Marin Lock & Key · San Rafael, CA
A San Rafael locksmith who names the full figure before the van leaves the yard.
One van covers San Rafael from Fourth Street to the top of Lucas Valley Rd, for lockouts, rekeys, car keys, driveway gates and storefront hardware. You describe the door. The full figure is named while you are still on the call, with the $89 visit, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill inside it. The van leaves the yard after that, not before, and the receipt repeats the figure.
Calls answered 24/7. The $89 service call is part of the figure named on the call and is not added afterward.
4.9 / 5642 reviewsSan Rafael & Marin
“"The figure named on the call was the figure on the receipt, to the dollar."”
“"Five cylinders, one figure, and the gate closed behind him the way he found it."”
“"The evening hour was already inside the figure before I thought to ask."”
What we do
Four kinds of work, one list of figures
Openings when you are shut out, hardware for 1910s doors, gates and Marina condos alike, keys and fobs handled where the car is parked. Every job is priced from the list below, and the full figure is named before the van leaves.
from $89Emergency
Lockouts and forced-door repair at a figure named on the call
- House Lockout$125–$215
- Car Lockout$99–$175
- Business Lockout$135–$249
- Post Break-In Lock Repair$165–$435
from $26/cylResidential
Rekeys, replacement hardware, smart locks and safes for San Rafael houses and condos
- Lock Rekeying$26–$43 per cylinder
- Lock Replacement & Installation$119–$319
- Smart Lock Installation$185–$469
- Safe Opening$189–$525
from $155Commercial
Storefront, restaurant, office and medical-suite hardware quoted door by door
- Master Key Systemscustom quote
- Panic Bars & Exit Devices$299–$779
- Access Controlcustom quote
- Storefront Door Locks$155–$469
from $85Automotive
Car keys, fobs and ignitions, done where the car is parked
- Car Key Replacement$149–$409
- Key Fob Programming$85–$189
- Ignition Repair$179–$449
- Motorcycle Keys$119–$285
Price list
Published ranges. One full figure, named on the call.
Every job is priced from the list below. The full figure is named on the call, before the van leaves the yard, and the receipt repeats it.
Emergency Locksmith
overviewResidential Locksmith
overviewCommercial Locksmith
overviewAutomotive Locksmith
overviewThe full list adds the evening and overnight hours, the service call and the three things that shape the figure.
See every priceHow a figure is named
applied toward the work
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
The figure that is named already has the service call, the drive up the hill and any after-hours hour inside it. That is all of it, and the receipt repeats it.
Name my figureOn every job
Named Before the Van Leaves
The full figure is named on the call. The van leaves the yard afterward. Four parts, each one kept.
- 1One full figure, named on the callThe visit, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill are named as one figure while you describe the door. The $89 service call is inside it. That is the figure the card is charged, whether the door is at the end of a Lucas Valley driveway or above a shop on Fourth Street.
- 2The technician's name and a thirty-minute window by text, then a call from the gateBefore the van leaves the yard you receive the technician's name and a thirty-minute window by text. When the van reaches your gate, the technician calls rather than pressing the intercom or waking the house. If 101 or the length of Point San Pedro Rd shifts the window, a second text says so.
- 3Opened without a mark first; a drill only with your yesPicks, decoders and bypass tools come out first, and the lock usually goes on working afterward. If a cylinder will not give, the technician explains why, names the replacement part, and drills only after you say yes. The figure stays as it was named.
- 4Card or tap at the door, and the gate left as it was foundPay by card or tap once the door closes properly. The itemized receipt reaches your email. A written line describing the work is available for a property manager, an HOA or an insurer if you need one. The gate, the hedge and the driveway are left exactly as the technician found them.
Coverage
Every San Rafael neighborhood, and the Marin towns beside it
Vans stage near the Civic Center and downtown. Average arrival 21 minutes across the city, longer out in Lucas Valley; each area page shows its own.
Why Marin
The full figure is named before the van leaves the yard.
The full figure is named before the van leaves the yard
The visit, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill in one figure, named while you are on the call. The receipt repeats it. Nothing is recalculated at the gate.
Mobile along a long city on 101
No shop. The van moves between Fourth Street, the hillside streets of Dominican and Sun Valley, the flats of Terra Linda and the far end of Point San Pedro Rd, and twenty-one minutes is the average arrival.
Stock for the doors San Rafael actually has
Mortise parts for the 1910s houses in Gerstle Park, sliding-door locks for the Eichlers in Terra Linda, keypad deadbolts for guest houses and rentals, gate cylinders and keypad modules, aluminum storefront parts for Fourth Street, exit devices, readers, and programmers for hybrid and EV fobs.
A record for whoever asks
An itemized receipt by email, plus a written line describing the work for a property manager, an HOA, an insurer or the owner you act for.
