About
Two halves of one city, two different lifespans.
One van, kept on Divisadero because that is roughly where the marine air gives way to the sun, out to any door in the city at any hour: a rowhouse front on Judah, a flat door on Valencia, the door up from a garage under the living floor, a grille on Clement, a lobby on Nob Hill. Stainless cylinders for the salt side and cutting gear for both are on board, so the key gets made at the door the first time.
4.9 / 5· 1,284 reviews from San Francisco and the towns over the county line
2010
Working the city since
24/7
Phones
90 days
Warranty on the work
From both sides of Twin Peaks
Salt air has been working against this city's locks for all twenty-one of my years on its doors. West of Twin Peaks it eats a cylinder about twice as fast as east of the hill, so since 2010 our van on Divisadero has carried stainless for one half and mortise parts for the other.
A stiff key that only needs the lock stripped and cleaned gets exactly that, and buzzer wiring or a roll-up motor I turn down on the first call.
Callum Rios
Owner · 21 years on city doors · Bay Gate since 2010
Independent, on San Francisco doors since 2010
Bay Gate Locksmith has been taking San Francisco calls since 2010, and there has never been a counter to walk into. The lock in question is bolted to a rowhouse front on Judah or sitting in a car door at the curb in SoMa, so the tools travel and you stay where you are. The van keeps its spot on Divisadero for a practical reason rather than a sentimental one: that street is roughly where the marine air gives out and the sun starts, which leaves the fog belt and the sun belt the same short run apart. The name is that gap in the hills the weather comes through, which is the one thing every door in this city has in common.
What this is not is worth putting in writing. No franchise agreement behind it, no dealership, no tie to a lock maker or a car manufacturer, and no arrangement under which your address is handed on to whichever van bids for it. One 628 number rings here, one van answers it, and the technician standing at your door is paid by the same business that gave you the figure on the phone.
Stainless on one shelf, mortise parts on the other
Seven miles across, this city asks for two different vans, so one van carries both loads. West of Twin Peaks the shelves hold marine-grade stainless cylinders, extractors for snapped blades and the kit to strip and clean a lock that is dragging but not yet finished: a Sunset rowhouse front, a Richmond garage door under the living floor, a side gate in Parkside. East of the hill the stock is pins, springs and mortise parts for Edwardian flats off Fillmore and for 1910 buildings in Noe Valley that will outlast everyone living in them. Between the two sit aluminum deadlatches, hookbolts and grille padlocks for the storefronts on Clement, Irving, Taraval, Mission and Third, exit devices and keypads for SoMa and Mission Bay, and blanks with the programmers to match for a car parked nose-in on a grade in Bernal.
Strike plates and long screws ride along as well, because on an old frame the bolt stops reaching the strike long before the cylinder is at fault. Carrying all of it at once is why a visit usually ends with a working door instead of a part on order, and why keys are cut and chips coded at your curb rather than at a bench somewhere across town.
Coast to Bay, One Figure
Four things that hold the same way for a Sunset rowhouse with a garage under the living floor, an Edwardian flat off Fillmore, a Mission storefront behind a roll-down grille and a loft in SoMa. The workmanship is warranted for ninety days, named on the receipt.
- Year one
- from $89
- Year three
- from $28/cyl
- Year six
- from $125
- Any year
- from $135
From your first sentence on the phone to the receipt in your inbox
Say what the key is doing — stiff, halfway and wanting a jiggle, snapped off in the keyway, or perfectly healthy on the far side of a door that shut behind you — and give the street. The street matters, because it says which half of the city the lock has been living in. The figure comes back on that same call, off the published list every time, with the $89 visit already inside it and the clock counted too: $55 between 8pm and midnight, $95 between midnight and 7am, folded in before you hear a number. Master key systems are the single exception, since a building nobody has walked cannot be priced honestly, so those are counted on site and then given as one figure.
A text goes out before the van moves, carrying the technician's name and a thirty-minute window drawn from where the van actually is. Eighteen minutes is the citywide average, and an area that runs slower gets named as slower while you are still on the phone. Before any case is opened, ID has to match the address, a lease the unit, or a registration the plate. Picks, decoders and bypass tools come out first; if a drill turns out to be the answer, you hear what it does and say yes before it touches anything, and agreeing to it has never moved the figure upward. Card or tap on the spot, an itemized receipt in your email before the van clears the block, and ninety days on the workmanship written on that same piece of paper.
