Smart Lock Installation in Palo Alto
Keypad and app locks fitted, paired and coded for houses, rentals and guest units, $189 to $479.
$189–$479
Typical price
22 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
The person who benefits from a smart lock is usually not the one who pays for it. The housekeeper who comes to an Old Palo Alto house on Mondays and Thursdays. The gardener who needs the Crescent Park side gate and nothing past it. The guest cottage in Barron Park lent to family for a month. The faculty house near campus let for a sabbatical year. The landlord in College Terrace who would rather change a code from the sofa than drive over with a key. Schlage, Yale, Kwikset, August, Level and Lockly all ride on the Tall Tree Lock & Safe van, including the retrofit units that keep your present deadbolt and cylinder in the door.
A motor cannot lean on a door the way a hand can, so the first twenty minutes are spent on the strike, until the bolt runs home with no drag at all; a bolt that scrapes empties the batteries and quits on a school morning. Only then does the lock go on. Where the model allows, its cylinder is pinned to the key already on your ring. The app goes on your phone, not the technician's, and the first codes are keyed in while you stand at the door. Wi-Fi is tested at the door itself: the router in a glass-walled Eichler usually sits at the far end of the house and rarely reaches the entry, and a bridge is added when the signal is short. Matter and HomeKit pairing is done if the house already runs on them. On a Professorville door with a mortise set, the original hardware stays and a separate smart deadbolt goes above it, so the old brass is not cut into.
Smart lock installation is $189 to $479 with the $89 visit inside. The $189 end is labor on a lock you already own, going onto a door prepared for it. The $479 end supplies the lock, adds a bridge, replaces a handleset together with the deadbolt, or fits a smart deadbolt beside an old mortise set. The clock does not run: a slow firmware update or a stubborn pairing changes nothing on the receipt.
You call and describe the door: which lock you have or want, and whether the door carries a modern deadbolt or an old mortise set. The figure is said on the call. The van leaves Midtown, and a text names the technician and the window. Strike first, then mounting, keying, pairing, the first codes and a signal test, and before the technician packs up you add and delete a code yourself with someone watching who knows the menus. The receipt repeats the figure.
“We wanted a keypad deadbolt on the front door of our Greenmeadow Eichler so the kids could come in without a key. The figure was $339 for the lock and the pairing. The technician fitted it in the existing bore without touching the slab door or the glass beside it, which was my concern. Four stars because the app needed a firmware update he could not run on site, so the phone unlock only worked the next day. The keypad itself worked from the first hour.”
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
Smart Lock Installation: quick answers
The HOA for our condo above University Avenue says nothing on the outside of the door may change. Is a smart lock still possible?+
It is. Retrofit units from August, Level and others replace the thumbturn on the inside of the door and nothing else. From the hallway the door looks as it did, the cylinder is the same one, and the key the HOA holds still works. If you move out, the original thumbturn goes back on in ten minutes.
Tenants change every June in my College Terrace rental. Does a smart lock save the yearly rekey?+
Mostly. The outgoing tenant's code is deleted and the incoming one is added, and no cylinder is touched. Keep the mechanical key on your own ring as the fallback for a flat battery, and have the cylinder rekeyed every few years anyway, since a metal key is the one credential a lock cannot revoke. The lock can also text you when the cleaners arrive on turnover day.
Our Greenmeadow Eichler is mostly glass and the router sits at the far end. Will a Wi-Fi lock at the front door reach it?+
Often not on its own, which is why the signal is measured at the door before the lock goes on. A plug-in bridge near the entry closes the gap in most Eichlers. Some models pair over Thread or Bluetooth to a hub you already own, and if so the bridge is not needed and is not charged.
Related
More residential 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.