Services
Sixteen jobs we run across the city, each with a published range
All sixteen jobs and their ranges sit on this page, nothing saved for the phone. Describe what the key is doing and the range closes to one figure on the call, with the evening or overnight hour already folded in.
Emergency Locksmith
A key that turned halfway on Taraval and then stopped. A blade snapped off inside a Richmond cylinder at seven in the morning. A flat door on Valencia that shut behind somebody carrying a phone and nothing else. A roll-down grille on Clement that will not come up before the delivery. A car standing locked on a hill with the keys visible on the seat. Whatever it is, it gets opened without damage wherever the mechanism allows, so it goes back to being a working lock rather than a hole in a door. Two honest limits, said early rather than in a doorway: buzzer panels, intercom wiring and elevator controls are electrical trades and not ours, and a door that has been forced gets the jamb, the strike and the cylinder put back on the same visit, written up plainly for whoever has to file it.
Emergency overviewHouse Lockout
$135–$249Flat doors, rowhouse fronts, the door from the garage up into the living floor, side gates and back stairs, opened without damage and with a key cut on the spot. $135 to $249, the $89 visit sitting inside it.
Car Lockout
$115–$219Keys shut in the car on a grade in Bernal, in a lot in SoMa, in a garage under a Sunset rowhouse or at the kerb on Geary. Nothing marked on the paint or the weather seal. $115 to $219.
Business Lockout
$155–$279Corner stores, kitchens, stockrooms, studios and small suites opened once a lease, a badge or an owner settles who you are. $155 to $279.
Post Break-In Lock Repair
$195–$469A split jamb rebuilt through to the stud, a long strike, a fresh cylinder and a bolt that finally reaches the frame, in one visit and written up for an insurer. $195 to $469.
Residential Locksmith
Two different jobs share this heading, and which one you have depends on which side of the hill you live on. West of Twin Peaks the work is corrosion: a rowhouse from 1938 with the garage under the living floor, a cylinder pitted through, and a household that has been jiggling the key for two years without saying it out loud. That gets a stainless replacement rather than another clean, because the third clean is more expensive than the first replacement. East of the hill the work is ordinary and human: a flat changing hands, a roommate moving out, a landlord's spare key that has been in circulation since the nineties, a mortise set from 1910 that is worth keeping and worth repinning. Cylinders get repinned rather than replaced whenever there is life left in them, and the part going on is named while the old one is still on the door.
Residential overviewLock Rekeying
$28–$46 per cylinderThe lock stays on the door and takes new pins, which retires every key already in circulation. Sensible when a flat changes hands or a roommate moves out. $28 to $46 per cylinder, and the second cylinder costs less than the first because the van is already at the kerb. A shared street gate or lobby lock needs the building's agreement first; your own door does not.
Lock Replacement & Installation
$125–$319Cylinders and whole locks swapped where corrosion has gone too far to clean, and the finish is chosen out loud: brass is a consumable west of Twin Peaks, stainless is not. $125 to $319.
Smart Lock Installation
$185–$469A keypad or app lock set into the bore already in the door and coded for the household. On the ocean side the mechanical half still corrodes, so the model is picked with that in mind rather than for the app. $185 to $469.
Safe Opening
$215–$559A safe worked open by feel where it stands, whether the combination is gone or the bolts have jammed, then set to a number you choose. $215 to $559.
Commercial Locksmith
Corner stores and their roll-down grilles on Clement, Irving, Taraval, Mission and Third; glass storefront doors downtown with a hookbolt that will not throw; staff doors, stockrooms and small suites on Market and in SoMa; live-work units and warehouse man-doors in Mission Bay. On the ocean side the padlocks and pin locks on a grille take salt and sand together, and a padlock body that looks fine outside is often solid inside, which is why they fail on the one morning you are in a hurry. Exit devices, keypads and readers on staff doors, and master key systems for a landlord holding a building of tenants. The man-door beside a roll-up is ours; the roll-up motor itself is not, and you will know which one you have before anybody drives out. Master key work gets walked and counted on site, because a building nobody has looked at cannot be priced honestly.
Commercial overviewMaster Key Systems
custom quoteOne key sitting over a key for every door, for a landlord holding a building or a row of small suites. Walked and counted on site, then given as a single figure.
Panic Bars & Exit Devices
$299–$769Push bars and exit devices on shops, kitchens and stair doors, fitted, rebuilt or brought back into line so the latch lands instead of scraping. $299 to $769 per door.
Access Control
$165–$439Keypads, readers, electric strikes and staff credentials for shops, studios and small offices, priced on the call rather than sent away for a quote. Locks and readers, not intercom or buzzer wiring. $165 to $439.
Storefront Door Locks
$169–$479Aluminium glass doors and roll-down grilles: hookbolts that will not throw, worn deadlatches, padlocks solid with corrosion inside a body that still looks fine. $169 to $479.
Automotive Locksmith
Street parking is the whole story here, so the work happens at the kerb where the car stands: on a grade in Bernal with the wheels turned in, in a garage under a Sunset rowhouse, in a lot in SoMa, on a driveway in the Excelsior, at the beach end of Judah. Cars on the west side bring their own version of the salt problem, which is a door lock and an ignition that both drag long before anything actually breaks. Photo ID and the registration are matched to the plate before a blank goes anywhere near the machine. Nothing gets packed away until the engine has fired twice on the new key and the doors lock and unlock with it, and a lost key can be dropped from the vehicle's memory when you want that done.
Automotive overviewCar Key Replacement
$175–$429A key cut and coded in the space the car is sitting in, spare included, even when the last key is gone. $175 to $429, registration checked first.
Key Fob Programming
$99–$205A vehicle remote or proximity fob paired without moving the car off the block it is parked on. $99 to $205, and the floor there is the visit itself.
Ignition Repair
$189–$449An ignition that drags, will not turn, or turns and leaves the dash dead, rebuilt or swapped where the car stands. $189 to $449.
Motorcycle Keys
$119–$275Bikes and scooters, blade cut and chip coded where the machine is parked. $119 to $275.
Not sure which one fits? Say which of the three doors it is. The figure comes back either way.
(628) 363-2407Open 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.