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 far the door has walked away from its frame: a leaf and a strike still in line take the low end, a leaf that has moved with the season and a strike that has to be cut back into the jamb take the high one. Say how the door behaves when you pull it to, and the range closes to a single number on the call. A range covers that work anywhere in town, and the only thing the clock is allowed to add sits in the table below: $55 after 8pm, $95 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 $55, and between midnight and 7am it carries $95. 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 two doors are never the same door
The same job on a door that still shuts to the stop and on one that has to be pulled hard lands at opposite ends of one range. Four things settle it, in the order they come up on the call.
The frame first, the clock second
What moves a figure inside its range here is how far the door has walked away from its frame. A leaf and a strike still in line sit near the bottom. A strike that has to be cut back into the jamb, a hinge shimmed, a leaf eased where it binds — that costs the time it takes. The clock is allowed one thing only: $55 between 8pm and midnight, $95 between midnight and 7am, folded into the figure before you agree to anything.
Which of the five doors it is
A front entrance under a covered porch, the service door beside a three-car garage, a tall side gate, a patio slider and a pair of French doors all book under one job name and are five separate pieces of work. Name the one that stopped you and most of the spread is gone before anybody drives out.
How the door behaves when you pull it to
A leaf that closes to the stop under its own weight is one job. A leaf that has to be pulled hard, or lifted at the handle before the key will turn, is another, and the difference is minutes with a chisel rather than a different lock. Say which of the two yours does and the range closes.
Whether the lock can be kept
A key that needs force is more often a strike out of line than a dead cylinder, and bringing it back sits inside the visit rather than on the bill as parts. Where a cylinder is genuinely finished it is replaced at $139 to $359, and you hear which of the two yours is, with the reason.
FAQ
What people ask once they hear a figure
The key turned fine in March and barely turns now. Is the lock going?+
Rarely. Take the lock out of the picture for a moment and look at the jamb. A bright scrape on the strike plate above or below the hole means the bolt has been arriving at the wrong height and grinding on brass, which is a door that moved rather than a mechanism that failed. Summers here are hot and dry, winter nights get down near freezing, and a wide solid leaf follows that all year while the plate stays where it was screwed. The repair is hinge screws long enough to reach framing, a shim behind the top hinge, and the strike relocated with its mortise recut. It is the cheapest thing anyone will do to your house this year, which is why the first question on the call is about the season rather than the brand.
Two houses, the same lock, very different prices. What decides that?+
The door does. Three things move a job inside its range. What the leaf is doing, whether it still hangs square or has settled and taken to dragging on its stop. How much carpentry the hinges and the strike need before hardware is worth screwing down at all. And the clock, since a van arriving after 8pm carries $55 and after midnight $95. Settle those three on the phone and the range collapses to a single figure, which is the figure your card sees.
Is a call at eleven at night charged differently from a Tuesday afternoon?+
Weekends and public holidays are billed at plain daytime rates. Only the hour changes anything: $55 added between 8pm and midnight, $95 added between midnight and 7am. Both are worked into the quote before you agree to it, so nothing appears at the door that was not said on the phone. A house lockout at $165 in the afternoon comes back as $220 at ten in the evening and $260 at two in the morning, and those are the numbers on the receipt.
We live behind a gate. Can I order work on the entrance myself?+
On your own house, yes, and no permission is needed for a lockout, a rekey or a new deadbolt on a door you live behind. The entrance is a different matter. Gates, entry keypads, pool doors and mail enclosures are association property, so the board or the management company orders that work, and a resident who signs for it tends to find out afterward that they bought it personally. So the question gets asked while we are still on the phone. Your own fob or remote is a household item and takes a household order at $99 to $215. Anything done to the gate system itself is quoted to whoever runs the community.
I bought a keypad lock for a house built in 1988. Will it fit?+
The hardware will fit the hole. Whether the door can carry it is the real question. A motorized bolt has no shoulder to lean on, so a door that a person still has to push closed is a door the lock will fail on within a month. Before the keypad goes near it the hinges are anchored into framing, the leaf is brought back to square, the bore is checked for size and the strike is moved so the bolt drops through clean. Then the lock, then the codes you choose, then the override key cut in the van. That whole visit falls between $215 and $529, and what moves you inside that spread is the leaf, not the brand on the box.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Tell us whether the door has to be pushed before it locks, and the call is short
Danville and the San Ramon Valley, at any hour. The condition of the door sets the work and the work sets the price, so you get one number on the phone with the $89 service call and the hour already inside it, and that number is what the receipt shows. Ninety days on the labor, in writing, covering the frame as well as the lock.