Redwood City neighborhood · 24/7
Centennial locksmith calls between Downtown and Woodside Rd, where a 1930s front door and a six-unit apartment court sit on the same block
The streets between the downtown grid and Woodside Rd: 1920s to 40s houses, some in the same family for fifty years and some let room by room, small apartment courts with a shared walkway and a mailbox bank, and hardware from every decade since the houses were built.
16 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Centennial is sixteen minutes away and its doors are a history of the neighborhood. A 1930s front door carries a deadbolt from the 1970s above a knob from the 1990s, the back door has a surface bolt someone fitted in an afternoon, and the garage side door has a cylinder that no longer matches anything. Putting that onto one key is the ordinary call. A rekey is $25 to $41 per cylinder, and the technician says on the call which cylinders can share a key and which are on a keyway that will not, since a house with four decades of hardware often has two or three. Where a cylinder is too worn to repin, a replacement is $115 to $309 per door, and the front door is usually the one worth keeping.
The apartment courts are four to eight units around a walkway, built in the 1950s and 60s, with a laundry room and a bank of mailboxes at the street. Units turn over steadily, and a rekey at turnover is $25 to $41 per cylinder with the mailbox cam swapped in the same visit. A unit lockout is $119 to $205, and the technician needs the unit letter and whether the door faces the street or the inner walkway, since the numbering on these courts follows a logic of its own. Landlords with two units turning in the same week book one visit, and the $89 service call sits inside that one figure once. A written line for the owner or the manager is on the receipt when asked for.
Streets here are narrow, with cars on both sides and mature trees over them, so the van stops where it can and the case walks the last stretch. Kaiser Redwood City on Veterans Blvd is close enough that shift changes are felt on the cross streets, and that is mentioned on the call when it applies. Evening calls carry $50 between 8pm and midnight and $85 overnight, stated inside the figure rather than appearing on the receipt.
Say whether the house is owner-occupied or let, and count the cylinders on all the exterior doors, not only the front. For an apartment court, give the unit letter and the walkway, and say whether visitor parking exists or the van will be at the curb.
Nearby
Across the town line, the same van
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.