Mountain View · 24/7 · avg. 18 min
The fob is the key here. Until it isn't.
Lobby, garage gate, package room, mail wall: all of it reads a fob and none of it takes metal. When a reader dies at six in the morning the whole building is out on the sidewalk, and the mechanical key that opens the same door has not been turned in years.
Someone picks up at any hour. The $89 visit is already counted inside the figure you are told.
4.9 / 5198 reviewsMountain View & Los Altos
Prices
Sixteen ranges, printed, and what settles each one on the call
All sixteen jobs are printed here, fourteen with ranges and two quoted once the doors have been counted on site. What moves a figure inside its range is which door it is and how it opens. One cylinder on a house in the old part of town takes the low end. A door that reads a credential, with a mechanical cylinder under the panel that has not been turned in years, takes the time that cylinder has been owed. Say which door stopped you and the range closes to one figure.
Emergency
from $112
Residential
from $32/cyl
Commercial
from $168
We quote the smallest thing that actually fixes it. A cylinder that has been fighting the key usually wants stripping and repinning, not replacing. A mechanical key that was never cut for the panel is a key to cut, not a lock to change. Five doors that all want one key are a single rekey. Say which door stopped you and whether it reads a key or a credential when you call (650) 405-1526.
What we do
Sixteen jobs, and most of them start at a door that reads a fob
A lobby reader with no light in it and eight people outside waiting, a cylinder under the panel that will not take the key it was cut for, a resident moving out and a fob that has to come off the list, a car locked at the curb with the fob on the seat, an aluminum shop door downtown that stopped throwing its bolt, a safe whose combination left with the previous owner. Choose the work below and its range is printed here. Say which door stopped you and the range comes back as one number.
from $112Emergency
Openings at any hour, through the metal underneath the electronics
- House Lockout$138–$252
- Car Lockout$112–$208
- Business Lockout$148–$272
- Post Break-In Lock Repair$178–$465
from $32/cylResidential
Rekeys, deadbolts, keypads and safes, from fifties front doors to unit doors behind a reader
- Lock Rekeying$32–$50 per cylinder
- Lock Replacement & Installation$133–$345
- Smart Lock Installation$205–$505
- Safe Opening$212–$559
from $168Commercial
Storefronts, suites and warehouses, measured on site and quoted door by door
- Master Key Systemscustom quote
- Panic Bars & Exit Devices$322–$815
- Access Controlcustom quote
- Storefront Door Locks$168–$495
from $98Automotive
Car keys, fobs and ignitions done at the curb or in the garage where the car sits
- Car Key Replacement$163–$438
- Key Fob Programming$98–$208
- Ignition Repair$194–$478
- Motorcycle Keys$132–$302
On every job
The Key Under the Reader
Four rules that hold the same on a lobby door off San Antonio, a garage gate in North Whisman, a fifties front door in Sylvan Park and a glass shop door on Castro Street. The workmanship warranty runs 90 days and it lives on the paperwork, not in the sales talk.
- 1Every reader has a cylinder under it, and that cylinder is the way inA dark panel is not a sealed building. Behind the plate, or under a cover on the face of the lock, there is a mechanical cylinder that works the same latch, and picked rather than drilled it usually opens intact. The catch is that it has been standing idle since the building was handed over: dry pins, a plug that has never met a key, now and then a cam that has drifted out of position. That is the piece this trade is actually about here. Getting the door open is the first half of the visit. Leaving that cylinder in a state where the next person can turn a key in it is the other half.
- 2The price you hear on the phone already has the clock in itOne number covers the trip, the labor and the parts. The $89 call-out is part of that number, not a line that appears once the van is at your building. Late work moves it in a way you are told about first: $52 for an arrival between 8pm and midnight, $92 between midnight and 7am. After that the figure holds. A cylinder that turned out to be seized, a reader that stayed dark after the door opened, a mail lobby lock that needed a new cam — none of that reopens the math.
- 3Credentials are the building's to switch off, cylinders are ours to repinWhen somebody moves out of a newer block here, nobody cuts a new key for the lobby. The old fob comes off a list and stops working, and that list belongs to whoever manages the building. We say so on the call instead of taking the job and improvising. What is ours is everything mechanical on the same doors: the override cylinder behind the reader, the unit door, the mail box, the package room, the gate latch beside the garage ramp. On a shared door we ask who is authorizing the work before anyone drives out, because that question sits between you and the building.