The cheaper answer, and the jobs we turn down
Pull the door wide open and turn the key with nothing for the bolt to hit. If it still works, the cylinder is healthy and the frame has moved, and the repair is a strike plate shifted an eighth of an inch with two screws long enough to reach the framing — part of the visit rather than a hardware sale. A household carrying five keys that no longer match anything wants a rekey at $28 to $46 a cylinder, not five new locks. A mortise set from 1910 east of the hill is usually worth repinning and keeping, trim and all. And a west-side cylinder that has had only one stiff winter is often a strip and a clean instead of a replacement.
Other things get refused on the call rather than at your gate. Buzzer panels, intercom wiring, the door releases wired to them and elevator controls are electrical work and a different trade; the man-door beside a roll-up is ours, the roll-up motor is not. A handful of car makes tie key coding to a dealer tool, and that belongs in the first minute of the call rather than after a van has driven out. Hardware on a shared street gate, lobby door or mailroom lock needs the building's agreement, which is far easier to settle beforehand than in a hallway afterwards. Naming the limit early loses us a few jobs a month and saves everybody the drive.
Where we work
San Francisco and the towns over the county line, any hour
Pick your area for its own arrival time and the jobs we run there most.
FAQ
About the outfit, not the price list
Is Bay Gate its own shop, or a name rented from somewhere else?+
Independent, and San Francisco only. The 628 number on this site rings the business that owns the van, and the address you give is never passed to a third party to bid on. It is worth asking, because a fair share of what ranks above the map results is a call center in another state: it takes the job, keeps a cut and hands your address to whoever is nearest, which is exactly why the figure quoted on the phone and the figure at the door so rarely agree. Here the two have been the same figure since 2010.
How long has Bay Gate been working San Francisco doors?+
Since 2010, on the same work the whole time: lockouts, rekeys, cylinder and hardware replacement, storefronts and roll-down grilles, safes, and keys for cars parked where they sit. Callum Rios, who leads the work and checks this page, has twenty-one years on city doors, which starts well before the business did. What the years actually buy is pattern recognition — that a green tailpiece four blocks from Ocean Beach is ordinary, that a 1994 mortise set in Noe Valley probably has decades left in it, and which of the two you are describing over the phone.
Why does everything happen at the curb instead of at a counter?+
Because a storefront means rent, opening hours and a drive across town at the worst moment of your day, and your lock would still be on its door when you got there. The van stages on Divisadero instead, on the line between the fog and the sun, which is what makes eighteen minutes the citywide average: about 14 minutes to Downtown, 18 to the Richmond, 21 to the Sunset, 24 to the Bayview, and 27 to 34 over the county line with Pacifica at the far end. Key cutting, chip coding and cylinder work all happen at your door, off the bench that rides in the van.
How do I know the van that pulls up is yours?+
The technician's name reaches you by text before the van leaves Divisadero, with a thirty-minute window beside it. Holding that message up against the person in front of you takes two seconds and is the cheapest safety check in this trade. If the name does not match, or nobody sent you a name at all, you are entitled to turn the visit away at the curb and call the 628 number back. The check runs the other way too: ID against the address, a lease page against the unit, a registration against the plate, before anything is opened.
You say non-destructive first. What happens when that fails?+
You hear about it before a drill leaves the van. Flat doors, rowhouse fronts, apartment cylinders, storefront latches and car doors mostly open with picks, decoders or a bypass, and the hardware keeps working afterwards, which matters more on this coast than most places because a replacement cylinder here is a real expense. When one is seized solid with corrosion, already damaged, or high-security to the point where picking will not get there, the technician says what drilling does, what goes on in its place, what that part is made of and what it costs, and then waits for your answer. The figure locked on the call stays where it is either way.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say what the key is doing, hear the figure, get back inside
San Francisco plus Daly City, Colma, Brisbane, South San Francisco and Pacifica, 24 hours, holidays included. Stiff, halfway, snapped, or a healthy lock on the wrong side of a closed door: one number comes back with the $89 visit and the hour of the night already inside it, and it is the number on the receipt.