Reviews
What Marin says once the receipt lands
Jobs from Gerstle Park to Lucas Valley and across the county line, with the figure people actually paid.
4.9/ 5642reviews
San Rafael & Marin
“The front door of our 1915 house closed behind me while I was watering the porch ferns, keys on the hall table. The call named $148. The text with the technician's name arrived while I was still on the porch, and the van was at the curb in seventeen minutes. He opened the original mortise cylinder without a mark on the brass, checked that the latch still caught, and the card was charged $148. The figure named on the call was the figure on the receipt, to the dollar.”
“I manage a hillside house for an owner who spends the winter abroad. The tenant left, the gardener had a key, the cleaner had a key, and nobody could say how many others existed. The call named $34 a cylinder, five cylinders, $259 with the visit inside. The technician called from the gate rather than buzzing, rekeyed the front door, the kitchen door, the guest house and both garage doors to one key, and left the gate closed behind him. Five cylinders, one figure, and the gate closed behind him the way he found it. The receipt lists each door, which the owner's insurer asked to see.”
“A late showing at the Rafael Film Center, and my keys were on the passenger seat in the garage off Fourth Street at a quarter to eleven. The call named $154 and said the evening hour was already part of it. The van was on the level below mine in fifteen minutes. The technician had the door open before I had finished explaining which seat the keys were on, and nothing on the window or the seal shows he was there. $154 on the card, receipt in my email on the walk home. The evening hour was already inside the figure before I thought to ask.”
“I keep house for a family in Lucas Valley, and they asked me to arrange a keypad lock for the guest house before their visitors arrived. The call named $412 for the lock and the pairing, with the drive up the valley inside it. The technician fitted it in the existing bore, set a code for the visitors that expires on its own, and reset the gate keypad while he was there. Four stars only because the gate keypad manual arrived by email two days later rather than in the folder with the receipt, as I had asked. The lock itself has been faultless.”
“Our Eichler has the original sliding glass door to the atrium and a front door lever that had worn to the point of turning without doing anything. The call named $284 for a proper sliding-door lock and a new lever, keyed alike. He fitted both without touching the glass or the frame, which is what I had been worried about. Four stars because the two keys were cut on different blanks, so they look nothing alike even though both open every door. He offered to recut them and I have not got round to it.”
“I manage a twelve-unit building in the Canal. A rear door was forced on a weekday morning and the jamb was split at the strike. Called at nine, van by twenty past. The jamb was rebuilt with a long strike and a steel wrap, a new deadbolt went in, and the tenant had a working door by eleven. $296, each part listed on the receipt. He looked at the buzzer panel door as well, said it was sound and did not suggest anything for it. The owner's insurer had a written description of the work by lunchtime.”
How it works
From the first call to a receipt that repeats the figure
- 1
You call and describe the door
House, condo, shop, car or safe, which part of San Rafael, and anything between the road and the lock: a gate with a keypad, an intercom, a buzzer panel, a garage level or a long driveway.
- 2
The full figure is named
The visit, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill are named as one figure while you are still on the call. You say yes or no. On yes, a text with the technician's name and a thirty-minute window goes out before the van leaves the yard.
- 3
The van leaves and calls from the gate
The technician calls from the gate rather than leaning on the intercom. Ownership is checked before anything is opened: an ID against the address, or a registration against the plate. Then the lock is picked, decoded or bypassed, and a drill comes out only with your yes.
- 4
The receipt repeats the figure
Card or tap at the door for the figure that was named. The itemized receipt reaches your inbox while the van is still in the driveway, and the gate is closed behind it the way it was found.
Free estimate
Four questions, then the range from the rate card.
Not an emergency? Answer four questions and see the published range for your job in San Rafael before you speak to anyone. If it is urgent, the form steps aside and hands you the number.
- 1What went wrong?A lockout, a key, a lock change, or something else entirely.
- 2Where is the door?A house, an apartment, a car or a business.
- 3How soon?If it is right now, the form gets out of the way and you call.
- 4Where does the range go?A name and a number. Email and cross street only if you like.
Before you call anyone
Five things to ask before you give anyone your gate code
A search for a locksmith in San Rafael brings up national call centers that advertise $19 and invoice several hundred once the door is open. Each question below takes under a minute. A company with nothing to hide answers all five plainly.
- 1Ask for one full figure with the $89 service call inside it. A number followed by "starting from" or "depends what we find" is not a figure. It is a space left open for later.
- 2Ask whether the drive up the hill, the evening hour and the parts are inside that figure or come afterward. Listen for a plain yes.
- 3Ask for the technician's name and an arrival window by text before anyone is sent to your gate. A company that cannot name who is coming does not know either, and is handing your address to whoever is nearest.
