Walnut Creek neighborhood · 24/7
Walnut Heights locksmith for the 1950s ranch houses off Walnut Blvd, where the hardware is as old as the trees over the street
Single-story ranch houses from the 1950s under mature walnut and oak, many with their first set of hardware still on the doors and one family in the deed for decades.
4.9 / 5· 187 reviews from Walnut Creek & the Diablo Valley
14 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
South of downtown off Walnut Blvd, the streets are quiet, the lots are deep and a good share of the houses are on their original hardware. That means a solid brass knob set with a small key, a deadbolt added sometime in the 1970s, and on a few of the older doors a mortise case set into the edge with one long faceplate. None of it is junk. What it is, is sixty years of paint, dried grease and a door that has settled a quarter inch, so the bolt binds and the key needs a particular lift to turn. Servicing that hardware in place is priced in the $109 to $295 replacement range and usually lands near the bottom of it, because cleaning a case and moving a strike is cheaper than new brass. Replacement is the answer only when a case is cracked or the cylinder comes from a maker with no parts left in the world.
The other steady job is the handover. A house that has been in one family since the 1960s eventually sells or passes to the next generation, and nobody can say how many keys exist. A rekey at $23 to $39 per cylinder covers the front, the kitchen door onto the patio, the laundry room and the garage side door, all on one key. Sellers and estate attorneys sometimes want the work described in writing, and the itemized receipt carries a line for that. Long-time owners also ask about a second bolt above an original set, which is fine as long as the bore is measured clear of the existing pocket first. Arrival is about fourteen minutes, and daytime is easy here because most calls are planned rather than urgent.
Say if the front door has a mortise case or a small old-fashioned key rather than a modern deadbolt, so the right cylinders and springs are on the van the first time instead of the second.
Nearby
Also on the van route
FAQ
Asked about Walnut Heights
Why is Walnut Heights quoted at fourteen minutes?+
It is a short run south from the middle of town down Walnut Blvd with only a couple of lights on it. The figure holds through most of the day. The exception is the late afternoon, when traffic backs up toward the freeway, and that shows up in the half-hour window you are texted rather than as a surprise at the door.
My bolt only turns if I lift the handle. Is the lock failing?+
More often it is the door. Sixty years of settling drops the leaf a few millimeters and the bolt stops meeting the strike squarely, so the lock takes the blame for a carpentry problem. Moving the strike, easing the mortise and cleaning the case usually cures it, and that work lands at the bottom of the replacement range.
A house here is being sold. What is worth doing before the keys change hands?+
A rekey of everything a key opens: the front, the kitchen door onto the patio, the laundry room and the garage side door, all pinned alike. On a house held by one family for decades nobody can honestly count the copies in circulation. The itemized receipt names each cylinder, which is the line an estate attorney tends to ask for.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
One call, one whole number, anywhere in the valley
Calls answered 24/7. The visit, the labor and the parts are inside the figure you hear, and that figure is the one on the receipt. Ninety days on the workmanship.