Pleasanton neighborhood · 24/7
Mission Park: sixties and seventies frames that have settled, so the bolt now lands on the edge of its hole
Single-story houses from the sixties and early seventies on quiet streets: mature trees, wide driveways, a front entry set back under a porch, and a sliding door onto the patio at the back of nearly every house. Sixteen minutes.
4.9 / 5· 274 reviews from Pleasanton and the Tri-Valley
~16 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Sixty years of ground movement brings most of the calls off these streets, and it never announces itself. A door that used to swing shut and lock with one hand now needs a hip against it, then a shove, then a lift of the handle, and the household adapts so gradually that nobody records it as a fault. What is actually happening is simple: the frame has moved a quarter inch, so the bolt no longer drops into the middle of its hole and lands on the edge of the plate instead. Forcing it works for a year or two, then something gives, usually the strike screws or the bolt. Squaring the leaf and moving the strike is an hour of work and the cheapest visit on this page. If the bolt itself is bent or worn from years of forcing, hardware is $132–$352.
The patio slider is the other door people stop thinking about. On a house of this age the original slider runs on flattened rollers with a latch that hooks rather than bolts, and a door that will not roll properly cannot latch properly either. There is no honest way to price that sight unseen, which is why the range is a range: a new latch and a keeper that lines up sits near the bottom of $132–$352, and replacing the whole hardware set on a wide slider sits near the top. A secondary bolt at the top rail is a small part fitted in the same visit and it does more for a slider than anything else on the list.
Strike plates are the quiet fault on this tract and they are almost free to fix. The original plates went on with two three-quarter inch screws into soft trim, which is fine until somebody leans on the door. Longer screws reaching into the framing behind the jamb cost nothing and go in while the van is there, and on an entry of this age that single change does more than any new cylinder would. Where a door has already been forced, the repair is one visit: the jamb goes back together through to the stud, a strike takes long screws into framing, and a fresh cylinder and a bolt that reaches again go on at $181–$472, with each part on its own line for whoever files the claim.
The ordinary errands here are the same as anywhere else in the city, and the figures do not move for the neighborhood. Repinning is $34–$52 per cylinder with everything after the first at the low end, which is how a house that came with three keys for five doors gets back to one. A house lockout is $134–$255 with the $89 call-out inside it, plus $52 between eight at night and midnight or $94 between midnight and seven in the morning, all of it quoted before the van moves. Sixteen minutes is the real run to these streets. Ninety days on the labor, on the receipt rather than in conversation.
Say whether the door has to be shoved before it locks, because that is a frame and a strike rather than a lock and it decides what comes off the van. If it is the patio slider, say whether it rolls freely and whether the latch hooks or bolts. For a repin, count the outside doors and gates first, including the garage service door.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Mission Park
The front door has to be pushed hard before the key will turn. Is the lock failing?+
Usually the lock is the innocent part. The frame has settled far enough that the bolt is landing on the edge of its hole instead of dropping into it, so the door has to be held in exactly the right place for the cylinder to turn. Squaring the leaf and moving the strike fixes it, and long screws go into the framing behind the jamb while the van is there. If the bolt has been bent by years of forcing, hardware is $132–$352, and you are told which of the two it is with the door open in front of you.
The slider at the back will not lock at all anymore. Does it need a new door?+
Rarely. On a slider of this age the usual chain is flattened rollers, a panel that no longer runs true, and a hooking latch that therefore cannot find its keeper. The latch and keeper come back at the low end of $132–$352, a full hardware set on a wide panel sits near the top, and a bolt at the top rail goes on in the same visit. Say whether the panel still rolls with one hand, because that answer decides most of the price before anybody drives out.
Somebody forced the back door last night. What does that repair involve?+
One visit, and the order matters: the jamb is rebuilt through to the stud first, because a new lock in split wood is decoration. Then a strike with long screws into framing, then a cylinder and a bolt that reaches again. That is $181–$472 with the $89 call-out inside it and each part itemized so an insurer can read it. If you are waiting on the visit, do not keep working the damaged bolt against its keeper — that turns a repair into a door.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Name the door, and say how long since anyone used it
Pleasanton, whatever the hour, every day of the year. An entry in the tracts, a seized gate latch on a hill street, a pool gate, a safe left behind by the last owners, a shop door on Main, a car sitting in the Stoneridge lot — that is what decides the work, and the work decides the figure. You get that figure on this call with the $89 drive and the clock already inside it, and it is the figure on the invoice. Ninety days on the labor, in writing. The van is a few doors off Main.