.
• The gate leans when it’s fully closed. The post-side mount has pulled loose from the post face. This is the one we tell people to stop running immediately, because a leaning gate puts load on the hinge pins they weren’t built to take.

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Replacement Cost & What’s Included

In Burbank, a straight bracket or hinge-plate swap runs $180 to $280 installed. If the gate frame itself needs re-welding – a cracked stile, a corner that’s separated – you’re looking at $320 to $420, which includes grinding out the old weld, re-welding, and repainting the repair area. What drives the range: how thick the existing steel is, whether we’re welding overhead or at ground level, and whether the post itself needs a new plate. Parts and labor are always listed separately on the written quote, so you see exactly what the steel costs and exactly what our time costs. We don’t do verbal estimates and we don’t discover new charges after work starts. Every welding and fabrication job carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the weld fails or the bracket shifts within a year, we come back and fix it at no charge.

DIY or Call Us?

You can safely check the obvious: look for cracked welds, measure how much the gate has sagged, and take photos before you call. What we don’t recommend is breaking out your own welder, for two reasons. First, a gate under spring tension or holding a heavy wooden infill can shift when you cut a weld loose, and a gate swinging free is a lot of mass. Second, most DIY welds on gate frames fail because the steel wasn’t prepped right – paint, rust, and zinc from the original galvanizing have to be ground back to bright metal, and most homeowners skip that step because it’s slow and dirty. That said, if you’ve got welding experience and just need the part matched, we’re glad to sell you the correct Ghost Controls-compatible bracket and tell you the mounting measurements. You’ll find that number at the end of this page: (213) 577-1120. We’d rather give you the right part than watch you install the wrong one twice.

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