Daly City neighborhood · 24/7
Serramonte: a 1963 tract on a former dairy ranch, a later generation of hardware, and 860,000 square feet of shopping center in the middle of it
The neighborhood the Gellert brothers' company began building in 1963 on ranch land at the Colma edge of the city, with the shopping center that opened in 1968 at its center. Later houses, wider frontages, and doors bored to sizes that modern locks recognize. Twenty-four minutes from the van.
~24 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Fifteen years separate these houses from the tract at the other end of the city, and fifteen years is a long time in door hardware. Doors here were hung when the bore sizes and backsets current locks are built around had largely settled, so a deadbolt bought this afternoon generally goes into a Serramonte door this evening without anybody enlarging anything. Smart lock installation lands at the low end of $189 to $479 more often here than anywhere else on this map, so quotes in this neighborhood tend to be short conversations. Give the year of the house on the phone and the range narrows before anybody drives out.
The garage is still the door the household uses, but it behaves differently. Two-car openings, sectional doors on powered openers, and a service door in the side wall are common, and that side door is where the neglect collects. The powered door gets attention because it makes noise and because somebody in the house has an app for it. The service door in the side wall never asks for anything, so on most of these properties it is still wearing the cylinder the tract was finished with, on a key that predates everyone currently living there. Bringing it onto the house key is one more cylinder at $29 to $46 and the cheapest useful thing to do to one of these houses.
What we do not do here is the powered part. The motor, the rail, the safety sensors and the wiring behind them belong to a garage door company, and hearing that on the phone saves you a wasted call-out. The cylinder, the service door, the strike, the padlock on a side gate and the whole keying scheme are ours. Where a powered door has died with a household standing outside, the release cord inside it is checked first if it can be reached, and more often the quicker route is simply the service door in the side wall.
Then there is the center. Roughly 860,000 square feet of retail with parking to match generates its own daily workload: keys locked in a running car, a fob that stopped being recognized, a spare key that never existed. A car lockout is $105 to $199, fob programming is $95 to $199, a replacement key cut and coded at the vehicle is $155 to $419, and ignition work runs $185 to $459. Give the nearest store entrance and the row rather than the name of the center, because the name does not narrow anything down. Evening calls add $50, overnight adds $90, and the workmanship carries ninety days.
For a house, say roughly when it was built and whether the door that stopped you is the service door at the side of the garage or the main entrance. For a car, give the nearest store entrance, the row, and the make, model, year and color, and say whether any working key still exists. If the powered garage door itself is the problem, say so, because part of that is not our trade.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Serramonte
Will a keypad lock fit a house of this era without work on the door?+
In most cases yes, and there are few places on this map where that answer can be given honestly. A house from 1963 onward was bored to dimensions current locks still use, so the unit generally seats without anything being opened up. Two things are still looked at: whether the leaf has dropped on its hinges, and whether the keeper is screwed into the stud behind the jamb rather than into trim. A code cannot compensate for either. With neither to correct, you are at the bottom of $189 to $479.
The garage door opener has died and we are standing outside. Is that a locksmith job?+
Partly. The motor, the rail and the sensors are a garage door company's work, and you get told that on the phone instead of paying for somebody to come and look at them. What we can do is get you inside through the service door in the side wall at $129 to $239, or pull the release cord on the powered door where it can be reached from outside. Describe which doors your garage actually has and the answer arrives within a minute.
My only key is locked in the car at the shopping center. What do you need from me?+
The store entrance you are nearest, the row, and the make, model, year and color, plus identification and something showing the car is yours. A lockout is $105 to $199 and the vehicle is opened without damage in the row it is parked in. If no key exists at all, one is cut and coded beside the car at $155 to $419, which takes longer, so say that on the call rather than when the technician arrives.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say which door you are standing at and the call gets short
Daly City and the north Peninsula, every hour of the day. The door decides the work and the work decides the number, so the figure comes back on the call with the $89 call-out and the hour already inside it, and it is the figure on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing.