Gilroy neighborhood · 24/7
Old Gilroy and the east side: bungalows with deep porches, original hardware, and a garage down the side drive
The older grid east of the centre toward the tracks: bungalows and cottages from the 1920s to the 1940s on narrow lots, deep front porches, mature shade trees, and a detached garage at the end of a side driveway. Ten minutes from the van.
: ", CA"} — ~10 Min Arrival, 24/7
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
The hardware here is the oldest residential stock in town and a lot of it is still original. Knob sets and mortise cases from before the war, painted over repeatedly, with strikes screwed into trim rather than framing because that is how they were fitted. None of that is a fault by itself, and a repin at $25 to $41 a cylinder often leaves you better off than a replacement would. What does need attention is the strike: a bolt that only catches the trim gives you a door that closes and does not hold, and moving it into solid framing is part of a visit rather than a purchase.
The detached garage is the second half of every job on these streets. It sits at the end of a side driveway, usually with a hasp and a padlock or a cylinder that has been outdoors since the sixties, and it is where the tools live. For anybody working a trade out of this neighbourhood, that padlock at half past five is the difference between making the site and not making it. Replacing an outdoor lock is $112 to $279 and it is worth doing on a quiet afternoon rather than in the dark.
The commonest piece of work on the east side is bringing the house, the garage and the side gate onto one key. It is $25 to $41 per cylinder, with the second and third at the low end because the van is already at the kerb, and on a house where three separate keys have accumulated over three owners it takes under an hour. Worth doing when you buy, when a tenant changes, or simply when you count the keys that exist and cannot account for all of them.
Early calls dominate here. The east side is where a lot of the town's trades live, so the phone runs between half four and half six: a door shut behind somebody carrying a coffee, a key snapped in a cold cylinder, a padlock that will not open with the truck already loaded. A house lockout is $119 to $209 with $40 for the early window, which is the same as an evening and less than the $70 after midnight.
Give the street and the nearest cross street, and say which opening: the front door, the back door, the detached garage down the drive, or the side gate. If a key has been needing force for a while, say so — that changes what the technician brings up the path.
Most requested in Old Gilroy & the east side
FAQ
Asked about Old Gilroy & the east side
My house still has its original locks. Replace them?+
Usually not. Pre-war mortise and knob sets on these streets are heavier and better made than most of what would replace them at the same price, and a repin at $25 to $41 retires every old key while keeping the lock. What is worth changing is the strike, which on a house of this age is often screwed into trim rather than framing, and that is part of the visit.
The padlock on my garage will not open and my tools are inside.+
Ordinary call, and a common one at this hour. It gets cut and replaced on the same visit, with a lock built for outdoor use rather than the cheapest one on the shelf. If it has been getting reluctant for a while, that was the warning, and dealing with it on a quiet afternoon costs a fraction of a call-out before a shift.
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.