Alameda neighborhood · 24/7
Central Alameda: one street door, a stair behind it, and four households who all hold a key to the same cylinder
The middle of the island between the two shopping streets, the densest housing in the city: wooden houses built for one family and divided into flats decades ago, a shared porch, a row of mail slots, and separate homes at the top of the stairs. Eighteen minutes, which is the citywide average.
~18 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
From the sidewalk one of these buildings is a house. Behind the front door it is four addresses. That single fact shapes almost everything on this page, starting with the first question on the call: which door are you standing at, the one on the street or the one you live behind. A person can be locked out on the porch, locked in the hallway with their own door shut, or standing on the sidewalk with neither opening. All three are a house lockout at $132 to $242 with the $89 visit inside the figure, but they are three different visits, and knowing which one it is before the van leaves is the difference between arriving prepared and arriving twice.
The second question is who can approve the work, and it is asked plainly because it saves a wasted trip. Your own door is yours: a lockout, a rekey after a housemate moves out, a lock that has worn past pinning. The street door, the hallway, the basement and the row of mail slots are the building's, so a change to any of those is ordered by the owner or the manager. Which of you is responsible is settled between you long before anyone calls a locksmith. All we do is ask on the phone, and one short written line from an owner or a manager is enough for the technician to start. Nothing about that changes the price.
The third thing is the count. A single cylinder in a street door with keys in the hands of every household at once means that when one resident changes, the key that opens the street door has not changed at all. That is not a security lecture, it is arithmetic, and it is why the useful conversation here is a keying plan rather than a lock purchase: which cylinders are shared, which are personal, and who is handed what. Repinning is $30 to $47 per cylinder with each one after the first at the low end. Where a building needs one key for the street door and a different key for every unit, that is a master key scheme, and it is quoted after the openings are walked and counted rather than guessed at over the phone.
Two small jobs come off these buildings constantly and both are worth doing while the technician is already there. Mail slots in a row of four, where a key is lost or a lock has been pried, get their own line inside the same agreed figure instead of a second service call. And a common door that has stopped catching is usually the frame moving rather than the lock failing, which is adjustment rather than replacement. Where hardware truly is finished, it is $127 to $332 per door. Eighteen minutes is the average across the whole map and this is the middle of the island, which is why the two numbers match.
Say whether you are on the street, in the hallway or at your own door, and give the unit or the floor. Say whether the trouble is your own lock or something the whole building uses, since the second kind has to be ordered by the owner or the manager. If the street door has an entry panel, say whether it still rings through to anyone.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Central Alameda
I am inside the hallway but locked out of my own flat. Is that a smaller job?+
It is the same visit at $132 to $242, and it is usually the quicker version of it because the technician walks straight to your door. Say it on the call anyway. Standing on the porch, standing in the hall and standing on the sidewalk are three different arrivals, and the one thing that wastes time here is a technician reaching a locked street door nobody mentioned.
A housemate moved out and took a key with them. What can I change without asking anybody?+
The cylinder on your own door, at $30 to $47, which retires every key cut to it. The street door is used by the other households too, so a change there comes from the owner or the manager. If the key that walked out opens both, say so on the call and you will be told exactly which part is yours to arrange and which part needs a message from them.
Our building has one street door and five units. How is a keying plan priced?+
After the openings are walked and counted, not over the phone. The number depends on how many cylinders there really are, what is fitted to each and how the frames stand, and a plan drawn from a description is a guess with a figure attached. What can be said on the phone is what the walk-through costs and how long it takes. You get a written chart of who opens what before any hardware is ordered.
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.