Martinez neighborhood · 24/7
Vine Hill: fifties and sixties streets running north to the strait, where the call comes at four in the morning as readily as at four in the afternoon
The postwar streets on the north side of town, running toward the water: single-story houses on flat lots, wide driveways, a service door in the side of the garage, and households a good many of which work to a shift rota rather than to office hours. Nineteen minutes from the van.
~19 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
The clock matters more on these streets than anywhere else on the map, so the arithmetic is printed rather than implied. A daytime figure is the daytime figure between 7am and 8pm. Arrival between 8pm and midnight adds $45 and between midnight and 7am adds $85, and both are counted into the number before you agree to it. A house lockout said as $150 in the afternoon is said as $195 at ten at night and $235 at two in the morning, and that is the figure on the card. Nothing is added at the door for the hour, and a job booked for six in the morning ahead of a shift is charged at the ordinary rate because six in the morning is a working hour here.
The hardware is a generation younger than downtown and that is good news for the wait. These doors were bored for a cylinder rather than mortised for a case, at sizes the van carries as a matter of course, so a replacement is an hour rather than a morning and a keypad lock at $185 to $459 usually lands near the low end of that range. What still gets checked before anything is screwed down is the leaf and the strike, because a house that has stood on flat ground for sixty-odd years has settled on its hinges, and a bolt that needs the door lifted before it will throw is telling you about the door and not about the lock.
Long ownership is the second local fact. Families here have held the same address for decades and the key ring shows it: a handful of keys of which two open nothing anybody can name and one belongs to a garage that was rebuilt. A rekey at $27 to $44 per cylinder ends that, and the count on one of these lots is short and predictable — front, garage service door, back door, yard gate, now and then a shed. Four openings keyed alike goes out as one figure with the visit already inside it, and the old keys come back in a bag so you can count them against what you thought you had.
Lockouts here have a shape worth mentioning on the call. On these lots the service door in the side of the garage is generally the least intrusive way in, so it gets tried before the front, and a house lockout is $125 to $229 either way. Where a household runs on a rota and somebody is asleep behind the door at odd hours, say so, because it changes how the technician approaches the house rather than what it costs. Ninety days on the labor, printed rather than implied, with the maker standing behind the part.
Say which door stopped you: the front, the service door at the side of the garage, the back, or a yard gate. If somebody in the house sleeps days because of a shift, mention it. And if you want doors keyed alike, count them before you call so one figure covers the property instead of the front door alone.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Vine Hill
Does an early morning call cost extra?+
From 7am, no. The overnight addition of $85 covers midnight to 7am and the evening addition of $45 covers 8pm to midnight, and both are inside the figure you hear on the phone. A door dealt with at half past six ahead of a shift is charged at the daytime rate. Weekends and public holidays run at ordinary daytime figures as well.
The deadbolt only throws if I lift the door. Is the lock finished?+
Almost certainly not. Sixty years of settling drops the leaf a few millimeters, the bolt stops meeting the middle of its keeper, and the lock takes the blame for a carpentry problem. Tightening hinge screws into fresh bite and moving the strike is part of an ordinary visit rather than a purchase. If the cylinder itself turns out to be worn, you hear that with the plate off and get the figure before anything changes.
Will a keypad lock go straight onto a door on this street?+
On most of them, yes, and this is one of the few parts of Martinez where that can be said honestly. These doors were bored to sizes current hardware is built around, so the work is fitting rather than surgery and the figure sits near the bottom of $185 to $459. The metal override key is cut at the van the same day, because a blank in a drawer is no use at eleven at night.
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.