Palo Alto neighborhood · 24/7
College Terrace locksmith service on the grid beside campus, where leases end in June and the bikes outnumber the cars
The small grid between El Camino Real and Stanford Avenue, on streets named for colleges: small houses and cottages from the 1900s onward, faculty and graduate rentals, back units and converted garages, bikes on every porch, and a landlord's rekey each time a lease ends.
4.9 / 5· 176 reviews from Palo Alto, Stanford & the towns beside them
23 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
College Terrace is twenty-three minutes by way of Page Mill Road, and its calls follow the academic calendar. In June and September the landlords call: a house with a front door, a back door, a converted garage unit and a shared side gate, rekeyed between tenants at $27 to $45 per cylinder, every door on one key for the incoming lease and the gate pinned so both units can open it. A manager with three houses on one street books them as a single visit and pays the $89 service call once inside the figure. The written line for the owner's file arrives with the receipt.
Between those months the calls come from tenants. A lockout at a back unit at ten at night, with the key on the desk and the owner in another state, is $129 to $219, picked open because the door belongs to the landlord and a drilled cylinder is a conversation nobody wants to have. An ID and the lease on a phone are asked for at the door. A door that stopped latching after a wet week is a swollen slab or a strike out of line, not a lock, and it is planed or shifted rather than replaced. A bike lock whose key went missing is cut off in the same visit.
The houses are small and the hardware is mixed: a 1950s knob, a deadbolt from a hardware store, a rim latch on the back unit. Where a landlord wants to stop meeting tenants with a ring of keys, a smart lock at $189 to $479 goes on the unit door with a code per lease and a mechanical key beneath it. Cars on the street and in the lots along El Camino bring lockouts at $105 to $199. Evening calls carry $55 between 8pm and midnight and $90 overnight, inside the figure said on the call.
Say whether your door is the main house, a back unit or a converted garage, and whether the side gate is shared. If you rent, have your ID and the lease on your phone ready at the door; both are asked for.
Most requested in College Terrace
Nearby
The next district over, the same van and the same figures
FAQ
Asked about College Terrace
Campus is close. Why is College Terrace twenty-three minutes?+
The way in is Oregon Expressway and Page Mill Road, then the lights on El Camino Real, and the little grid at the end is narrow with cars parked along both sides. Twenty-three minutes counts those last two blocks honestly. Give the street and the cross street and the van will not have to circle.
Three rental houses on one street at the end of a lease. One visit or three?+
One. The doors are counted across all three houses, every cylinder is $27 to $45, and the $89 visit sits inside the single figure once instead of three times. Each house goes onto its own key, shared side gates are pinned so both units on a lot can open them, and the written line comes with the receipt.
The key to my bike lock is gone and the bike is chained to the porch. Is that worth a call?+
It is, and it is usually added to whatever else is being done at the address rather than being a trip of its own. The lock is cut off, the frame and the rail are left unmarked, and nothing is sold to you afterwards. If the bike is the only reason to come out, say so and the figure is said on the call.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
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.