San Rafael neighborhood · 24/7
Locksmith service in the Canal, for the walk-ups east of 101 where the lock is older than the lease and the calls come after work
The flat blocks east of 101 along the canal: two- and three-story apartment buildings from the 1960s and 70s with a buzzer panel and a carport, small houses on the streets toward the water, corner markets and repair shops, a renting population, and a lot of calls between six and ten in the evening.
4.9 / 5· 228 reviews from San Rafael & the Marin towns beside it
17 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Most doors in the Canal are rented and most of the locks on them were fitted when the building went up. A walk-up with a buzzer panel at the street door, a mailbox bank in the entry, a knob set and no deadbolt on the unit. A unit lockout is $125 to $215, and the common one is the self-latching street door: someone steps out to the carport for a bag of groceries, the door clicks, and the key is on the counter. Say on the call whether the buzzer works and whether a neighbor can let the technician in; the unit door cannot be reached through a dead panel. Proof of tenancy is asked for at the unit door.
Managers here have steady turnover and book several units at once, and the $89 service call sits inside that one figure once. A rekey is $26 to $43 per cylinder and the mailbox cam is swapped while the technician is in the entry. A door that will not latch is nearly always a strike or a sagging hinge rather than the lock, and the technician says so instead of replacing it. Where a deadbolt does need to go on a door that has only a knob, replacement is $119 to $319 per door, with screws that reach the framing. A written line for the owner or the manager is provided on request.
The corners are small commerce: a market, a taqueria, a tire shop, a laundromat, behind aluminum doors that cycle all day. Storefront work is $155 to $469 and a business lockout at opening is $135 to $249. Cars on the street and in the carports bring lockouts at $99 to $195 and a replacement key at $149 to $409 for a car that has none. Parking for the van is the hard part; it stops where it can along Bellam or Kerner and the case walks the block. Arrival is about seventeen minutes by way of the Bellam exit, and evening calls carry $55 between 8pm and midnight, inside the figure named on the call.
Give the unit number and say which entrance it is on. The numbering on these buildings rarely runs the way the street does. If the trouble is the street door rather than your unit, say so, since that decides who authorizes the work.
FAQ
What people ask about The Canal
The street door of the building latched behind me and the buzzer panel is dead. What happens then?+
The unit door cannot be reached until someone opens the street door, so say on the call whether a neighbor or the manager can let the technician in. If nobody can, the street door itself becomes the job, and that is for the owner or the manager to agree to rather than a tenant.
The manager wants several units done in one visit. How is that priced?+
Cylinder by cylinder, with the visit counted once for the whole trip rather than once per door. Mailbox cams are swapped while the technician is already in the entry. Give the unit numbers and say which entrance each one is on before the van leaves, because the numbering in these buildings rarely follows the street.
The apartment door will not latch any more. Does the lock have to be replaced?+
Usually not. Nine times in ten it is a strike plate that has shifted or a hinge that has dropped, and the fix is a screw long enough to reach the framing and a strike filed to meet the latch. The lock is left alone. If a deadbolt genuinely has to go on a door that has only a knob, that is priced per door and said plainly.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
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.