Tall Tree Lock & Safe · Palo Alto, CA
The lock on a Palo Alto house deserves a locksmith, not a drill.
Non-destructive entry first, on every door. One van, based in Midtown, covers Palo Alto and Stanford for lockouts, rekeys, car keys, storefront hardware and safes. You describe the door, the figure is said on the call with the $89 visit inside it, and that figure is the one on the receipt.
Calls answered 24/7. The $89 service call is already inside the figure said on the call.
4.9 / 51,073 reviewsPalo Alto & Stanford
What we do
Four kinds of work, one way of doing them
Doors opened without damage when you are shut out, hardware for Professorville mortise sets and Eichler sliders alike, storefronts on University Avenue, keys and fobs cut where the car is parked. Every job is priced from the list below, and the figure is said on the call.
from $89Emergency
Lockouts opened without drilling, and forced doors repaired the same day
- House Lockout$129–$219
- Car Lockout$105–$179
- Business Lockout$139–$255
- Post Break-In Lock Repair$169–$449
from $27/cylResidential
Rekeys, replacement hardware, smart locks and safes for Palo Alto houses
- Lock Rekeying$27–$45 per cylinder
- Lock Replacement & Installation$125–$329
- Smart Lock Installation$189–$479
- Safe Opening$195–$539
from $159Commercial
Storefront, restaurant, office and lab hardware, quoted door by door
- Master Key Systemscustom quote
- Panic Bars & Exit Devices$305–$789
- Access Controlcustom quote
- Storefront Door Locks$159–$479
from $89Automotive
Car keys, fobs and ignitions, done where the car sits
- Car Key Replacement$155–$419
- Key Fob Programming$89–$195
- Ignition Repair$185–$459
- Motorcycle Keys$125–$289
Why Tall Tree
Picked open first. The door and its hardware stay as they were.
The lock is opened, not destroyed
Picks, decoders and bypass tools first, on every door. The original hardware stays in place wherever the lock allows it, and a drill comes out only with your agreement, at the same figure.
One van, based in Midtown
No shop. The van sits near Middlefield Road, roughly in the middle of the city, and reaches most of Palo Alto in 14 to 25 minutes. Twenty-two minutes is the average.
Stock for the doors Palo Alto actually has
Mortise parts for the 1910s houses in Professorville and Old Palo Alto, sliding-door and atrium-door locks for the Eichler tracts, keypad deadbolts for rentals near campus, gate and garage cylinders for the large lots, aluminum storefront parts for University and California Avenues, exit devices, readers, and blanks and programmers for most cars on the road.
A receipt that stands up
Card or tap at the door, an itemized receipt by email, and a written description of the work for a landlord, an HOA or an insurer when one is needed.
Price list
Published ranges. One figure, said on the call.
Every job is priced from the list below. One figure is said on the call, with the visit, the labor and the parts inside it, and the receipt shows the same figure.
Emergency Locksmithfrom $89+
Residential Locksmithfrom $27/cyl+
Commercial Locksmithfrom $159+
Automotive Locksmithfrom $89+
The full list adds the evening and overnight hours, the visit and the three things that shape a range.
See every priceHow a figure is put together
inside every figure, never added afterward
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
The visit, the labor, the parts and any after-hours hour are all inside the one figure you hear. The receipt shows the same figure.
Hear my figureCoverage
Every Palo Alto neighborhood, Stanford, and the towns beside them
The van is based in Midtown. Average arrival 22 minutes across the city, longer toward Los Altos and Mountain View; each area page shows its own.
Reviews
What Palo Alto says once the door is open
Jobs from Professorville to the Eichler tracts and across the campus line, with the figure people actually paid.
4.9/ 51,073reviews
Palo Alto & Stanford
“Our 1912 house has its original mortise lock on the front door, and the key broke off in it while I was bringing in groceries. The figure said on the call was $149. The technician picked the cylinder open around the broken piece, drew the fragment out with a hook, and the brass plate never came off the door. He asked whether I wanted a new cylinder and I said no, so he rekeyed the old one and cut two keys on the van. $149 on the card, receipt in my email before he had pulled away.”
“I rent a small house near campus to graduate students, and the lease turned over in late October. Four cylinders, front, back, side gate and the shed, came to $176 with the visit inside. The technician set all four to one key, cut three copies on the van, and left the old keys in a labeled envelope so I could compare them against the count the tenants had returned. The receipt lists each door by name, which is what my file needs.”
