Storefront Door Locks in Palo Alto
Aluminum deadlatches, hookbolts, cylinders and closers for the glass doors on University and California Avenues, $159 to $479.
$159–$479
Typical price
22 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
The shop doors on University Avenue, California Avenue, at Town & Country and along Middlefield Road are nearly all the same door: a sheet of glass in a slim aluminum frame, with a lock buried in a stile about two inches wide. That door is its own trade. Tall Tree Lock & Safe carries its parts on the van: deadlatches, hookbolt deadlocks, mortise cylinders with the right cam, paddle handles, thumbturns and the closer at the head. A bakery on California Avenue, a boutique at Town & Country, a pharmacy on Middlefield Road, a bike shop near the Caltrain station. The point is a door that locks the way your lease says it must.
The first thing done at a storefront door is to close it and watch where the latch lands. On most of these doors the lock is fine and the door has dropped: aluminum doors hang on two pivots, the bottom one wears, and after a few years the deadlatch is landing a few millimeters below its pocket. A fresh pivot and a moved strike cure that for less than a new lock. When the deadlatch really has worn short of full throw, a new one goes in. Hookbolts go on doors that meet at a center mullion or that have been pried before; the hook wraps the strike and cannot be spread out of it. The mortise cylinder is rekeyed, or replaced with one carrying the right cam and tailpiece, and a thumbturn goes on the inside so whoever closes can lock up from the shop floor rather than from the sidewalk.
Storefront work sits between $159 and $479 per door, hardware included, with the $89 visit inside. A deadlatch swap or a new mortise cylinder is the $159 end. A hookbolt deadlock on a restricted cylinder, with a paddle handle and the closer reset on a heavy door, is the $479 end. Rekeying a stile cylinder when someone leaves is $27 to $45. Evening work after 8pm carries $55 inside the figure; overnight before 7am, $90.
You call and describe the door: a photograph of the door edge and one of the lock face. The figure is said on the call. The van leaves Midtown, and a text names the technician and the window; University Avenue and California Avenue are both about twenty-two minutes. The door is checked for droop, repaired or refitted, keyed, and swung through the closer several times, and the receipt names the make and model of every part in case the landlord asks. The receipt repeats the figure, card or tap before you open.
“Our restaurant on California Avenue has an aluminum front door whose hookbolt had stopped throwing unless you lifted the whole door. The figure was $329 for a new hookbolt, a cylinder and a closer adjustment. He came at seven thirty, before the kitchen was in, reset the door so the bolt lands square, and did not suggest replacing the door or the frame, which a previous company had. $329 on the card.”
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.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
FAQ
Storefront Door Locks: quick answers
I lock the shop on California Avenue, pull the handle, and the door opens anyway. What has gone?+
Almost certainly the door has dropped, not the lock. Watch the latch as the door closes: if it lands below the pocket in the strike, the bottom pivot has worn, and a new pivot with a moved strike fixes it. If the latch reaches the pocket but slips out, the deadlatch itself has worn short and is replaced. Either way it is a routine morning call, done before you open.
Our shop at Town & Country has a roll-down grille in front of the door. Can both run on the same key?+
Usually yes. If the grille cylinder and the door cylinder share a keyway, both are pinned to one key on the van. If they do not, the grille cylinder is replaced with one that matches the door. A copy is cut for everyone on the opening list, and the receipt lists both cylinders.
A server walked out with the key to our restaurant on University Avenue.+
Ten minutes at the door. The stile cylinder comes out, is repinned on the van at $27 to $45, and goes back in; the key that walked out now turns nothing. Fresh keys are cut for whoever remains on the closing list, and the rest of the door is not touched.
Related
More commercial services
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.