Corvane Metalworks
Sun Valley, CA
Close-up of a MIG torch laying a weld bead on heavy steel plate, the arc glowing blue-white and sparks flying, the first shot of a short film from the shop that ends on a finished slat gate at golden hour.

Steel gates and railings, built in Sun Valley since 1998.

Family-run fabrication shop. We measure, draw, build, powder coat and install with our own crew.

Get a quote Price a gate

On the shop schedule now

Counted from the day you sign the shop drawing. Rosa updates this every Monday.

Gates
4 to 6 weeks
Railings
3 to 5 weeks
Structural
to your GC’s schedule
Repairs
usually same week
Close-up of a greaseable barrel hinge welded between a black powder-coated gate frame and its square post, lit by low sun.
Greaseable barrel hinges on every swing gate. Grease them once a year.

Recent work around the Valley

  • Black horizontal-slat double swing gate on a hillside drive, agave and olive trees behind it.

    Hillside slat gate Studio City

    Opening
    16 ft, double swing
    Posts
    6×6 in. tube
    Finish
    Matte black
    Opener
    24V swing arms
    Shop time
    5 weeks
  • A dark green steel picket walk gate standing half open in a board-formed concrete wall, a flagstone path leading into a lavender garden.

    Garden walk gate Toluca Lake

    Size
    4 × 5 ft
    Pickets
    ¾ in. square, 4 in. centres
    Finish
    Moss green
    Shop time
    3 weeks
  • Floating white oak stair treads on a single black steel stringer, with a slim black flat-bar railing, in a bright white room.

    Mono-stringer stair Silver Lake

    Stringer
    ⅜ in. folded plate
    Treads
    3 in. white oak, by others
    Guard
    ½ × 1½ in. flat bar
    Shop time
    7 weeks
  • A bronze perforated-steel slide gate rolling across a wide concrete drive, sun throwing dotted shadows through the panel, cypress trees behind.

    Perforated slide gate Encino

    Opening
    20 ft, V-track slide
    Infill
    ⅜ in. plate, ½ in. holes
    Finish
    Dark bronze over galvanized
    Opener
    Slide operator, battery backup
    Shop time
    6 weeks
  • A red oxide primed steel moment frame of two columns and a beam, bolted down inside an opened-up wall during a house remodel.

    Moment frame for an opened wall Sherman Oaks

    Members
    Wide-flange, per engineer
    Finish
    Shop primer
    Inspection
    LADBS, passed first visit
    On site
    1 day
  • Black steel handrails and pickets running up both sides of a concrete entry stair to an arched wooden front door, terracotta pots on the steps.

    Entry stair rail Burbank

    Run
    38 linear ft
    Handrail
    1½ in. round
    Shop time
    3 weeks
  • A glass balcony guard in a slim bronze steel frame wrapping a hillside deck, the downtown skyline hazy in the distance.

    Glass balcony guard Hollywood Hills

    Height
    42 in. guard
    Glass
    ½ in. laminated
    Shop time
    6 weeks

Draw your driveway gate

Pick a style and size and watch the elevation redraw. The price is the range we’d quote for a standard install on a level drive; the site measure firms it up.

Front elevation, street side

Gate elevation drawing

Installed, ballpark$0

Lead time4 to 6 weeks

Project
Driveway gate
Style
Horizontal slat
Size
16 ft × 6 ft
Finish
Matte black
Scale
Fit to sheet
Sheet
G-1
Style
How it opens

Measure post to post, or wall to wall if there are no posts yet.

Height
Finish Matte black

Includes site measure, shop drawing, posts set in concrete, powder coat and install. Electrical to the opener is by your electrician; we tell them where.

From photos to a hung gate

In the dark shop, gloved hands hold an angle grinder cutting square tube in a bench vise; a fan of orange sparks pours onto the floor.
Looking straight down at a gate frame tacked together on the welding table, with magnetic squares in the corners, C-clamps on the sides and chalk marks on each slat.
Every gate is laid out full size on the table and checked square before a single bead is run.