“I manage a house off Embarcadero Road for an owner who lives abroad. The side-gate lock had rusted through and the detached garage had a deadbolt a housekeeper could not turn. The figure was $289 for both doors. Before fitting anything the technician named the grade of each part, and he offered a lower grade for the gate since it sits behind a hedge, which I accepted. Both doors keyed to the house key. The receipt went to the owner and a copy to me.”
“Dinner on University Avenue ran late, and at twenty to ten my keys were sitting on the driver's seat in the Alma Street Caltrain lot. The figure said on the call was $169 and included the evening hour. The van was at the lot in twenty-two minutes. The technician used an air wedge and a reach tool, and nothing on the window seal or the paint shows he was there. I paid by tap on the sidewalk.”
“We wanted a keypad deadbolt on the front door of our Greenmeadow Eichler so the kids could come in without a key. The figure was $339 for the lock and the pairing. The technician fitted it in the existing bore without touching the slab door or the glass beside it, which was my concern. Four stars because the app needed a firmware update he could not run on site, so the phone unlock only worked the next day. The keypad itself worked from the first hour.”
“My father's safe in the study had been closed since he passed, and none of us had the combination. The figure said on the call was $365. The technician worked the dial by feel for about fifty minutes and opened it without drilling, which mattered to me because the safe stays in the house. He then set a new combination that I chose and showed me how to change it again. The figure did not move.”
On every job
The Tall Tree Standard
Four things that hold on every job, from a Professorville porch to a lab door on Page Mill Road.
- 1Picked or decoded open firstA lock is picked, decoded or bypassed before anything else is considered. Drilling happens only when the mechanism leaves no other way, only after you have agreed to it, and never for a higher figure than the one said on the call.
- 2One figure, said on the call, repeated on the receiptThe figure covers the visit, the labor and the parts, with the $89 service call already inside it. It is the figure the card is charged and the figure printed on the receipt, whether the door is on Embarcadero Road or in an apartment near the Caltrain station.
- 3The hardware grade is named before it goes on the doorIf a part is fitted, you hear its grade and make first. Wherever a lock allows it, the original hardware stays in the door and is rekeyed instead of replaced, which is most often the case on the mortise sets in Old Palo Alto and Professorville.
- 4Card or tap at the door, and a line for whoever needs itPay by card or tap once the door works properly. The itemized receipt arrives by email. When a landlord, an HOA or an insurer needs a written description of the work, one is provided with the receipt.
How it works
From the first call to a door that opens without a mark
- 1
You call and describe the door
House, apartment, shop, lab, car or safe, which part of Palo Alto, and anything between the street and the lock: a side gate, a hedge, a garage level, a lobby or a long drive without a sidewalk.
- 2
The figure is said on the call
The visit, the labor and the parts as one figure, with the $89 service call inside it, while you are still on the phone. You say yes or no.
- 3
The van leaves Midtown
On yes, a text names the technician and gives the arrival window. Ownership is checked at the door: an ID against the address, or a registration against the plate.
- 4
Opened without drilling, and the receipt repeats the figure
The lock is picked, decoded or bypassed wherever the mechanism allows it, and the original hardware goes on working. Card or tap at the door, and the itemized receipt reaches your inbox with the same figure on it.
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 Palo Alto 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.
Before you call anyone
Five things to ask before anyone drives to your door
A search for a locksmith in Palo Alto brings up call centers that advertise $15 and charge several hundred once the door is open, usually after drilling a lock that would have picked. Each question below takes under a minute. A company with nothing to hide answers all five without hesitating.
- 1Ask for one figure with the $89 service call already inside it. A number followed by "and up" or "we will see when we get there" is not a figure, it is a door left open for later.
- 2Ask whether the evening hour and the parts are inside that figure. Listen for a plain yes.
- 3Ask what will be tried before a drill. The right answer describes picking or decoding and names the part that would replace the lock if it came to that. An answer that begins with a drill before the door has been seen is the wrong answer.
- 4Ask for the technician's name and an arrival window by text before anyone is sent. A company that cannot say who is coming is handing your address to whoever is nearest.
