How much to replace a side gate: wood vs metal prices

Most of these are general cost-guide figures with no stated location, or one vendor’s list price, so treat them as a starting point for quotes. The full Zone 0 budget is on our Zone Zero compliance cost page.

How much does it cost to replace a side gate?

Published figures we found, by material. All pages were accessed on 10 November 2026.

The cost guides and the San Diego price describe different jobs. The guides price a gate on its own. The contractor’s page prices the gate as an add-on to a Zone 0 section: removing the noncompliant section, setting new posts, installing aluminum privacy panels, tying into the existing fence and cleanup.

How much does it cost to replace a wood fence gate?

For a like-for-like wood walk gate, ThePricer’s September 2026 figure of $245 to $568 installed is the most recent published range we found. Ergeon’s 2023 guide puts the floor at about $400 for a manual wood gate and the ceiling near $4,000, depending on height, wood type and hardware.

Two things move a wood gate job past those numbers. ThePricer warns that replacing a gate “can also expose weak posts,” and that hanging a heavier gate on an old post “may save money on the first invoice” but can lead to sagging or latch problems. Hardware is the other: ThePricer puts the premium for a standard walk gate at roughly $100 to $250.

What does a metal or aluminum side gate cost?

Ergeon’s guide puts manual steel gates from about $600 and aluminum gates from about $2,000 (2023). Product-only prices give a sense of where the money goes:

• Globus Gates, a California aluminum seller, listed a 4 by 6 foot aluminum pedestrian gate kit (6063-T6, powder coated) at $808.75 on 10 November 2026. Posts and latch hardware are sold separately. The company also sells installation in Southern California.
• BarrierBoss USA listed “FireSafe” metal gates starting at $325, size not given, and gate hardware from $79.49 in a post dated 25 November 2025.

The gap between a kit and an installed price is posts, concrete or wall anchors, labor and removing the old gate. In the San Diego Zone 0 pricing, a gate takes the job from $2,000 to $2,500 (aluminum section only) to a $3,000 starting price.

What drives the price of a side gate replacement?

• Posts. A new gate on sound posts is the cheap case. A rotten wood post, or a wood post that has to become metal for Zone 0, means digging and concrete. ThePricer lists an 80 lb bag of concrete mix at $6.47.
• The house end. Where a side gate hangs on a post fixed to the house wall, that connection is its own line item. Globus sells a hinge post and L-side post set for gates hung between two walls. Ask the contractor how the house-side post will be fixed, and whether stucco or siding patching is in the price. None of the sources we found publishes a separate price for this.
• Hardware. Ergeon notes designer hinges can cost close to $400; a basic set is far less. Self-closing hinges and a lockable latch add cost.
• Labor. Ergeon estimated about $80 an hour and 4 to 8 hours for a typical job, or close to $500 in labor (2023). That is a national figure, so expect local quotes to differ.
• Removal. Globus’s February 2026 blog cites $3 to $9 per foot to remove old fence, from a cost guide it links to.

Does a replacement side gate have to meet Zone 0?

Not under state law today. The Board of Forestry adopted its Zone 0 rule on 19 August 2026, but withdrew it from the Office of Administrative Law on 8 September 2026, and as of 10 November 2026 it is not in effect. Our Zone 0 gate requirements page covers the rule in detail.

Once it takes effect, the adopted text says combustible fences and gates “shall not be attached to an Occupied Structure,” a fence or gate attached to the house would need a 5 foot noncombustible span, and no new combustible gate could go in within 5 feet of the house (14 CCR 1298.04(b)(8) and (9); 1299.03(d)(8) and (9)). The Board’s own summary gives “replacing a wooden gate with a non-combustible metal gate” as an example. Existing homes would get 3 years in local Very High zones, or up to 5 on a local timeline (1298.04(c)(4)), and 5 years in the State Responsibility Area, or not less than 3 if CAL FIRE sets a shorter timeline (1299.03(e)(4)).

San Diego is ahead of the state. Its Zone 0 Guidelines (Rev. 4/22/2026) apply to new structures now and target full compliance for existing homes, “including replacing fences and gates that do not comply,” by 28 February 2029. See our San Diego Zone 0 fence rules.

In the State Responsibility Area, a local Very High zone or San Diego, a new wood gate hung at the house today would likely need replacing again within the compliance window. Under the adopted state text, a gate more than 5 feet out along the fence is not covered by the 5 foot span. For a wood fence with no gate at the house, see wood fence attached to house.

Is it worth paying more for a metal gate now?

That depends on where the gate is and what your insurer offers. The California FAIR Plan’s discount sheet (from 15 November 2025) includes an item for having only noncombustible materials, “including fences and gates,” within 5 feet of the dwelling, as one of up to 12 wildfire discounts. On our reading of that wording, a metal gate counts toward the item only if everything else within 5 feet is noncombustible too.

If you buy aluminum for Zone 0 reasons, ask for the product’s ASTM E136 test report, since that is the test the adopted rule uses to define noncombustible. The rule sets up no approval or listing program for gates, so “Zone 0 approved” on a product page is the seller’s own claim. Our page on whether aluminum is noncombustible explains the test results.

What should a side gate quote include?

• Gate size (width and height), material and infill.
• Whether both posts are new, and what they are made of.
• How the house-side post attaches, and who patches the wall.
• Hinges and latch, named by model.
• Removal and disposal of the old gate and any fence section.
• For a Zone 0 job, the length of noncombustible span from the house wall, which should reach 5 feet.

Get at least two local quotes. Engineer Nate Wittasek cites a published San Diego County compliance example in which the gate replacement alone came to $3,556 (September 2026); he does not say where it was published, and we have not seen it.