Guides
Plain answers for San Rafael, before you need them.
Prices, gates, old hardware, held keys and lockouts, written for Marin and read in a few minutes.
Aug 2026 · 7 min read
A Lucas Valley Driveway Gate with a Keypad, and a House on a Different Key
The gate opens on a code, the pedestrian gate on a key from 2009, and the house on a key from the day you bought it. What happens when the three lists diverge, the gardener who has the code and no key, the sitter who has the key and last year's code, the gate in a power cut, and how to bring a Lucas Valley property onto one arrangement.
Read
Jul 2026 · 7 min read
A Condo at Loch Lomond or the Marina: Who Holds a Key to Your Unit, and What the HOA Keeps
The unit came with two keys, a dock gate key and a padlock with no key at all. Who else has one, what the association keeps and why, how a rekey keeps the manager's access without your knowing his key, what the harbor air does to a cylinder, and the 2026 figures for the whole visit along Point San Pedro Rd.
Read
May 2026 · 7 min read
A Fourth Street Shop the Night of a Break-In: Making It Lock Tonight and Repairing It in Daylight
The alarm company called at two in the morning and the glass is on the tile. What can be done in the dark and what waits for the glazier, what a Fourth Street door is, why the front lock is often not where they came in, which keys matter, and what the landlord and the insurer will want from the two visits.
Read
Apr 2026 · 6 min read
Keys Locked in the Car at the Civic Center Lot or in a Fourth Street Garage
The farmers market is packing up and the fob is on the passenger seat, or the film has ended and the key is in the trunk with the coat. Two places that empty at different hours, how to say where the car is in a lot with no rows, what is asked on the call, the dog on the back seat, and what a lockout costs in 2026.
Read
Feb 2026 · 8 min read
A Gerstle Park Front Door from 1912: Keeping the Hardware It Was Built With and Still Locking the House
A glass-paneled Craftsman door, a bronze knob set with a keyhole for a bit key, a rim night latch added in the 1940s, and an owner who has lived behind it for forty years. Which parts still do a job, what keeping the original actually means, the parts that no longer exist, and how a caregiver gets in without a keypad on the front.
Read
Jan 2026 · 7 min read
A Dominican Housekeeper Holding the Keys While the Owner Is Abroad: Who Can Authorize What
The owner is in another time zone for three months and the ring is on a hook in the housekeeper's pantry. What that ring holds on a Dominican property, who may authorize a rekey or a lockout in the owner's absence, what is asked for at the gate, what to do the day the ring goes missing, and the 2026 figures.
Read24/7 — 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.