Master Key Systems in Palo Alto

One key in the manager's pocket opens every door; the key in each tenant's pocket opens only theirs. That is a master key system, and Palo Alto has more of them than people suppose. A Research Park building with four companies and a shared loading dock. A Professorville house divided into three units with a laundry in the basement. A property manager holding keys for a dozen houses in Old Palo Alto and Crescent Park whose owners travel half the year. A California Avenue restaurant with an office, a walk-in and a bar. Tall Tree Lock & Safe designs the system, pins every cylinder, and leaves you a chart you can run for years without another visit.

The drawing is the job; the pinning is the afternoon. After a walk of the building and a plain conversation about who needs which door, the technician sketches the levels: a grand master if a portfolio needs one, a master for each building or floor, sub-masters for a department, a change key for every door. A restricted keyway goes underneath, so no key can be copied at a kiosk, which is how one key becomes three. Cylinders are pinned on the van with master pins stacked above the change pins and tried in their own doors. Original mortise cylinders, which the Professorville houses have, are pinned into the system and kept rather than swapped out. Each key is stamped with its level and logged by number. The chart lists every door against every key that opens it, and leaves blank rows for next year's doors.

There is no published figure for a master key system, because door count, keyway and the choice of restricted key change it more than anything else. What you get is an itemized quote after the survey: cylinders by door, keys by level, design once. The $89 visit is the survey and counts toward the job. An approved quote holds. A single door repinned later, when a tenant leaves, is $27 to $45 and stays inside the system.

You call and describe the building: how many doors and what kind of place it is. The figure is said after the survey, as a chart and an itemized quote, and installation is booked once you approve. The van leaves Midtown on the booked day, and a text names the technician and the window. Every cylinder goes back into its own door and is tried there with its change key and its master; the keys are handed over against the log and signed for. The receipt repeats the figure, door by door.