How Falcon Gate Repair Was Born in Upland
We started this company after watching a homeowner in Upland get handed a $2,600 bill for a gate that only needed a $40 hinge. That stuck with us. Not because of the money, but because of the look on his face: he knew he was being taken, and he also knew he had no choice. The gate was stuck open, his dog was inside, and the company on the phone had him cornered. We’d spent years in this trade by then, and we’d seen that same look too many times to keep quiet about it. In 2018, we made a simple decision: someone in the Inland Empire had to do gate repair the honest way, and that someone might as well be us. We started Falcon Gate Repair with one truck, a tool bag that had seen better days, and a promise we wrote down before we’d ever answered a single call: tell people the truth about their gate, even when the truth is less profitable for us.
Eight years later, that’s still the rule. If we can fix a hinge instead of replacing a whole gate, we say so. If an operator motor has another year of life left in it, we tell you. We’ve worked in neighborhoods all across Upland, from the older homes north of Foothill Boulevard to the newer developments near the Colonies, and being straight with people has never once hurt us. It’s actually the opposite. The phone rings because someone trusts us enough to recommend us to their neighbor. That’s not a marketing strategy. That’s just what happens when you stop treating people like transactions.
Our Founder’s Personal Connection to the Gate Repair Trade
We didn’t find this trade. In a lot of ways, it found us. Years ago, long before Falcon existed, we took a temporary job helping a tradesman who fixed gates and garage doors across the 909 and 951 area codes. It was supposed to be a way to make rent for a few months. But something about the work got under our skin right away. The first time we replaced a tension spring and watched a sagging driveway gate snap back to level, it felt like solving a puzzle that actually mattered. There was a smell to those old cast-iron gates, a kind of warm metal and dust combination that you don’t forget. And there was a rhythm to the work: diagnose, test, fix, test again. No two gates were ever exactly the same, even when they looked identical from the curb.
The defining moment came about six years into working for the tradesman. We’d been sent to a house in Ontario where the previous two companies had failed to fix a sliding gate that kept losing its limit stops. The homeowner was frustrated, and rightfully so. We spent an hour tracing the wiring, and we found a ground fault that had been there since the original install. Nobody had bothered to look. When the gate closed smoothly and stayed closed, the homeowner offered us a tip and asked if we’d take his card for future work. We said yes to the card and no to the tip. That was the first time it really clicked for us: this work isn’t about tightening a bolt. It’s about being the person who shows up when someone else couldn’t or wouldn’t. If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably still be fixing things anyway, just for friends and family instead.
Meet Our Team – The Person Behind Every Job
Falcon Gate Repair is owner-operated. The person you talk to when you call is connected to the person who shows up at your gate, and that person answers to our founder. No middle layers, no mystery. Our founder trained for years under tradesmen who taught the old way: test everything before you buy a part, respect the customer’s property, and leave the work area cleaner than you found it. That training shows up in the details: drop cloths under swing-arm operators, wire runs zip-tied and tucked, and gate tracks cleared of debris before we leave.
Outside of work, our founder is a bit of a perfectionist about tools and a soft spot for old craft. There’s a well-organized workbench in the truck, and there’s a loyalty to this community that goes beyond the job sites. When we say we stand behind our work, that’s not a slogan. It’s a daily decision made by a person who knows that a broken gate isn’t a minor inconvenience. It’s a safety issue, a security issue, and a small daily frustration that shouldn’t exist. We don’t leave a job until the gate moves the way it’s supposed to, and we don’t consider a job done until the homeowner has watched it work with their own eyes.
Our Promise to Upland Homeowners
First, the price you’re quoted is the price you pay. We write it down, we agree on it, and we don’t come back later asking for more unless you ask us to do additional work. That’s not a policy in a handbook. That’s just how we’ve operated since 2018. Second, we use quality parts that are appropriate for the job. A cheap plastic limit switch might get the gate moving today, but it’ll fail in six months when Upland’s summer heat gets to it. We’d rather tell you that upfront than see your gate stuck again.
Third, we stand behind every job. If something we repaired fails because of our workmanship, we come back and make it right. We don’t hide behind fine print. We live in this community, our neighbors call us for help, and there’s no version of success for us that involves a homeowner regretting that they called our number.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed – every pro working under the Falcon name is required to hold the license their state requires for the work they perform on your property.
- Insured & bonded – every pro is required to carry the insurance and bonding coverage their state mandates, so you’re protected if something unexpected happens.
- Years of local experience – our team brings deep, hands-on experience with the gate styles, brands, and failure patterns common in the Inland Empire.
- Strong local reputation – our business has grown through word-of-mouth referrals from homeowners across Upland, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, and the surrounding cities.
Here’s why those credentials matter. When you invite a technician onto your property, you’re trusting that person with your family’s security and your home’s entryway. A state license means that person has met a minimum standard of competence and accountability. Insurance and bonding mean that if something goes wrong, you’re not left holding the bill on top of the damage. And local experience means the person working on your gate has probably worked on a hundred gates just like yours in this exact climate, where heat, wind, and dust all have their own opinions about how long your hardware should last.
Rooted in Upland
Upland isn’t just where we work. It’s where we park the truck at night. We know the streets, the neighborhoods, and the particular ways that sun and wind treat a gate on Euclid Avenue compared to one near the San Antonio Heights foothills. We’ve sat in traffic on the 210, and we’ve grabbed coffee at the same local spots as our customers. This isn’t a territory to us. It’s home. When we fix a gate here, we’re fixing it for someone who might live three streets away from our own family. That changes how careful we are, and it changes how honest we need to be. You can’t take shortcuts in a community you plan to stay in for the long haul. And that’s exactly what we plan to do.
Written by the team at Falcon Gate Repair, serving Upland and the surrounding Inland Empire communities since 2018.