- 5Decline cash-only. An itemized receipt by email is what a landlord, an HOA or an insurer will ask to see. A number on a scrap of paper is not a record.
FAQ
What people ask before they call
How long until the van reaches my part of Palo Alto?+
Twenty-two minutes is the average across the city, because the van is based in Midtown and Palo Alto is compact. Midtown itself sees the van in about 14 minutes, Old Palo Alto in 16, Professorville and Stanford in 18, Downtown and the Eichler tracts of South Palo Alto in 22, Crescent Park in 22, College Terrace and East Palo Alto in 23, Barron Park and Menlo Park in 25. Los Altos runs about 27 and Mountain View about 29, and Palo Alto Hills takes longer than any of them because of Page Mill Road. The window in your text comes from where the van is at that moment, not from the average.
Will the lock be drilled?+
Only when the mechanism leaves no other way, and only after you agree. Residential deadbolts, apartment cylinders, the mortise sets in Professorville and Old Palo Alto, aluminum storefront hardware, and most car doors and safes open by picking, decoding, manipulation or bypass, and go on working afterward. Drilling becomes the question when a cylinder is high-security, already damaged, or seized by a snapped key. In that case the technician explains what the lock is doing, names the replacement part and its grade, and the figure stays where it was said on the call.
What does the figure on the call include, and what could move it?+
The $89 service call, the labor, the parts fitted and any evening or overnight hour, as one figure said on the call. A side gate, a long driveway, a garage level or a building lobby does not change it. The only thing that adds to it is a second job you ask for after the technician arrives, such as rekeying the back door once the front door has been opened. That is quoted as its own figure and started only when you say yes.
Is it more after 8pm, on a weekend or on a holiday?+
Weekends and holidays are charged at daytime figures. Arrival between 8pm and midnight adds $55, and between midnight and 7am adds $90. Both are already inside the figure said on the call. A house lockout that would be $129 during the day is said as $184 in the evening and $219 overnight, and that is the figure on the receipt.
Can a housekeeper, a property manager or a landlord act for the owner?+
Yes, with confirmation. For a house or an apartment: photo ID with the address, or ID plus a lease, a utility bill or addressed mail on your phone. For a car: ID plus the registration or an insurance card, digital is fine. For a shop, an office or a lab: ID plus a lease, a business license, or confirmation from the property manager or the company. A housekeeper or a property manager holding keys on the owner's behalf may authorize the work if the owner confirms by text or email, or if the manager's name appears on the lease or the management agreement. The receipt can be addressed to the owner, the manager or both. Without one of those the door stays closed.
Our Professorville house still has its original hardware. Does it have to come out?+
Almost never. The mortise sets on the houses south of downtown were built to be taken apart, cleaned and put back. The case comes out of its pocket, the springs are replaced, the levers re-tensioned, and the cylinder rekeyed so old keys stop working, while the brass plate and the glass knob stay on the door. A latch that no longer catches is usually a worn strike, not a failed lock. If the case is beyond repair, a new mortise body is sized to the pocket already cut, so nothing new is cut into the door. Describe the door on the call and the figure is said for the likely route.
Our Eichler has a sliding glass door and an atrium door. What can be done with them?+
Quite a lot. The sliding doors on the tracts in Greenmeadow, Fairmeadow and Green Gables take a proper keyed lock or a secondary foot bolt without any change to the glass or the track, and the atrium doors take a standard deadbolt bore if they do not have one already. The van carries the sliding-door locks and the narrow-stile hardware those doors need. The technician measures the stile and the track before naming the part, and the glass is not touched.
Do you come to the Stanford Shopping Center lots, the Caltrain lots and Town & Country?+
Yes. Car lockouts, key cutting and fob programming are done in the Stanford Shopping Center lots, the Caltrain lots along Alma Street, Town & Country Village, the garages downtown and the lots at Stanford Hospital. Say which lot and roughly where the car is. For a gated garage under an apartment building, have someone ready to let the van in. The Shopping Center on a Saturday afternoon is honestly slower, and the window in your text will say so. The figure does not change for any of it.
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one figure, and the lock kept whole
Calls answered 24/7 across Palo Alto, Stanford and the towns beside them. The $89 service call, the labor and the parts are inside the figure said on the call, the lock is opened without drilling wherever it allows, and the receipt repeats the figure.