- 4A cut metal key for every override, tried while you watchAlmost every keypad deadbolt and almost every reader-controlled entry ships with a blank that nobody ever takes to a machine. It stays a blank right up to the night it matters. So the key is cut at the van on the same visit, turned in the cylinder while you are standing beside it, and you decide where it lives — anywhere except inside the door it opens. The labor carries 90 days in writing and the part carries whatever term its maker gives it.
Reviews
What people say once they were back inside
A dead lobby reader before dawn, four cylinders repinned in a house by the park, an aluminum shop door downtown, two exit doors out by the bay, a car opened at the curb, a metal key finally cut for a keypad that never had one, each with the number that ended up on the card.
4.9/ 5198reviews
Mountain View & Los Altos
“Landed late, got to the building at half past one, and the lobby reader was dead. No light, no beep, and a fob is the only thing I carry. My apartment key was on the ring I had left upstairs, so I was shut out twice over. Quoted $248 on the phone with the $92 overnight already inside it, and $248 is what the card showed afterward. He came through the mechanical cylinder behind the lobby panel, which took him longer than my own door did because nothing had turned in it for years, then picked the unit door without leaving a mark. Before he left he told the night guard, in front of me, that the lobby cylinder needs oil and a proper key cut before it seizes for good.”
“Old house two blocks off the park. The sellers handed us five keys for three doors and could not say what the fifth one opened, which is not a great feeling in week one. Four cylinders repinned at $38 each, $241 all in with the $89 visit inside it: front, back, garage side door and the gate latch, all running on one key now. He left the original brass on the front because the guts were sound and only the springs were tired, and said swapping it would have meant selling me something worse. The old keys came back in a bag with the doors written on it, so I could match them against the list from escrow.”
“Our shop is on Castro and the front door stopped locking about twenty minutes before we closed, which is the worst possible twenty minutes. $362 quoted with the $52 evening counted in, $362 on the card. New hookbolt, new cylinder, closer adjusted. Before he touched any of that he lifted the aluminum door back onto its pivot and showed me why: the frame had moved, the bolt was passing the keeper, and the lock was not really the thing that had failed. He worked around us while we cashed out and never once brought up the hour.”
“Two exit doors at the back of our unit out by the water, both dragging, and one had been chained shut by somebody long before I started here, which the fire inspector had opinions about. $716 for the pair, quoted after he walked both doors, invoiced to the dollar. He rebuilt one device and replaced the other, shifted both keepers so the latch drops instead of scraping, and brought the outside cylinders onto the master we already hold. The reader on the main entrance was not part of the job and he said so straight out rather than finding a way to sell it to me.”
“Fob on the passenger seat, doors locked, car parked in the underground garage where the gate only opens for a fob. So he was outside the gate and I was inside with no way to open it for him, and it took a neighbor coming down in the elevator to fix that. $146 said on the call and $146 charged, nothing added for the standing around. Once he reached the car it was maybe three minutes with a wedge and a rod and no marks on the paint. The fourth star is about the gate, not about him. If your car is behind a credential, mention it on the phone, because it did not occur to me.”
“We put a keypad on the front door so the dog walker stops needing a key under the pot. $415, one visit, quoted figure and charged figure the same. What I had not realized is that the lock has a metal cylinder under a cover on its underside, and the blank in the box had never been cut. He cut it at the van, turned it in the lock while I watched, and told me to keep it anywhere except inside the house it opens. He also squared the door before fitting anything, because it had dropped far enough on its hinges that the bolt was catching the edge of the hole.”
Why us
The credential is the building's. The metal under it is ours.
Under every reader there is a cylinder, and that is the part we keep alive
Electronics on these doors work, most days, for years at a stretch. The trouble is not the reader. It is that the mechanical backup underneath it has stood idle since the building was handed over, so on the one morning it is needed it will not turn, and the key for it was never cut. That cylinder is the whole job in this city: opened without damage, cleaned and exercised, keyed to something that actually exists, and left in a state where the next person can use it.
What rides in the van is what these doors actually take
Mortise and rim cylinders of the kind that live behind readers, cam locks and keys for mail walls and package rooms, electric strikes and exit devices, narrow-stile hardware for the aluminum glass doors on Castro Street, plain deadbolts and knob sets in the sizes fifties front doors use, long strikes and jamb reinforcement, keypad deadbolts with their override blanks plus the machine to cut those blanks at the curb, and blanks and programmers for most of what is parked on the street, hybrids and EVs included.
