Nearby city · 24/7
East Palo Alto locksmith service east of 101, for apartment gates, University Avenue by the Dumbarton Bridge and calls that come after the shift ends
The city across the freeway: apartment buildings from the 1960s onward with a street gate and a carport, small houses on the streets toward the Baylands, the businesses along University Avenue between 101 and the bridge, and a working population whose calls come between six and ten in the evening.
4.9 / 5· 176 reviews from Palo Alto, Stanford & the towns beside them
23 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
East Palo Alto is twenty-three minutes by way of University Avenue over 101, and most of its doors are rented. An apartment building here has a gate at the street on a code or a key, a carport at the back and a unit door with a knob and, in the better buildings, a deadbolt. A unit lockout is $129 to $219, picked open, with a tenant's ID asked for at the door. The gate is the usual culprit: it closes on a spring behind someone carrying laundry to the car, with the key still on the hook inside. Whether the gate opens and whether a neighbor can let the technician through is asked on the call, because the unit door is out of reach until the gate is not.
Managers here turn units on a steady rhythm and book several at a time, and the $89 visit sits inside the one figure once. A rekey is $27 to $45 per cylinder, and the mailbox lock is changed while the technician is in the entry. A door that no longer latches is a strike out of line or a hinge that has dropped, far more often than a lock, and it is adjusted instead of replaced. Where a deadbolt has to go on a door that has only a knob, that is $125 to $329, with screws long enough to reach the framing. The written line for the owner or the manager comes on request.
University Avenue east of the freeway is a working street: a grocery, a taqueria, an auto shop, a laundromat, each behind a glass door that opens a few hundred times a day. Storefront work is $159 to $479 and a business lockout at opening is $139 to $255. Cars at the curb and in the carports bring lockouts at $105 to $199 and a replacement key at $155 to $419 for a car that has no key at all. Evening calls carry $55 between 8pm and midnight, inside the figure said on the call, and calls are answered 24/7.
Give the unit number and say which gate or entrance it belongs to; the numbering on these buildings seldom follows the street. If the trouble is the street gate rather than your own door, say so, because that decides who authorizes the work.
Nearby
The next district over, the same van and the same figures
FAQ
Asked about East Palo Alto
Twenty-three minutes over the freeway. Which crossing does the van use?+
University Avenue over 101, which is the direct way in and the slow way at commute hours. Twenty-three minutes is the estimate at an ordinary hour, and it is said on the call rather than adjusted afterwards. Nothing is added for crossing the freeway or for being on the far side of it.
The street gate closed behind me with my key inside, and my own door is past it. What happens?+
The gate belongs to the building, so it is not ours to open on a tenant's word alone. In practice a neighbor or the manager lets the technician through and your own unit door is what gets picked. Say on the call whether anyone is home in the building, because it decides how the visit is arranged.
Can the mailbox lock be changed on the same visit?+
Yes, and it is worth doing when a unit turns over. A mailbox cylinder is small work while the technician is already standing in the entry, and it goes on the same receipt. Where the box belongs to the building rather than the unit, the manager has to agree first; ask on the call and it is settled early.
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.