San Rafael neighborhood · 24/7
Sun Valley and Fairhills locksmith calls, on the streets that climb west of downtown toward the ridge
The streets west of downtown and up toward the ridge: houses from the 1930s through the 1950s built into the slope, a garage cut in below the house with a door up into it, a flight of steps from the street, side gates onto a narrow path, and Fairhills higher up where the streets narrow and turn.
19 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
The houses here sit above the street with the garage below, and that shapes the calls. The way in is usually the garage: the roll-up goes up, a door at the back of the garage opens onto a stair into the kitchen, and that door self-latches. When the roll-up is closed and the garage door has clicked, the household is outside with the front door bolted and the side gate latched from inside. That lockout is $125 to $215 and it starts at the gate more often than at the front. A keyed latch on the side gate, on the house key, ends the pattern for the price of one more cylinder.
The hardware on the doors is from the 1950s more often than not: a knob set with a worn plug, a deadbolt added later in a different keyway, a sliding door onto a deck at the back. A rekey of every cylinder to one key is $26 to $43 each. Where a deck door has only a knob, a deadbolt above it is a replacement at $119 to $319 per door. Fairhills, higher up, has larger houses on larger lots with a driveway gate here and there, and the estimate on the call adds a minute or two for the climb.
Parking is the difficulty in this district. The streets are narrow, cars sit on both sides, and the house is at the top of thirty steps. The van stops at the nearest wide spot and the case goes up on foot, which adds a few minutes and nothing to the figure. Arrival is about nineteen minutes by way of Fourth Street or Fifth Ave. Evening calls carry $55 between 8pm and midnight and $90 overnight, inside the figure named on the call, and calls are answered 24/7.
Say whether the trouble door is the front, the side gate or the door from the garage, and say how many steps are between the street and the house. Turn a porch light on; the numbers here are on the risers and hard to read from the street at night.
Most requested in Sun Valley & Fairhills
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
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.