Pricing
Sixteen jobs, the whole list, and the door that decides them.
Sixteen jobs, fourteen of them with a range and two quoted once the openings have been counted on site. What moves a figure inside its range here is how many households the door serves: one cylinder and one key is the low end, while a street door that every flat carries a key to means a key plan rather than a lock, and that takes the high one. Say which door it is and who the building answers to, and the range closes to a single number on the call. A range covers that work anywhere on the island, and the only thing the clock is allowed to add sits in the table below: $50 after 8pm, $88 after midnight.
Emergency Locksmith
OverviewResidential Locksmith
OverviewCommercial Locksmith
OverviewAutomotive Locksmith
OverviewThree tiers, and what each one adds
All the clock is allowed to do, on six common jobs
Every figure below is the low end of that job's published range with the hour already inside it, said the way you would hear it on the phone. Between 8pm and midnight a job carries $50, and between midnight and 7am it carries $88. Nothing else on the clock changes a number, and neither a weekend nor a holiday does.
| Job | 7am–8pm | 8pm–12am | 12am–7am |
|---|---|---|---|
| House lockout | $135 | $190 | $230 |
| Car lockout | $109 | $164 | $204 |
| Business lockout | $145 | $200 | $240 |
| Lock replacement | $129 | $184 | $224 |
| Car key replacement | $159 | $214 | $254 |
| Key fob programming | $95 | $150 | $190 |
The $89 visit is inside every figure in this table rather than underneath it. These are low ends, and what lifts a job off them is the door. A leaf that has dropped on its hinges, a bore cut narrower than the modern standard, a strike that has to be moved and its mortise recut: any of those lands the figure higher in the published range, and it is said on the call rather than found on the receipt.
Why a range
A range is wide because a door can belong to one household or four
The same cylinder on a flat door and on the street door below it lands at opposite ends of one range, and the difference is how many keys have to be cut and agreed. Four things settle it, in the order they come up on the call.
Whose door first, the clock second
What moves a figure inside its range here is how many households the door serves. One cylinder and one key sits near the bottom. A street door that four flats carry a key to is a key plan rather than a lock, and that is what costs. The clock is allowed one thing only: $50 between 8pm and midnight, $88 between midnight and 7am, folded into the figure before you agree to anything.
Which of the doors it is
A street door off the pavement, a flat door at the top of the stair, a row of mail doors in the porch and a gate into the shared yard all book under one job name and are four separate pieces of work. Name the one that stopped you and most of the spread is gone before anybody drives out.
How many keys are already out
Changing a cylinder that one person carries a key to is an afternoon. Changing one that four households carry keys to means cutting and handing over a set, and agreeing beforehand who gets which. The lock costs the same either way. The plan is what takes the time.
Whether the lock can be kept
A key that needs force is more often a cylinder due for a strip, a clean and a repin than a lock that is finished, and that work sits inside the visit rather than on the bill as parts. Where a cylinder genuinely is finished it is replaced at $127 to $332, and you hear which of the two yours is, with the reason.
FAQ
What people ask once they hear a figure
How long before somebody is at my door?+
Eighteen minutes is the usual, worked from a base near Park Street. Park Street District runs about 12, Gold Coast 14, Fernside 16, Central Alameda 18, South Shore 20, West End 22, Alameda Point 25 and Bay Farm Island 27 across its own bridge. Off the island the same price list applies: Oakland about 16, Emeryville 21, Piedmont 23, Berkeley 25, San Leandro 26, San Lorenzo 29. Those numbers already allow for the crossing, which is why two addresses that look close together on a map do not come back with the same figure. Where yours is one of the long ones you hear the long one while you are still on the phone.
A tenant is moving out. Which cylinders should be changed?+
The flat door, that week, at $30 to $47 per cylinder, plus anything else that opens only into that unit such as a back door, a storage cage or a shed. That much is straightforward. The street door is the conversation worth having early rather than in a hurry: it is shared, changing it means new keys for every household in the house, and it is the owner or the manager who decides and pays. Plenty of buildings here do it once every few turnovers rather than every time, and knowing which one you are in before the ad goes up is easier than deciding it on a Friday. The mail lock for that box is worth doing at the same visit, since the van is already at the curb.
Two jobs that sound identical, two different figures. What decides it?+
Three things, and the brand of lock is not one of them. What the leaf is doing, since a tall old front door that has settled on its hinges is a different afternoon from a flat door hung twenty years ago. How many cylinders end up in the job, because one street door and three flat doors is one visit but four locks. And the hour, since an arrival after 8pm carries $50 and after midnight $88. Settle those three on the phone and the range closes to a single figure, which is the figure that reaches your card.
Is a call at night or over a weekend priced differently?+
A Saturday costs what a Wednesday costs, and so does the Fourth of July. Only the clock changes anything: $50 added for an arrival between 8pm and midnight, $88 between midnight and 7am. Both go into the number before you agree to it, so nothing new turns up once the door is open. A house lockout at $160 in the afternoon is quoted as $210 at ten in the evening and $248 at two in the morning, and those are the figures on the receipt.
We just bought a house here that was divided into flats years ago. What comes first?+
Walk the address and count the locks before buying anything, because there are almost always more than you think. The street door with its one cylinder. Each flat door. The mail row. The gate into the side yard, which the neighbors on one or both sides often use as well. A basement or laundry door. Then work out which of those you want on one key of your own and which have to stay separate, and rekey to that plan at $30 to $47 per cylinder in a single visit rather than piecemeal over a year. If any exterior door has to be lifted or shoved before it locks, point at that one too, since the repair there is usually a keeper and two long screws rather than a purchase.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say whether it is the street door or your own, and the rest of the call is short
Alameda and Bay Farm, at any hour. Which leaf it is decides who approves the work, the door itself decides the work, and the work decides the number, which is settled on the phone with the $89 visit and any late hour already inside it. It reads the same on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing.