Sequoia Lock & Key · Redwood City, CA
Redwood City's locksmith, with the price settled before the van turns the key.
A mobile van for lockouts, rekeys, car keys and shop doors, from the lagoon in the Shores to the last gate in Emerald Hills. You say which door. The visit, the labor and the parts are added up and read back to you as one figure. That figure is what the card sees. The city took its name from the redwoods and the company took its name from the city, and that is the end of the tree talk.
Calls answered 24/7. The $89 service call is part of the figure from the first word, not a second line at the door.
4.9 / 5873 reviewsRedwood City & the mid-Peninsula
A mortise set in a 1920s front door on the west side of El Camino, rekeyed and re-sprung on a Tuesday morning.
Recent jobs, with the figure paid
Mount Carmel deadbolt, picked open
A 1920s front door on a street below Edgewood Park, opened in four minutes without a mark, $139 paid.
Three cylinders repinned, Centennial rental
An apartment court in Centennial after a tenant moved out, three cylinders at $31 each, $182 with the visit inside.
Broadway deadlatch and cylinder replaced
A restaurant door two blocks from the Fox Theatre, new deadlatch, cylinder and strike adjustment, $310.
Key cut, programmed, Jefferson garage
A lost key for a Camry on level two of the Jefferson garage, cut and programmed at the parking space, $265.
Price list
Published ranges. One figure, settled on the call.
Every job is priced from the list below. The figure is settled on the call, before the van turns its own key, and the receipt shows the same figure.
Sequoia Lock & Key
Published ranges · Redwood City
Emergency Locksmith
overviewResidential Locksmith
overviewCommercial Locksmith
overviewAutomotive Locksmith
overviewapplied toward the work
the figure read back on the call is the figure on this receipt
See every priceHow a figure is settled
The published range is where a job lands across a whole city of different doors. On the call, three things settle where yours lands — how long it takes, what parts go in, how hard the door is to reach — and the figure is read back to you before the van leaves.
The figure already has the service call and any after-hours hour inside it. That is the whole of it, and the receipt shows the same figure.
Settle my figureCoverage
Every Redwood City neighborhood, and the towns beside it
Vans stage near Woodside Rd and Veterans Blvd. Average arrival 21 minutes across the city, longer up in Emerald Hills; each area page shows its own.
On every job
Settled Before the Key
The figure is settled on the call, before the van so much as turns its own key. It has four parts, and the receipt carries all four.
- 1One figure for the visit, the labor and the partsThe visit, the labor and the parts go into one number before the call ends. The $89 service call is already in it. Once you say yes, that number stays put unless you ask for more work.
- 2Who is coming and when, by textA text with the technician's name and a thirty-minute arrival window reaches you before the van has left. If the Woodside Rd off-ramp or the one road out of the Shores adds time, a second text says so before the window closes.
- 3No damage first, drilling only on your yesThe lock is picked, decoded or bypassed, and in most cases it keeps working afterwards. When a cylinder refuses, you hear the reason and the name of the part that would replace it, and the drill comes out only once you have said yes. The figure does not change for that.
- 4Paid at the door, written up by emailCard or tap, once the door shuts the way it should. The itemized receipt goes to your email, and if a landlord, an HOA or an insurer wants a sentence describing the work, that is written for you too.
What we do
Four kinds of work, one list of prices
Openings when you are shut out, hardware for 1920s doors and Shores condos alike, keys cut where the car is parked. Every job is priced from the list below, and the figure is settled before the van leaves.
from $89Emergency
Lockouts and forced-door repair at a figure settled on the call
- House Lockout$119–$205
- Car Lockout$99–$169
- Business Lockout$129–$239
- Post Break-In Lock Repair$159–$419
from $25/cylResidential
Rekeys, new hardware, smart locks and safes for Redwood City homes
- Lock Rekeying$25–$41 per cylinder
- Lock Replacement & Installation$115–$309
- Smart Lock Installation$175–$449
- Safe Opening$179–$505
from $149Commercial
Storefront, restaurant, office and campus hardware quoted in writing
- Master Key Systemscustom quote
- Panic Bars & Exit Devices$289–$759
- Access Controlcustom quote
- Storefront Door Locks$149–$459
from $79Automotive
Keys, fobs and ignitions done where the car is parked
- Car Key Replacement$145–$399
- Key Fob Programming$79–$185
- Ignition Repair$175–$439
- Motorcycle Keys$115–$275
Reviews
What Redwood City says once the receipt lands
Jobs from the Shores to Emerald Hills, with the figure people actually paid.
4.9/ 5873reviews
Redwood City & the mid-Peninsula
“Our 1926 house has the original mortise lock and I managed to shut the door with the only working key on the kitchen table. The call gave me $139 and a text with a name arrived while I was still standing on the porch. The technician had the door open in a few minutes with the brass untouched, then showed me how the old key was worn and why it had started sticking. $139 on the card, receipt in my email before he reached the van.”
“I manage a six-unit court off Hudson St and a tenant left without returning her keys. Five cylinders rekeyed at $29 each, $234 in total with the $89 visit inside, quoted before anyone drove over. The unit door, the mailbox and the laundry room now take one key and the old ones do nothing. Each cylinder is listed by door on the receipt, which the owner keeps for his records.”
“Townhome in the Shores, HOA with opinions about what goes on an exterior door. I sent the HOA rule sheet on the call and got $315 for a keypad deadbolt in the finish they allow. He fitted it in about forty minutes, paired it to my phone, set a code for the cleaner and kept the old deadbolt aside in case the board ever asks for it back. The written line for the HOA went out the same afternoon.”
“Restaurant on Broadway with an aluminum door whose deadlatch had stopped catching, which meant the last person out was jamming a chair against it. Quoted $345 for a new deadlatch, a cylinder and a closer adjustment. He came at half past nine before prep started, adjusted the strike so the latch actually meets it, and the card was charged $345. He did not try to sell me anything for the kitchen door.”
“Locked out at nine on a Friday evening, up a long driveway off Jefferson Ave with a gate at the bottom. The call gave me $189, said plainly that $50 of it was the evening hour, and warned that the hills take longer than the rest of the city. The text said twenty-eight minutes and the van arrived in twenty-seven. Deadbolt picked, gate code checked against my ID, $189. I appreciated being told the truth about the drive.”
“1950s ranch house near Alameda de las Pulgas, the front knob set had worn to the point where the latch would not retract without a shove. Quoted $225 for a new lever and deadbolt sized to the existing holes so nothing had to be drilled in the door face. That is what I paid and the door is right. Four stars because the van came at the very end of the thirty-minute window, and I had a school pickup on the other side of it.”
Why Sequoia
The figure is settled before the van turns its own key.
One figure, read back on the call
Visit, labor and parts are one number by the end of the call, and the same number is on the receipt. Nothing is recalculated on the doorstep.
Mobile across a compact city with hills at the back
There is no shop to bring anything to. The van works between the Shores, downtown and the streets above Farm Hill Blvd; twenty-one minutes is the average, the hills and the Shores run longer, and the text says so.
Parts for the doors this city was built with
Mortise parts for the 1920s houses west of El Camino, knob sets for the 1950s ranches around Woodside Plaza, keypad locks for condos and rentals, aluminum storefront parts for Broadway, exit devices, readers, and programmers for hybrid and EV fobs.
Something in writing for the landlord, the board or the insurer
The receipt is itemized and emailed. If someone else has to sign off on the work, a landlord, an HOA board, an insurer, a written line goes to them as well.
Free estimate
Four questions, then the range from the rate card.
Not an emergency? Answer four questions and see the published range for your job in Redwood City before you speak to anyone. 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.
How it works
From the first call to a door that locks again
- 1
Tell us the door
House, condo, apartment, shop, car or safe; which part of Redwood City; and whatever stands between the curb and the lock, a gate, a garage level, a buzzer panel.
- 2
Hear the figure read back
The visit, the labor and the parts are added up and read back to you as one number. Then you decide. If it is yes, the text with the technician's name and the thirty-minute window follows, and only then does the van leave.
- 3
Watch it opened
First you show the address or the car is yours. Then the lock is picked, decoded or bypassed while you watch. Drilling is raised only if that fails, and only with your agreement, at the same figure.
- 4
Pay what was read
The card takes the figure from the call, nothing else. The itemized receipt is in your inbox before the van has pulled away.
Before you call anyone
Five things to ask before anyone is given your address
Search for a locksmith in Redwood City and the top results include national call centers advertising $19, whose invoices run to several hundred once the door is open. These five questions take a minute between them. A company with nothing to hide answers each one on the spot.
- 1Ask for one figure, not a floor. "Starting at" and "depending on the lock" are not prices. They are blanks to be filled in later at your door.
- 2Ask whether the $89 service call is part of that figure or comes on top of it. Put it that plainly. Yes or no is the only honest reply.
- 3Ask who is coming and when, in writing, before anyone is dispatched. If the company cannot name the technician, it is handing your address to a subcontractor it has never met.
- 4Ask what happens if picking fails. A good answer describes the mechanism and names a part and its price. A bad one declares drilling necessary before anyone has seen the door.
- 5Refuse cash-only. Whoever eventually asks about the work, a landlord, an HOA or an insurer, will want an itemized card receipt, and a figure scribbled on a notepad will not satisfy them.
FAQ
What people ask before they call, and what is said back
How long until the van reaches my part of Redwood City?+
Twenty-one minutes is the average across the city, which is compact but not flat. Downtown and Courthouse Square usually see the van in 14, Centennial 16, Friendly Acres and Fair Oaks and Roosevelt 17, Woodside Plaza and Mount Carmel and Edgewood Park 21, Redwood Shores 22 because there is one road in and one road out, and Emerald Hills 27 because the roads above Farm Hill Blvd wind and the driveways are long. San Carlos is about 21, Atherton 22, Menlo Park 24, Belmont 26 and Woodside 29. The window in your text is worked out from the roads at that minute, not from the average.
Is there a different figure for evenings, weekends or holidays?+
Weekends and holidays cost the same as a weekday. The only additions are for the hour: $50 for arrival between 8pm and midnight, $85 between midnight and 7am, and both are counted inside the figure at the time you agree to it. A $119 house lockout becomes $169 after 8pm and $204 after midnight, and that is the figure read to you, with nothing produced at the door to add to it.
What does the figure include, and can it move?+
Four things: the $89 service call, the labor, any parts fitted, and the evening or overnight hour if there is one. They are added into one number before you say yes. A hill, a gate, a garage level or a buzzer panel does not change it. What can add to it is a second job you ask for once the technician is at the door, such as rekeying the rest of the house after a lockout; that is quoted as its own line and starts only on your yes.
Is drilling ever the first move?+
No. Drilling comes last and only with your agreement. Apartment cylinders, residential deadbolts, the mortise sets in the older houses, most aluminum storefront hardware and most car doors open with picks, decoders, bypass tools or an air wedge and keep working afterwards. It becomes a conversation when a cylinder is high-security, has already been damaged, or is seized by a broken key or corrosion. Then the technician explains the mechanism, names the replacement part and its cost, and the total stays at the figure settled on the call.
What proof do you need before opening a door or a car?+
For a house, condo or apartment, photo ID showing the address, or ID together with a lease, a utility bill or mail addressed to you on your phone. For a car, ID together with the registration or an insurance card, on paper or on a screen. For a shop, office or restaurant, ID together with a lease, a business license or a note from the property manager or the company. Without one of these the lock stays shut. The rule is the same one that keeps a stranger out of your door.
Our building in the Shores has a buzzer panel, a garage underneath and an HOA. Does any of that complicate things?+
Not the figure. Say on the call whether the van should come to the lobby panel, the garage gate or a side entrance, and whether someone can buzz it in. Condo deadbolts and unit locks are rekeyed or replaced the same way as a house; garage pedestrian doors and storage cages are usually keyed to the same key. If the HOA specifies a finish or a lock type for exterior doors, send the rule sheet and the quote will match it. A written line describing the work goes to the board on request, in the format most Shores associations ask for.
Our Mount Carmel house still has its 1920s mortise lock. Is it worth keeping?+
Usually, yes. A mortise set from the 1920s or 30s is a heavy, well-made mechanism, and most of what goes wrong is a tired spring, a worn key or decades of dried oil. It can be cleaned, re-sprung and rekeyed on site, and the brass plate and knobs stay where they are. If you want more security without discarding it, a modern deadbolt goes in above the original set. When a mortise body is genuinely worn out, a replacement is sized to the existing pocket so the door face is not cut again. The same applies to the side gates and back doors on those streets, which are often original too.
Do you come into the downtown garages, the Caltrain lot and the Kaiser lots?+
Yes. Car lockouts, key cutting and fob programming are done in the Jefferson and Marshall garages, the Caltrain lot, the Kaiser visitor and staff lots, the marina lot at the port and the campus garages on Seaport Blvd and in the Shores. Give the garage, the level and a landmark near the car. If the garage needs a badge, arrange for someone to let the van in or meet it at the entrance. Late on a show night at the Fox Theatre the downtown garages are slow to leave, and the window you get on the call will say so. None of it moves the figure.
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one figure, settled before the van turns the key
Calls answered 24/7 for Redwood City and the towns beside it. One figure for the visit, the labor and the parts, with the $89 service call inside it, and a receipt that matches it line for line.