- 4Ask what happens if the lock will not pick. The right answer names the part that would replace it and what that part costs. An answer that begins with a drill before the door has been seen is the wrong one.
- 5Decline cash-only. An itemized receipt by email is what an HOA, an insurer or the owner you act for will want to see. A figure on the back of a business card is not a record.
FAQ
What people ask before the figure is named
How long until the van reaches my part of San Rafael?+
Twenty-one minutes is the average across the city, which is long and narrow along 101 rather than compact. Downtown and Fourth Street usually see the van in 15 minutes, Gerstle Park, Dominican and the Canal in 17, Sun Valley and Fairhills in 19, Terra Linda and Marinwood in 21. Peacock Gap and Point San Pedro run about 24, because there is one road in along the water, and Lucas Valley about 26, because the driveways there are the longest in the city. San Anselmo is about 22, Larkspur 21, Corte Madera 22, Mill Valley 28 and Novato 30. The thirty-minute window in your text comes from where the van is and what 101 is doing at that moment, not from the average.
Does the figure change after eight, on a weekend or on a holiday?+
Weekends and holidays are charged at daytime figures. Arrival between 8pm and midnight adds $55, and arrival between midnight and 7am adds $90. Both are inside the figure named on the call. A $125 house lockout is therefore named as $180 in the evening and $215 overnight, and that is the figure the card is charged. A daytime figure with an evening addition produced at the door is not how it is done here.
What is inside the figure, and what could change it?+
The $89 service call, the labor, the parts fitted, the drive up the hill and any evening or overnight hour, named as one figure before you decide. A gated driveway, a keypad, stairs, a buzzer panel or a garage level do not alter it. The only addition is a second job you ask for once the technician is there, such as rekeying the guest house after the main door has been opened. That is named as its own figure and started only after you say yes.
Will my lock be drilled?+
Only after the non-destructive methods have been tried and you have agreed. Apartment cylinders, residential deadbolts, the mortise sets in Gerstle Park, aluminum storefront hardware and most car doors open with picks, decoders, bypass tools or an air wedge and go on working afterward. Drilling comes up when a cylinder is high-security, already damaged, or seized by a broken key or the salt air near the Marina. In that case the technician explains the mechanism, names the replacement part and its cost, and the total stays at the figure named on the call.
What proof is needed, and can a housekeeper or a property manager act for the owner?+
For a house or condo: photo ID with the address, or ID plus a lease, a utility bill or addressed mail on your phone if the ID shows somewhere else. For a car: ID plus registration or an insurance card, digital is fine. For a shop, office or suite: ID plus a lease, a business license, or confirmation from the property manager or the company. A housekeeper, a gardener or a property manager holding keys on the owner's behalf may authorize the work if the owner confirms by text or email to the technician, or if the manager's name is on the lease or the management agreement. The receipt can then be addressed to the owner or to the manager, whichever the owner prefers. Without one of those the door stays closed. The rule that keeps a stranger out of your house is the one being applied.
The house is behind a gate with a keypad and an intercom, at the end of a long driveway. What should I say on the call?+
Say so, and say how the technician gets through the gate: a code, a call from the gate to your phone, or someone coming down to open it. If the gate itself is the problem, say that too, because a keypad that has lost its code and a gate lock that has failed are different jobs, and the figure is named for the right one. The drive from the gate to the door is inside the figure whatever its length. On the way out the gate is closed, the code is not kept, and nothing is left on the driveway.
Our Gerstle Park house still has its original 1910s hardware. Does it have to be replaced?+
Rarely. The hardware on those houses was built to be taken apart and put back. A mortise case can be cleaned, its springs replaced and its levers re-tensioned on the porch, and the cylinder rekeyed so the old keys stop working while the brass plate and the glass knob stay where they have been for a century. A latch that no longer catches is usually a worn strike, not a failed lock. If the case is beyond repair, a new mortise body is sized to the pocket already cut in the door, so nothing is cut fresh. Describe the door on the call and the figure is named for the likely route; if the other route is needed once the case is open, the technician says so and the figure stays as named.
Do you come into the Fourth Street garages, the Civic Center lots, the ferry lot and the Marina?+
Yes. Car lockouts, key cutting and fob programming are done in the garages off Fourth Street, the lots at the Marin Civic Center and Kaiser, the Larkspur ferry lot, the Northgate structure and the lots at the Marina and China Camp. Say which lot, which level and roughly where the car sits. For a gated garage under a condo building, have someone able to let the van in or meet it at the entrance. The ferry lot at half past five in the afternoon is honestly slower, and the window in your text will say so. The figure does not change for any of it.
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one full figure, the same figure on the receipt
Calls answered 24/7 across San Rafael and the Marin towns beside it. The $89 service call, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill are inside the figure named on the call, and the receipt repeats it.