Post Break-In Lock Repair in Palo Alto
Forced cylinders, split jambs and pulled strikes rebuilt and reinforced the same day, $169 to $449.
$169–$449
Typical price
22 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
By the time this call comes in, the officer has left a card with a report number on it and the front door no longer meets its frame. A detached garage in Crescent Park entered through the side door while the family was away for the weekend. A Fairmeadow Eichler whose sliding panel was lifted out of its track. A Barron Park side gate with the hasp torn from the post. An apartment near the Caltrain station where the jamb split along the grain. A shop on California Avenue with the stile bent around a missing cylinder. Tall Tree Lock & Safe has the door locking again the same day, and the frame rebuilt so that the next kick lands on steel and stud rather than on trim.
What actually fails on a kicked door is nearly always the same three things: the strike, a section of jamb and the bolt. The deadbolt itself is usually intact, and the whole story is two short screws holding a strike in soft pine. So the repair goes into the wood. A wraparound strike goes on three-inch screws driven to the stud, a steel sleeve covers the split jamb, and the hinge side gets long screws too, so that edge cannot be pried instead. Before any of that is listed, though, the technician walks the entire property, because the second weak point is seldom far from the first: every exterior door, the garage, the guest cottage, the side gate, and any window a person can reach from the ground. The insurer gets photographs of each point, taken as the walk goes. Any lock that was not damaged is rekeyed before the van goes, in case a spare key went out the door with everything else.
Post break-in repair sits between $169 and $449, with the $89 visit inside. The $169 end is one deadbolt and one reinforced strike on the door that gave. The $449 end is a jamb rebuilt in steel, two locks replaced, hinge screws through the house and every surviving cylinder rekeyed. Your description and your photograph set the figure on the call, and it holds when the van arrives; if the walk-through finds a second door, that door is explained and agreed as its own line, and you can say no to it.
You call and describe the door: which one, what it looks like now, and a photograph if you can take one. The figure is said on the call. The van leaves Midtown, and a text names the technician and the window; a door that will not close is put ahead of everything that can wait. The walk-through, the photographs, your agreement to the itemized list, the repair, the reinforcement and the rekeys follow, and the visit ends with every door closed, locked from outside and pushed hard. The receipt repeats the figure, itemized so an adjuster reads it once.
“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.”
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
Post Break-In Lock Repair: quick answers
Would a stronger deadbolt not do more than all this work on the frame?+
A lock is only as strong as the wood it throws into. On almost every kicked door in Palo Alto the deadbolt is intact and the jamb is in splinters, because a stock strike is held by two screws reaching three-quarters of an inch into soft pine. Three-inch screws to the stud, a steel sleeve over the split, and long screws through the hinges put the load into the wall. Half an hour of work, and the door is no longer the easiest way into the house.
My landlord in College Terrace wants to wait for his own handyman.+
Tenants can book the repair directly; a door that does not lock is not a job for the handyman's next free Thursday. A text from the landlord agreeing to the repair keeps the question of who pays off the doorstep, and the receipt is addressed to whichever of you wants it in the file.
Our Fairmeadow Eichler was entered through the sliding glass door. Can a slider be made any better?+
It can. The weakness of an Eichler slider is that the panel lifts out of its track, so an anti-lift pin goes through both frames first. A track bar stops the panel sliding even if the latch fails, and a proper hook latch replaces the stamped one the builder used. Glass is a glazier's job, but if a sheet of plywood is on hand the opening is closed for the night before the technician packs up.
Related
More emergency 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.