  1. Send photos

    Text or upload a few pictures with rough sizes. We send a ballpark within two business days.

    Free

  2. Site measure

    Dan comes out with a tape and a level. Posts, slope, footings, and where power can reach an opener.

    Free within 25 miles

  3. Shop drawing

    A dimensioned drawing and a fixed price. Changes are free until you sign. Half down orders the steel.

    3 to 5 days

  4. Build and finish

    Cut, fitted and welded here, then blasted and powder coated in our own oven.

    3 to 5 weeks

  5. Install

    Posts go in concrete on day one. We hang the gate once it cures and leave you the remotes. The balance is due then.

    2 visits, a week apart

The shop crew at work in the morning light from the roll-up door: a welder at the bench under his helmet, two fabricators lifting a slat gate off the sawhorses, another pulling tube from the rack.

The crew, on a Tuesday

Seven fabricators, one install truck and one welding truck, in the same building on San Fernando Road since 1998. Dan Corvane still does most of the site measures. Rosa runs the office, the schedule and the powder-coat queue.

Nobody is subcontracted. The person who welds your gate is in this picture, and so is the person who hangs it.

Macro photograph of a fresh MIG weld bead joining two thick steel plates, its ripples heat-tinted bronze and blue.
A fillet weld on ½ in. plate, before grinding.

Steel, and what goes on it

Most of what leaves the shop is mild steel under powder coat. When the job lives in sprinklers, by a pool or near the ocean, we change the metal or the coating before anything else.

Mild steel

A500 tube and A36 plate and bar. Blasted, zinc-rich primer, then powder. Right for most gates and railings in the Valley.

Hot-dip galvanized

Dipped at a galvanizer in Vernon, then powder coated on top. Adds about 15% and a week. Our call for anything near sprinklers.

Stainless 304 and 316

316 within a mile or so of the ocean and around salt pools. Brushed or bead-blasted, never painted.

Aluminum

For long slide gates and coastal jobs. Half the weight on the opener, TIG welded, powder coated.

Powder-coated steel sample panels in black, bronze, grey, off-white, green, red and silver hanging from hooks in front of the curing oven.

Twelve stock colours, cured in our own oven

Stock colours run every week at no extra cost. Any other RAL colour is a $280 batch charge and adds about a week. Ask for a sample panel; we’ll mail it.

  • Matte black
  • Satin black
  • Anthracite
  • Graphite
  • Dark bronze
  • Corten brown
  • Oxide red
  • Moss green
  • Olive
  • Pebble grey
  • Silver
  • Pearl white

Warranty: 5 years on our welds and fabrication; 10 years against peeling on galvanized-and-powder work. Openers carry the maker’s warranty, and we service what we install.

Structural steel for remodels and ADUs

Beams, posts, moment frames and brackets, fabricated from your engineer’s stamped set and installed by the same crew. We send shop drawings to the engineer for review, line up the deputy inspector for field welds, and pull the permit ourselves when the steel is the whole job.

  • Moment frames from $9,500 installed. Most go in in a day.
  • LA City and LA County, plus Burbank and Glendale
  • Contractors: net 30 after the first job
  • License: CSLB #0000000 (sample), C-51 structural steel and C-60 welding

To price it we need the structural sheets, the address and who the GC is. A 20 ft flatbed has to reach the curb.

Close view of a primed steel column and beam bolted together with a shear plate, standing in a gutted wall next to old brick, a bright room beyond.
Bolted beam-to-column connection, Sherman Oaks. The frame went in on a Thursday and passed inspection the next Monday.
Corvane's white utility pickup parked on a quiet Valley street at sunrise, an engine-driven welder, welding leads and gas bottles in the bed.

Repairs and mobile welding

Sagging gate, snapped hinge, a railing post rusted through at the base, a cracked trailer tongue. The welding truck carries its own power, gas and the steel we use most, so most repairs are finished in one visit.

On site
$165/hr
2 hour minimum, travel included within 25 miles
Evenings and weekends
$240/hr
when the gate won’t close and you can’t leave
Materials
Cost +15%
hinges, rollers, tube and plate off the truck

Text a photo to (818) 555-0193. Most calls get a slot the same week.

