Alameda neighborhood · 24/7
South Shore: post-war streets on filled ground, low apartment blocks with one courtyard gate, and a beach parking lot full of car keys
The southern edge of the island built on made land after the war: single-story houses on flat straight blocks, two- and three-story apartment buildings around courtyards, the shopping center, and the beach and lagoon path behind them. Twenty minutes from the van.
~20 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
The hardware down here is a generation younger than the rest of the island and that is genuinely good news. Doors hung on these streets were bored to sizes current locks still expect, so a keypad deadbolt bought this afternoon usually goes into the door it finds this evening. Smart lock installation is $192 to $479 and this neighborhood sits at the low end of it more often than anywhere else in the city. What still gets checked before anything is fitted is whether the leaf has settled and whether the strike is screwed into framing rather than into casing, because a code cannot help a bolt that does not reach its keeper.
The apartment buildings here put the island's shared-door question in a different shape. Instead of a Victorian stair there is a courtyard with a gate on it, a laundry room, a mail alcove and a door into a covered carport, and none of those belong to any one resident. Your own unit door is yours to arrange, at $132 to $242 for a lockout or $30 to $47 to repin between residents. The gate, the laundry and the mail bank are the building's, and work on them is ordered by whoever manages it. On a lockout the courtyard gate is part of the same visit rather than a second door on the bill, which is worth knowing before somebody starts climbing anything.
In the houses the pattern repeats lot to lot. A front door nobody uses, a door in from the carport or garage that the household treats as the real front door, a slider onto the patio, and a gate down the side. The door people actually use is the one that latches behind somebody who stepped out to a car, which makes it the commonest lockout on these blocks and the sensible place for a keypad if the household wants one. A patio slider is worth a plain word too: the factory catch is a light-duty part and replacing it buys another light-duty part, so a pin through the frame at the height of the catch is added as a small line rather than sold as its own visit.
The last piece is automotive, and it is seasonal. The beach lot, the lagoon path and the shopping center produce a steady run of keys shut inside a car, usually with a towel and a cooler on the seat beside them. A car lockout is $108 to $202, a fob paired at the vehicle is $92 to $199, and a key cut and coded beside the car when nothing else exists is $154 to $415. Give the row and the nearest entrance rather than the name of the lot. Evenings add $50 from eight to midnight and $88 after that, both inside the figure quoted before the van leaves.
For a house, say whether the door is the front, the one in from the garage or carport, the patio slider or the side gate. For an apartment, give the unit and say whether the courtyard gate is the problem or your own door. For a car, name the nearest entrance and the row, plus the make, model, year and color.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about South Shore
Will a keypad lock fit a house on these streets without any work to the door?+
Usually, and this is the part of the island where that can be said honestly. These doors were bored to the size current locks are built around. What is checked first is whether the leaf has settled and whether the strike sits in framing, since a code does nothing for a bolt that misses its keeper. When nothing needs correcting you pay the low end of $192 to $479.
The courtyard gate locked behind me and my own door is locked too. Two charges?+
One visit. The gate is what stands between the sidewalk and your door, so it is dealt with first and counted inside the same figure rather than billed as a second opening. Say on the call whether the gate has a keyed cylinder or only a latch, and whether anyone else in the building can let a technician through.
I am somewhere in the beach lot and cannot describe where.+
Give the nearest entrance or path, the make and color, and stay with the car. These lots are large enough that walking in from the wrong end costs more time than the drive over, so two extra details on the call shorten the wait more than anything else you can do. A car lockout is $108 to $202 whatever row it turns out to be.
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.