Eighteen minutes on average, and the slow addresses get quoted as slow
There is no shop to visit, because the work happens at a door and doors do not travel. From the base by Castro Street: Old Mountain View about 12 minutes, Shoreline West 14, Sylvan Park 16, Cuesta Park 18, Rex Manor 20, Greater San Antonio 22, North Whisman 24, and North Bayshore 26 at the far end by the water. Across the eight that averages 18. When your address is one of the longer ones, that is said during the call and not discovered on the sidewalk.
Ninety days on the work, and a key in your hand at the end of it
The labor carries a 90-day warranty and it appears on the receipt rather than in conversation, with parts covered by whatever term their maker gives them. Receipts are itemized and arrive by email, and a written description of what was done goes to a building manager, an owner or an insurer whenever somebody needs one. If the lock has an override cylinder, the visit ends with you holding a cut key for it instead of the blank that came in the box.
How it works
From which door stopped you to a key that turns in it
- 1
Say what the door reads
It is the question that changes everything after it, so start there: a fob, a card, a code, or a plain metal key. Then how many doors stand between the sidewalk and you — lobby, garage gate, package room, elevator, unit door — and which one of them stopped. If it is a shared door, say who manages the building, because that decides who authorizes the work.
- 2
Get the total, clock included, before anything moves
One number covers the trip, the labor and the parts, with $89 already inside it and the hour added openly: $52 from 8pm, $92 after midnight. If what you are describing is a fob that has to go back on the building's list, or a garage door spring, you learn that on this call instead of after a van has driven over. You answer yes or no with the number in front of you.
- 3
Open through the cylinder, then leave the door working
A text gives the technician's name and a window based on where the van actually is at that moment. On arrival, identification is checked against the address, or the vehicle paperwork against the plate, before any case comes off the shelf. The opening goes through the cylinder rather than through the leaf wherever the mechanism allows, and then the cylinder, the strike and the closer are set right and tried by you. Card or tap on the spot, an itemized receipt by email, 90 days on the labor.
Coverage
Every part of Mountain View, and the towns along the Peninsula
Average arrival 18 minutes across Mountain View, from twelve in Old Mountain View to twenty-six out at North Bayshore, and a little longer to Los Altos, Menlo Park, Los Altos Hills, East Palo Alto, Stanford and Atherton. Every area page carries its own minute.
Free estimate
Four questions, then the same range this site publishes.
Not an emergency? Answer four questions and the published range for that work comes back on the screen, with nothing held behind a phone call. If it is urgent, the form steps aside and hands you the number.
- 1What went wrong?A lockout, a key, a lock change, or something else entirely.
- 2Where is the door?A house, an apartment, a car or a business.
- 3How soon?If it is right now, the form gets out of the way and you call.
- 4Where does the range go?A name and a number. Email and cross street only if you like.
Before you call anyone
Five things to ask before you read out the address
A lot of what comes back in a search for a locksmith here is not a locksmith. It is a call center in another state that auctions your address to whoever answers, quotes a price too small to be real, then collects three hundred at the door, usually after drilling a cylinder that would have opened in four minutes with a pick. Five questions sort that out and none of them take long. Anyone working straight answers all five without hesitating.
- 1Ask for a single total with the $89 call-out and the hour already inside it. "Prices start at" and "the tech will work it out when he sees it" are not totals, they are permission to change the number later.
- 2Ask what they do about a dead reader. You want to hear about the mechanical cylinder behind the panel and how it comes open intact. If drilling is the first idea offered, the plan is about their schedule and not about your door.
- 3Ask whether they can reprogram the building's fobs. Anyone who says yes on the phone is promising access they do not hold, because that list lives with whoever manages the building.
- 4Ask for the name of the person coming and an arrival window in a text. A company that will not name the technician is passing your address to somebody it has never met.
- 5Say no to cash only. An owner, an insurer, a building manager or your own bookkeeping all need a receipt with a company name and line items on it, and a number scrawled on a pad is none of that.
FAQ
The questions a door with a reader on it raises
The lobby reader is dark and my fob does nothing. What can you actually do?+
Open the door. Behind that panel, or under a cover on the lock itself, sits a mechanical cylinder working the same latch, and in most cases it picks open without damage. That is a lockout at $138–$252, plus the hour if it is late, which it usually is. What is outside our reach is the reader itself and your place on the building's fob list, because that side belongs to management. If the cylinder turns out to be seized from years of standing idle, it gets serviced or replaced while the van is there, named and priced before the work starts.
