Pricing
Sixteen jobs, four hours of the day, nothing held back.
All sixteen jobs and their ranges are on this page, and so is the hour. Say what time it is and what happened, and the range closes to one figure on the call with the hour already counted in. A range here is the whole spread for that work across the valley floor, and the table at the bottom of this page shows what each of the four hours does to it.
Emergency Locksmith
OverviewResidential Locksmith
OverviewCommercial Locksmith
OverviewAutomotive Locksmith
OverviewThe same job, four hours of the day
What the clock does to six common jobs
Each figure below is the bottom of that job's published range with the hour already counted in, the way you would hear it on the call. Early morning is $40, the evening is the same $40, and only after midnight does it become $70.
| Job | 4am–7am | 7am–8pm | 8pm–12am | 12am–4am |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House lockout | $159 | $119 | $159 | $189 |
| Car lockout | $139 | $99 | $139 | $169 |
| Business lockout | $175 | $135 | $175 | $205 |
| Lock replacement | $152 | $112 | $152 | $182 |
| Car key replacement | $195 | $155 | $195 | $225 |
| Key fob programming | $129 | $89 | $129 | $159 |
The $89 visit sits inside every one of these figures and is never added underneath. The numbers above are the floor of each range; where a door turns out to be more work than described, the figure lands higher inside the published range and you hear it before anybody drives out, not afterwards.
Why a range
A range is wide because the hour is inside it
The same door at half past five and at two in the afternoon is two different figures, and that is stated rather than buried. Here is the cut, in the order it gets settled on the call.
The hour you call
On this site the clock is the first question rather than the last. Four to seven in the morning adds $40, eight in the evening to midnight adds the same $40, and only midnight to four adds $70. Whatever the hour, it is folded into the figure before you agree to anything, so no line appears at the door.
Which door it actually is
A front deadbolt, a garage service door, a padlocked yard gate and a personnel door beside a roll-up bay are four different amounts of work wearing one name. Say which one stopped you and most of the range disappears in a sentence.
What state the hardware is in
A builder knob set from 1992 and a mortise case from 1938 behave differently under the same tools, and an outdoor lock that has taken twenty summers of dust behaves differently again. Older is not automatically dearer; worn is.
Saved or replaced
A key that needs force is often a cylinder wanting a strip and clean, or a strike that has moved and can simply be repositioned — both part of the visit rather than a purchase. Where a lock is genuinely finished it gets replaced at $112 to $279, and you hear which one yours is with the reason.
FAQ
What people ask about the bill
Do you really come out at five in the morning?+
Every day, and it is the busiest window on this site rather than a favour. The early tier runs from four to seven and carries $40 on top, which is the same as an evening job and less than the $70 an overnight one carries. Half this town is awake and working at that hour, so pricing it as a panic call would be dishonest. The figure is said on the call with the hour already inside it.
Why is early morning cheaper than the middle of the night?+
Because they are different things. A call at one in the morning wakes somebody up. A call at half past five reaches a van that is already out, on a road with traffic on it, in a town where the working day has started. Charging both as if they were the same would be charging you for our inconvenience rather than for the work. Four to seven is $40, midnight to four is $70.
Can one key open the house, the shop and the side gate?+
Yes, and it is the most common job here. The locks stay on the doors and take new pins, which retires every key handed out before today. It is $25 to $41 per cylinder, and the second and third sit at the low end because the van is already at your kerb. Worth doing when you buy, when a crew changes, when a tenant moves out, or simply when you count the keys that exist and cannot account for all of them.
My key snapped off in the lock on a cold morning. Is the lock finished?+
Usually not. The broken half comes out of the keyway wherever the cylinder allows, and often the lock is fine afterwards. What matters is what happened before: a key that has needed force for weeks is a lock telling you something, and dealing with it in daylight is $25 to $41 for a repin against $119 to $209 for an extraction at half five with you standing outside.
We just bought a house here. What should actually get done?+
Three things, in this order. Change any keypad codes, which costs nothing and takes two minutes, because the code you were handed has been through a builder, an agent and everyone they let in. Rekey the metal locks so the keys from that same list stop working, at $25 to $41 per cylinder with everything brought onto one key. Then look at whether any exterior door is running on a latch alone, which on the older east-side houses is common; a proper deadbolt there is $112 to $279 and it is the only part of this we will mention twice.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say the hour and what stopped you, hear the figure, get to work on time
Gilroy plus San Martin, Hollister, Aromas, San Juan Bautista and Watsonville, around the clock, every day. Four to seven in the morning costs what an evening costs and less than a night, and whatever hour it is, the number comes back on the call with the $89 visit already inside it — and it is the number on the receipt.