Redwood City neighborhood · 24/7
Mount Carmel and Edgewood Park locksmith work, for 1920s doors with the mortise set still in them and quiet streets where the van is the only thing moving at midnight
The older streets west of El Camino Real climbing toward Edgewood Park, with Sequoia Hospital at the Alameda end: 1920s and 30s houses with original mortise locks, glass knobs and brass escutcheons, garages built for one small car, side gates onto narrow driveways, and very quiet nights.
21 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Mount Carmel has the oldest working hardware in the city, and most of it should stay. A mortise lock sits in a pocket cut into the door edge, with the latch and the deadbolt in one case and a cylinder threaded through the face of the door. After a century the springs soften, the knob spindle works loose in its hub, and the key turns halfway and stops. Most of that is a repair, not a replacement: the case is cleaned and re-sprung, the spindle is refitted, and a modern cylinder on a standard thread goes into the old housing. A rekey is $25 to $41 per cylinder. Where the case is cracked or the maker vanished before the war, a new mortise case is a replacement at $115 to $309, and the escutcheons and the glass knobs go back on afterwards.
Lockouts here are the night latch closing behind someone carrying groceries, or a side gate dropping its latch. A house lockout is $119 to $205, and on a mortise door the technician works the cylinder rather than anything that would mark a door that has survived since 1926. Many owners add a modern deadbolt above the mortise set for the strength of a longer bolt and a strike screwed into the old-growth fir behind the casing. That is a replacement at the low end of $115 to $309 and it leaves the original lock doing the daily work. Safes are found in these houses more than anywhere else on the map, usually inherited with the house; opening one is $179 to $505.
The streets are narrow and steep toward the park, and the van stops at the driveway mouth rather than in it, since the driveways were laid out for a car half the width of the van. Arrival is about twenty-one minutes by El Camino Real or Alameda de las Pulgas. The trailhead lot at Edgewood Park brings weekend car lockouts at $99 to $169. Nights here are quiet, and an overnight call carries $85 from midnight, evening $50 from 8pm, both inside the figure settled on the call with the $89 service call already in it.
Say whether the front door still has its mortise set, and whether the trouble is the key, the knob or the door itself. Mention any deadbolt added above it. If the driveway is the narrow original, say so and the van stops at the street.
Most requested in Mount Carmel & Edgewood Park
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.