How soon can a van actually be here?+
Eighteen minutes is the average across the city, working from the base by Castro Street. Old Mountain View runs about 12, Shoreline West 14, Sylvan Park 16, Cuesta Park 18, Rex Manor 20, Greater San Antonio 22, North Whisman 24, and North Bayshore 26 out by the water. If your street is one of the longer ones, the long number is what you get quoted while we are still talking, rather than something you work out from the sidewalk.
My fob stopped working and the building's power is fine. Can you make me a new one?+
No, and anybody who says yes over the phone is selling something they do not control. Which fob opens which door is a list held by whoever manages the building, and adding, replacing or canceling a credential happens there. Ours is the mechanical half of the same doors: the override cylinder under the reader, your unit door, the mail box, the package room, the gate latch beside the garage ramp. Call the building about the fob, call us about the metal.
The mechanical key under the panel will not turn. Is the lock broken?+
Usually it is not broken, just unused. A cylinder that sits for years with nothing turning in it dries out, the springs stiffen, and dust settles onto the pins until the plug will not rotate even with the right key. On top of that the key is often a blank that was cut once, badly, and filed to fit on the day. Handled early the fix is small: the cylinder gets cleaned, lubricated and exercised, and a key is cut to code and tried in the door. That is a few minutes in daylight. At two in the morning with a building on the sidewalk it is a lockout figure instead.
What does the hour add to the figure?+
Weekends and public holidays are billed at ordinary daytime rates here, so a Saturday costs what a Tuesday costs. The clock is the thing that moves a total: $52 for an arrival between 8pm and midnight, $92 between midnight and 7am. Both sit inside the number you are quoted before you agree to anything. A lockout that runs $150 in the afternoon is quoted as $202 at ten at night and $242 at two in the morning, and there is no third version waiting at the door.
Someone new is moving into the unit. What actually needs changing?+
Two different jobs, and only one of them is ours. The credentials get switched off rather than recut: the outgoing fob or card comes off the building's list and stops opening the lobby, the gate and the package room, and that is arranged with whoever manages the building. Everything mechanical is the second job. The unit door takes new pins at $32–$50 per cylinder so the old metal key dies with it, the mail box and any storage lock get looked at, and the override cylinder is checked while the van is on site. People move on work cycles here, so this is one of the most ordinary calls on the list.
Who orders work on the lobby door, the garage gate or the mail wall?+
That gets settled on the call, before anyone is sent out. Those doors serve a whole building rather than one apartment, so we ask who is authorizing the work and take that from them in writing. It is a question between you and the building, and we do not answer it on your behalf. Whoever authorizes it can have the paperwork made out in their name, or in both names. Your own unit door is simpler: a lockout there needs photo identification with the address, or identification plus something that ties you to the unit.
We just bought an old house near the park. What is worth doing in the first month?+
Three things, in this order. Repin every exterior cylinder at $32–$50 each, because the keys handed over at closing have passed through an agent, a stager, a painter and a cleaning crew, and bring the front, the back, the garage service door and the gate onto a single key while the van is already there. Next, check whether any exterior door is running on a knob latch alone, which on these streets is common, and put a real deadbolt on it at $133–$345. Then look at the strike plates: on a house that has settled, the bolt often catches the edge of the hole instead of dropping into it, and moving a strike costs almost nothing against what it fixes.
The same job, two buildings, two very different figures. Why?+
Mostly the door, not the lock. Three things move a job inside its range: the condition of the leaf and whether it still hangs square, what has already been cut into it and how the strike meets the bolt, and the clock, since $52 rides on an 8pm arrival and $92 on one after midnight. On a keypad lock that is exactly why $205–$505 is a range and not a price. Describe the door on the phone and the range collapses to one number, which is the number that ends up on the receipt.
Do you go out to Los Altos, Menlo Park, Stanford and Atherton?+
All of them, around the clock, on the same price list as the city itself. The address moves the wait rather than the total. Los Altos runs about 15 minutes, Menlo Park 21, Los Altos Hills 23, East Palo Alto 24, Stanford 25 and Atherton 27, and inside Mountain View it is 12 to 26 by neighborhood. Whichever number applies to you is said out loud before you decide to wait for it.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say what the door reads, and the rest of the call is short
Mountain View and the mid-Peninsula, at any hour. A fob, a card, a code or a plain key, and how many doors stand between the sidewalk and you — that decides the work, and the work decides the number. The number comes back on the same call with the $89 call-out and the clock already inside it, and it is the number on the receipt. The labor carries 90 days, in writing.