San Francisco neighborhood · 24/7
Noe Valley, the Castro and Bernal Heights: long-owned Victorians, garages under bay windows, and the driest air in the city
Victorians and Edwardians on the sunny slopes, front stairs up to the parlour floor, garages tucked under the bay windows, and shops along 24th, Castro and Cortland. Seventeen minutes from Divisadero.
: ", CA"} — ~17 Min Arrival, 24/7
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Houses here stay in the same hands for a long time, and so does the hardware. It is normal to find a mortise set from 1908 doing its job with nothing wrong beyond a century of paint, and normal for the owner to be surprised when told it is worth keeping. Up on these slopes the sun does the opposite of what the ocean does four miles west: a cylinder runs ten to fifteen years and often longer. When something does fail here it is almost never corrosion, so the first question on the call is what changed rather than how old the lock is.
The failure this district actually produces is movement. A Victorian on a grade settles, the frame racks by a hair, and the bolt stops finding the middle of the strike. The key turns fine with the door open and fights you with the door shut, and everybody in the house adopts a lift-and-lean technique without discussing it. That is not a lock problem, and it does not need a new lock. It needs the strike moved or the keeper reshaped, which is part of the visit rather than a purchase. Anyone who quotes you a replacement for that has not looked at the door.
The garage under the bay window is the other standing feature. It is a real door with a real cylinder, it faces the street, and it is used every day, so it wears faster than the front door that only sees deliveries. Replacement hardware is $125 to $319, a rekey $28 to $46 per cylinder. Bringing the front door, the garage and the door at the top of the garage stairs onto one key is the single most common piece of work in this district, and the second and third cylinders sit at the low end of that range because the van is already at the kerb.
The shops on 24th, Castro and Cortland run the commercial side: storefront doors at $169 to $479, exit devices at $299 to $769, business lockouts at $155 to $279. Bernal is steep enough that parking decides the last few minutes of an arrival more than the drive does. As everywhere, the evening adds $55 and after midnight adds $95, both counted into the figure before you agree.
Give the cross street and say which door: the front at the top of the stairs, the garage under the bay, the door from the garage up into the house, or a shop. If the key turns with the door open but not shut, say that, because it changes what the technician brings up the steps.
Most requested in Noe Valley, the Castro & Bernal Heights
FAQ
Asked about Noe Valley, the Castro & Bernal Heights
Should I replace my 1910 mortise lock?+
Usually not. Around here those locks are in good order and are heavier and better made than a modern equivalent at the same money. A repin at $28 to $46 a cylinder retires every old key and leaves you with the original lock. Replacement makes sense when the case is cracked or the lock has been forced, and you will be told which one you have.
The key only jams when the door is closed. What is that?+
The building has moved and the bolt is no longer meeting the middle of the strike. It is extremely common on a Victorian built on a grade. The fix is to move the strike or reshape the keeper, and that is done on the visit rather than sold as a new lock.
Can one key run the front door, the garage and the door upstairs?+
Yes, and it is the job we do most in this district. The locks stay on the doors and take new pins, which retires every key already out there. $28 to $46 per cylinder, with the second and third at the bottom of that range. Worth doing when you buy, when work finishes on the house, or when you realise you cannot account for every key that exists.
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.