Redwood City neighborhood · 24/7
Emerald Hills locksmith work above the city, where the gate is a hundred yards from the door and the garage is a separate building
The unincorporated hillside above Farm Hill Blvd and Edgewood Rd, up toward Cañada College: winding roads, driveway gates on keypads and swing arms, long drives, detached garages, houses with more doors than the owner has counted, and the longest arrival on the map.
27 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Twenty-seven minutes is the honest number for Emerald Hills and it is not padded. The roads up from Farm Hill Blvd and Jefferson Ave wind, there is no straight line to anything, and the last quarter mile is often a private lane. The gate is the first lock the technician meets. Swing gates and slide gates on this hill run on keypads, remotes and a battery backup that was last checked when the gate was installed; when the power is off or the operator has failed, there is a manual release behind a small cylinder, and that cylinder is a lock like any other. Say on the call whether the gate is open, whether you can meet the van there, or whether the release needs to be worked first.
The houses are 1950s to 1990s and they sprawl: a front door, a mudroom door, a set of French doors onto the deck, a pool house, a detached garage with a side door, and two side gates. A lockout is $119 to $205, and on this hill the technician asks which door you usually use, because the front door is often not it. A whole-property rekey after a purchase is $25 to $41 per cylinder and the count is taken on the call so that one figure covers the lot. Replacement where a door has been on the same worn hardware for forty years is $115 to $309 per door. Safes are common in these houses and open at $179 to $505. Smart locks at $175 to $449 are asked for by owners who want codes for a housekeeper, a gardener and the pool service rather than keys in a drawer.
Parking is not the issue; the driveway is. The van comes up the drive if it can turn round at the top, and stops at the gate if it cannot, with the case carried the rest of the way. Cell reception between the trees is patchy, so the text with the technician's name and the thirty-minute window is sent before the van leaves the flat part of town, and the technician calls from the gate rather than from the road. This is county land rather than city, which changes nothing about the visit and everything about who to call for the road. Evening adds $50 from 8pm and overnight $85 from midnight, inside the figure settled on the call.
Give the gate code or say that you will meet the van at the gate, and tell us how far the house is from it. Count the doors before you call, including the garage side door and the pool house. If the house number is not visible from the lane, describe the mailbox.
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.