San Mateo neighborhood · 24/7
Locksmith work around the mall and the Caltrain stop at Hillsdale, for the apartment complexes on El Camino and 31st Ave and the 1950s houses behind them
The district the company is named for: the shopping center, the elevated Caltrain station, apartment complexes along El Camino Real and 31st Ave, and blocks of single-story houses built in the 1950s on the streets between them.
15 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Fifteen minutes is the shortest arrival on the map because the van is often already in the district. The apartment complexes along El Camino Real and 31st Ave split into two kinds. The garden complexes from the 1960s and 70s have carports, a mailbox bank in a breezeway and a knob set on every unit door; a rekey there is $24 to $40 per cylinder and the mailbox cam comes along for a few dollars. The newer blocks near the station have a lobby fob and a lever set on the unit, and the lockout is $112 to $195 either way. Say the complex name and the building letter, since the leasing office is where a street address lands the technician by default.
The side streets are stucco houses from the 1950s: an attached garage, a kitchen door onto the yard, a sliding door onto the patio and a front door that got a deadbolt in 1985. Those houses change hands now, and the sensible first visit is a rekey of every cylinder onto one key, kitchen and garage side door included. Where the kitchen door has only a knob, a deadbolt above it is a lock replacement at $112 to $305 per door, and the strike gets screws that reach the framing. Sliding doors get a secondary lock rather than a new latch. Lockouts on these blocks are $112 to $195 and start at a self-latching side gate more often than at the front.
The mall structure and the station lot bring the car work. A car lockout is $97 to $167, and the structure needs a level and the nearest store entrance to find the car; the lot needs the row. The structure gates after the stores close, and if the car is inside at that hour the technician goes in on foot with the case, which is planned on the call. Fob programming is $77 to $182 and a replacement key for a car that has none is $142 to $395, both done beside the car. The $89 service call is inside every figure and it is written on the work order before the van pulls out.
For an apartment, give the complex name and the building letter rather than the street number alone. For a car in the structure, name the level and the store entrance nearest the car, and say whether the entrance ramps are still open.
Nearby
A few blocks over, the same van
FAQ
What people ask before the figure is written down
How long until the van reaches my part of San Mateo?+
Twenty-three minutes is the average across the city, which is flat between El Camino Real and the bay and only about twelve square miles. The streets around the mall and its Caltrain stop are usually 15, Downtown and Central Park 17, Bay Meadows 17, North Central 19, Baywood and Aragon 23, San Mateo Park 24, Shoreview and Coyote Point 26. Sugarloaf and Laurelwood, up the winding streets above Highway 92, run about 30 and are the longest in the city. Burlingame is about 24, Belmont 26, Foster City 28, Hillsborough 28 and Millbrae 30. The thirty-minute window texted with the technician's name is built on the roads at that minute, not on the average.
Is there a different figure at night, on a weekend or on a holiday?+
Weekends and holidays are charged at daytime figures. Arrival between 8pm and midnight adds $45, and arrival between midnight and 7am adds $75. Both are written inside the figure on the call. A $112 house lockout is therefore $157 in the evening and $187 overnight, and that is the number on the work order, not a daytime number with an addition produced at the door.
What goes into the written figure, and what could change it?+
The $89 service call, the labor, the parts fitted, and any evening or overnight hour, combined into one number on the work order before you decide. Distance, stairs, a gated driveway, a buzzer panel or a parking level do not alter it. The only addition is a second job you ask for once the technician is there, such as rekeying the rest of the house after a lockout. That is written as its own line and started only after you say yes.
Will my lock be drilled?+
Only after non-destructive methods have been tried and you have agreed. Apartment cylinders, residential deadbolts, the mortise sets in the older houses, aluminum storefront hardware, and most car doors open with picks, decoders, bypass tools or an air wedge and keep working afterwards. Drilling comes up when a cylinder is high-security, already damaged, or seized by a snapped key or corrosion. In that case the technician explains the mechanism, names the replacement part and its cost, and the total stays at the figure on the work order.
What proof is asked for before a door or a car is opened?+
For a house, townhome 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. Without one of those the lock stays shut, which is the same rule that protects your own door.
I live in a Bay Meadows tower with a fob, a buzzer panel and an HOA. How does that work?+
Say so on the call. The technician needs a way past the lobby and the garage gate, so either meet the van at the entrance or have the panel buzz it through. The apartment door itself is opened, rekeyed or fitted with a new lock the same way as any other. Fobs for the building are issued by the HOA or the management company, not cut on a van, so if that is what you have lost, the call will say so before anyone drives over. For hardware on the unit door, check the HOA's finish and style rules first; most allow a keypad deadbolt in a matching finish, and the receipt describes the work in a line the board can file.
Our Baywood house still has its 1930s mortise lock. Should it be replaced?+
Usually not. The mortise sets in Baywood, Aragon and San Mateo Park were made to be serviced: the case comes out, the springs and levers are cleaned and re-tensioned, the cylinder is rekeyed, and the whole thing goes back into the same pocket. Worn latches and strikes are replaced without touching the door face. When a case is truly worn through, a modern mortise body is sized to the existing pocket so the original brass plate and knob stay. The side gates on these houses are a separate matter and often just need a proper deadbolt. Which route applies is decided at the door, with the figure written down beforehand either way.
Do you come into the Caltrain lots, the downtown garages and the mall structure?+
Yes. Car lockouts, key cutting and fob programming are done in all three Caltrain lots, the downtown garages off 3rd and 4th Ave, the mall parking structure, the garages under the Bay Meadows buildings and the lot at Coyote Point. Say which lot, which level and roughly where the car sits. For a gated garage, have someone able to let the van in or meet it at the gate. On a busy Saturday the mall structure is honestly slower, and the window you receive by text will reflect that. The figure does not change for any of it.
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one figure on the work order, the same figure on the receipt
Calls answered 24/7 across San Mateo and the towns beside it. The $89 service call, the labor and the parts are inside the number written down on the call, and the receipt matches it line for line.