San Francisco neighborhood · 24/7
The Richmond: rowhouses north of the park, garages facing the street, and Clement Street in the fog belt
Rowhouses from the thirties and forties between the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, garages under the living floors and opening straight onto the street, and the shops and grilles of Clement and Geary. Eighteen minutes from Divisadero, and firmly in the fog belt.
: ", CA"} — ~18 Min Arrival, 24/7
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
This is the salt side of the city, and the further west you go along Geary the more obvious it becomes. A plain brass cylinder on a street-facing door out here starts dragging in its third winter and is usually finished by the sixth. What people describe on the phone is a key that has to be held a particular way, and what we find is a cylinder pitted through on the pins. Cleaning helps at year one and stops helping by year three. A replacement is $125 to $319, and on this side of the city the finish is the whole conversation: marine-grade stainless costs more once instead of costing you again in five years.
The garage is the door that takes it worst. It faces the street, it is used daily, and the wind comes straight up the avenue off the water. That is also the door people are least willing to spend money on, which is how a household ends up with the front door in good order and the garage cylinder solid. A rekey is $28 to $46 per cylinder, replacement $125 to $319, and the honest advice is that on a garage door within a mile of the beach a cheap cylinder is a purchase you will repeat.
Snapped keys are the other signature of this district, and they are always predictable in hindsight. A blade that has been getting harder for a year finally breaks on a cold morning, usually in a hurry. Getting the piece out and the door open is $135 to $249, and a new cylinder goes in on the same visit rather than on a second trip. If your key has started needing force, that is the warning, and dealing with it in daylight costs less than dealing with it at eleven at night, when $55 goes into the figure, or after midnight, when it is $95.
Clement and Geary carry the commercial work: roll-down grilles and their padlocks, glass storefront doors, and small suites over the shops. Storefront and grille locks are $169 to $479, a business lockout $155 to $279. Grille padlocks out here take salt and sand at once, and a body that looks perfectly sound outside can be solid inside, which is why they fail on the one morning a delivery is waiting.
Give the avenue number and the cross street, and say whether it is the front door, the garage in the street, or a shopfront. If the key has been getting stiff for a while, say how long: that is the difference between a clean and a replacement, and it decides what the technician brings.
FAQ
Asked about The Richmond
How long should a lock last out here?+
On plain brass, three to six years on a street-facing door before it needs replacing rather than cleaning. Marine-grade stainless runs much longer and is the reason we bring it up before anything goes on your door. Four miles east the same part would run ten to fifteen years, which is the difference the fog belt makes.
My key is getting harder to turn. Do I wait?+
No, that is the last useful warning you get. Between the stiff stage and a blade snapping in the keyway there is usually one winter. Dealt with in daylight it is a clean at $89 or a cylinder at $28 to $46. Dealt with at eleven at night after the key breaks it is $135 to $249, and you are standing outside while it happens.
Is a padlock on a shop grille really going to seize?+
It is the most common commercial call on Clement. The body looks fine from the outside while the inside packs with salt and grit. They almost always fail at opening time with a delivery waiting, so if yours is getting reluctant it is worth ten dollars of attention on a quiet afternoon rather than a call-out on a busy morning.
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.