Service area map A drawn map of the San Fernando Valley and surrounding Los Angeles, with the shop in Sun Valley at the centre of a 25-mile ring that reaches Santa Clarita, Calabasas, Santa Monica, downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. 5 405 101 210 118 Burbank Glendale Pasadena N. Hollywood Encino Van Nuys Northridge Granada Hills Sylmar Tujunga Santa Clarita Calabasas Santa Monica Downtown LA Hollywood Corvane Sun Valley 25 miles 10 San Gabriel Mtns Santa Monica Mtns Pacific

Anywhere inside the ring

Site measures are free within 25 miles of the shop. Past the ring it’s a $95 trip charge, credited back if you go ahead. Santa Clarita and the Westside get measured on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

  • Sun Valley
  • Burbank
  • Glendale
  • La Crescenta
  • Tujunga
  • Sunland
  • North Hollywood
  • Studio City
  • Sherman Oaks
  • Encino
  • Van Nuys
  • Toluca Lake
  • Pacoima
  • Sylmar
  • Granada Hills
  • Northridge
  • Pasadena
  • Silver Lake
  • Hollywood Hills
  • Santa Clarita
  • Calabasas
  • Santa Monica

Questions we get at the measure

Cantilever racks loaded with square tube, angle and flat bar along the shop wall in cool morning light.
Stock racks. We keep 20 ft lengths of the common sizes, so repairs don’t wait on the steel yard.
Can you add an opener to the gate I already have?

Usually. We check the hinges and the frame first, because an opener on a sagging gate burns out in a year. If it needs new hinges or a diagonal brace, we’ll quote that too. New gates are built with the opener mounts and conduit path in place.

Does a new gate need a permit?

Gates and fences usually don’t, as long as they stay within the height your zone allows. In much of LA City that’s 3½ ft in a front yard and 6 ft elsewhere; taller needs an approval. We check at the measure and tell you before you sign anything. Structural steel always needs a permit, and we pull it.

How do deposits and payment work?

Half when you sign the drawing so we can buy steel, the rest when it’s installed and working. Structural jobs are billed by progress, like the rest of your contractor’s schedule. Check, ACH or card; cards add 3%.

Can you match an existing fence or gate?

Send close-ups of the profile, the picket spacing and any scrollwork with a tape in the shot. Most stock profiles we can match exactly. Old cast pieces we can usually get close enough that only you will know.

What happens if the gate sags later?

Our welds and fabrication are covered for 5 years. If one of our gates drops, we come out and fix it at no charge. Hinges need grease once a year; we’ll show you where at the install.

Do you work with contractors and architects?

A lot of our work comes through them. We fabricate to plans, send shop drawings for review, and keep to the site schedule. Net 30 terms after the first job.

Do I need to be home for the install?

For the first hour, so we can confirm where the posts go and where the opener control will sit. After that, leave us the side gate code and we’ll text you photos when it’s done.

The shop at blue hour: a corrugated metal building with its roll-up door open and warm light spilling onto the wet apron, a gate in progress inside, bundles of tube out front and the mountains dark behind.

When the door’s up, we’re in

Bring a sketch, a broken part or a paint chip you want matched. Park on the apron, not across the neighbour’s bay.

Shop
10918 San Fernando Rd
Sun Valley, CA 91352
Hours
Shop Mon to Fri, 6:30 am to 3:30 pm
Office until 5 pm. Closed weekends.

Get a quote

Tell us what you need and add a few photos. You’ll hear back within two business days with a ballpark and a time for the site measure.

Photos that help most

  • One wide shot from the street
  • Close-ups of the posts, the hinge side and the latch side
  • A tape measure in the frame across the opening
  • For repairs: the broken part, and the whole piece it belongs to
What is it?

A cross street is fine for now.

For example: opening 14 ft between posts, about 6 ft tall, drive slopes down toward the street.

Up to 8 photos. On this sample site nothing is uploaded.