Pricing
Sixteen jobs, the whole list, and the door that decides them.
Sixteen jobs, fourteen of them with a range and two quoted once the openings have been counted on site. What moves a figure inside its range here is what is actually in the door: a cast mortise case that comes apart, cleans up and goes back in takes the low end, while a case seized with a century of paint, or one that has to be replaced because a part inside it is broken beyond repair, takes the high one. Say what the key does when you turn it, and the range closes to a single number on the call. A range covers that work anywhere in town, and the only thing the clock is allowed to add sits in the table below: $45 after 8pm, $85 after midnight.
Emergency Locksmith
OverviewResidential Locksmith
OverviewCommercial Locksmith
OverviewAutomotive Locksmith
OverviewThree tiers, and what each one adds
All the clock is allowed to do, on six common jobs
Every figure below is the low end of that job's published range with the hour already inside it, said the way you would hear it on the phone. Between 8pm and midnight a job carries $45, and between midnight and 7am it carries $85. Nothing else on the clock changes a number, and neither a weekend nor a holiday does.
| Job | 7am–8pm | 8pm–12am | 12am–7am |
|---|---|---|---|
| House lockout | $135 | $190 | $230 |
| Car lockout | $109 | $164 | $204 |
| Business lockout | $145 | $200 | $240 |
| Lock replacement | $129 | $184 | $224 |
| Car key replacement | $159 | $214 | $254 |
| Key fob programming | $95 | $150 | $190 |
The $89 visit is inside every figure in this table rather than underneath it. These are low ends, and what lifts a job off them is the door. A leaf that has dropped on its hinges, a bore cut narrower than the modern standard, a strike that has to be moved and its mortise recut: any of those lands the figure higher in the published range, and it is said on the call rather than found on the receipt.
Why a range
A range is wide because no two old locks have had the same century
Two cases of the same make and the same age land at opposite ends of one range, and the difference is what has happened to them since they were fitted. Four things settle it, in the order they come up on the call.
The case first, the clock second
What moves a figure inside its range here is what comes out of the door. A case that opens on the cloth, cleans up and goes back in sits near the bottom. One seized with a century of paint, or one with a part broken past repair, costs the time it takes. The clock is allowed one thing only: $45 between 8pm and midnight, $85 between midnight and 7am, folded into the figure before you agree to anything.
Which of the doors it is
A panelled front door on a porch, an interior door that became a front door when a house was split into flats, an aluminium shopfront in the centre and a steel door on a shed by the water all book under one job name and are four separate pieces of work. Name the one that stopped you and most of the spread is gone before anybody drives out.
What the key does when you turn it
A key that goes in and turns halfway is one job. A key that will not enter at all is another. A key that turns freely while nothing moves is a third, and that one is usually the spindle rather than the lock. Say which of the three yours does and the range closes before anybody drives.
Whether the case can be kept
Most of them can. Stripped, cleaned and repinned, a cast case outlasts anything sold to replace it, and that work sits inside the visit rather than on the bill as parts. Where a part inside is broken past repair the lock is replaced at $119 to $315, and you hear which of the two yours is, with the reason.
FAQ
What people ask once they hear a figure
The key goes in and will not turn. Does the lock have to come off the door?+
It has to come off the door to be worked on, and then it usually goes back on. A cast bronze mortise body is a serviceable machine: the cover unscrews, the levers and springs lift out, and what has stopped it is nearly always hardened grease, grit that came in through the keyhole, and dust from the last few coats of paint. Washed, re-sprung and greased, the same body drops back into the same mortise and turns better than it has in a decade. That work is billed in the $119 to $315 line. Replacement comes up only when the case has cracked through or a part exists nowhere, and you are shown the reason before anything gets ordered.
What is the wait from the old center to my address?+
The clock starts near Main Street and the citywide average is eighteen minutes. Downtown Martinez runs about 10, the waterfront and marina 13, Alhambra Heights 15, Muir Station 17, Vine Hill 19, Morello Park 21, Alhambra Hills 24 with the longer driveways, and Virginia Hills 27 at the south edge where the road loops around. Outside the city the same price list applies: Pacheco about 14, Pleasant Hill 18, Concord 21, Lafayette 24, Benicia 26 across the bridge, Hercules 29. When your address is one of the slow ones you get the slow number while you are still on the phone.
The only key to an old lock is gone. Can another be made?+
Often, and it does not start at a hardware counter, since nobody stocks that blank. The body comes out of the door and gets opened, the levers are read, and a key is cut and filed to what is actually inside rather than to a code in a book. Where the blank has genuinely stopped existing, the choice is between fitting a modern case into the old mortise, which keeps the knob and the plate you have, or converting that leaf to a cylinder. You get told which of the three you are in, and what each one costs, before anything comes off the door.
Two jobs that sound the same, two different figures. What decides it?+
Three things, and none of them is the brand. What is actually hanging on the leaf, since a rebuilt bronze body, a seventies rim bolt and a keypad are three different afternoons. How much paint has to come out before a bolt can reach anything, which on some doors is the bulk of the visit. And the hour, because an arrival after 8pm carries $45 and after midnight $85. Once those three are settled on the phone, the range collapses to one figure, and that figure is what the card sees.
Do nights, weekends and holidays change the number?+
A Saturday costs what a Tuesday costs, and so does the Fourth of July. The only thing that shifts a figure is the hour on the clock: $45 added for an arrival between 8pm and midnight, $85 between midnight and 7am. Both are inside the number quoted before you agree to anything, so nothing new appears once the door is open. A $140 house lockout in daylight is quoted at $185 late in the evening and $225 in the small hours, and those are the numbers on the receipt.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say whether the key meets a keyhole or a cylinder, and the rest of the call is quick
Martinez and the towns around the strait, around the clock. What sits in the edge of the leaf decides the work and the work decides the number, which is settled on the phone with the $89 visit and any late hour already inside it. It reads the same on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, a rebuilt bronze case covered the same as a new lock.