Lock Replacement & Installation in San Francisco
Cylinders 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.
$125–$319
Typical price
18 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
This is the page the rest of the site keeps pointing at. On the western half of San Francisco, hardware is a consumable and almost nobody is told so at the point of sale. Marine air comes in off the water carrying chloride. Chloride settles through the keyway onto the pins and springs. Those parts work to tolerances of a fraction of a millimetre, so corrosion that would be cosmetic anywhere else is terminal here. A plain brass or plated cylinder on a street-facing door in the Sunset, the Richmond or Parkside runs three to six years. In Pacifica it can be three. In the Mission the same part runs ten to fifteen.
So the conversation on your doorstep is about finish rather than brand. Marine-grade stainless costs more once instead of costing you again in five years, and on a street-facing door or a garage within a mile of the water it is the cheaper of the two by the time you count the second purchase. It is the one recommendation this site makes twice. It does not apply to an interior door and nobody will try to sell it to you for one. East of Twin Peaks the argument mostly disappears, and paying for it there is a choice rather than advice.
Replacing is not always the answer, and that is worth as much as the rest. A cylinder that is merely stiff in its first or second winter usually wants stripping, cleaning and lubricating properly, which is a visit rather than a purchase. A bolt that no longer reaches the strike is often a building that has settled rather than a lock that has failed, and the fix is moving the strike. A hundred-year-old mortise set on the sunny side of the city is generally a better lock than its modern replacement and should be repinned and kept. Anybody who quotes a new lock for all three has not looked at your door.
Replacement runs $125 to $319 with the $89 service call inside it. A single cylinder swapped into an existing bore sits at the low end; a full lock on an old door that needs the mortise made good, or two doors in one stop, moves it up. The make, the grade and the finish are named while the old lock is still on the door, and the old hardware is left with you unless you want it taken away. Evening adds $55 and after midnight $95, both inside the figure before you agree.
“For about two years our front key needed a specific wiggle that only my husband and I knew how to do, and we treated it as a personality trait of the house rather than a fault. Then it stopped working for either of us. He took the cylinder off and showed me the inside, which was green. $214 quoted on the phone and $214 charged. He put on a stainless one and explained why the brass one lasted six years four blocks from the beach. No upsell, no lecture.”
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.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$95
FAQ
Lock Replacement & Installation: quick answers
Is stainless really worth the difference?+
Within about a mile of the ocean, yes, and it is the only advice on this site given twice. A plain brass cylinder there is a purchase you repeat every few years. Further east the difference shrinks to the point where it is a preference rather than a recommendation, and you will be told which side of that line your door is on.
My lock is a hundred years old. Should it go?+
Usually not, if you are on the sunny half of the city. Mortise sets from the 1900s and 1910s are heavier and better made than most of what replaces them, and a repin at $28 to $46 leaves you with the original lock and none of the old keys working. Replacement is for a cracked case, a forced lock, or a plug so corroded that new pins would not help.
Can you just clean it instead?+
Often, and it is the cheaper visit. Under a couple of winters of stiffness, a proper strip and clean buys years. Past three years on the ocean side, cleaning stops helping because the pitting is in the parts themselves. You will get the honest one of those two answers with the reason attached.
Related
More residential services
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.