San Francisco neighborhood · 24/7
The Mission and the Haight: iron gates, flats behind them, and hardware that lasts because the sun reaches it
Victorian flats behind iron gates along Valencia, Guerrero, 24th and the streets off Haight, corner stores with roll-down grilles on nearly every block, and the warmest, driest air in the city. Sixteen minutes from Divisadero.
: ", CA"} — ~16 Min Arrival, 24/7
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
This is the sun belt, and it is the reason half of this site exists. A cylinder on Valencia Street routinely runs ten to fifteen years on hardware identical to the stuff we are pulling out of Sunset doors at year six. If your key has gone stiff over here, corrosion is the unlikely explanation and something else is usually going on: a bolt that no longer lines up because the building has settled, a keyway worn loose by decades of blades, or a cheap cylinder that was never any good. That distinction is worth making on the phone, because it is the difference between a $89 visit and a $125 replacement.
What this district does have is gates. An iron gate at the pavement, a path, and then the flat door, which puts two locks between the street and your bed and means the ordinary lockout here happens outdoors. A lockout is $135 to $249 whichever of the two stopped you. The gate lock is usually the building's and the flat door is yours, so a rekey on the gate needs the owner or the manager and a rekey on your own door does not. Buzzer panels beside those gates are electrical and not ours; if the panel is dead we can still get you through the gate lock tonight.
Corner stores are the commercial work. Roll-down grilles and their padlocks and pin locks, glass storefront doors with hardware from another decade, and a lock-up that goes wrong at half past nine at night rather than during business hours. Storefront and grille locks are $169 to $479, a business lockout $155 to $279, exit devices $299 to $769. Padlocks on grilles fail from the inside even on this side of the city, because the body traps grit and damp and nobody ever looks in one until it will not open before a delivery.
Flats change hands often around here, and turnover is the other steady half of the week. A rekey is $28 to $46 per cylinder, with the second and third at the low end because the van is already parked. Worth doing when a roommate moves out, when a lease turns over, or simply when you count the keys that exist for your door and cannot account for all of them. Evening work carries $55 and after midnight $95, both folded into the figure before you say yes.
Give the cross street and say whether you are outside the iron gate or inside it at the flat door. If it is the gate and you want it rekeyed rather than opened, that request has to come from the owner or the manager. Mention if the buzzer is dead so nobody arrives expecting to be let in.
Most requested in The Mission & the Haight
FAQ
Asked about The Mission & the Haight
My key is stiff and I live in the Mission. Is that salt?+
Almost certainly not. This is the driest, warmest part of the city and cylinders here last ten to fifteen years. Stiffness over here usually means the building has settled and the bolt is no longer meeting the strike, or the keyway is simply worn. Try turning the key with the door standing open: if it turns freely, the lock is fine and the door is the problem, which is a cheaper fix.
Who has to ask for work on the gate at the pavement?+
The owner, the manager or the association, because the gate is shared. You can call us out for it yourself if you are locked outside it and can show you live there, and we will get you through. Changing the lock is the part that needs the building.
Can you get a shop grille open before a morning delivery?+
Yes, and it is one of the more common calls on these blocks. Padlocks and pin locks on roll-down grilles seize from the inside while looking perfectly healthy from the outside. We cut and replace the lock; the grille motor and its mechanism are somebody else's trade, and you will be told which one you have before anybody drives out.
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.