Cupertino neighborhood · 24/7
Oak Valley, higher up the slope: gates, intercoms, and the one thing on the property that never learned to update itself
The newer streets climbing the western slope: larger houses built to a small set of plans, an entrance gate serving the tract, intercoms at that gate and again at the front door, and driveways that pitch upward from the road. Nineteen minutes from the van.
~19 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
If this site has a single argument, Oak Valley is where it is easiest to see. Everything on one of these properties has quietly modernized without anybody coming out. The intercom became an app. The gate operator took a firmware update in the night. The doorbell started keeping video. The thermostat rewrote its own schedule after a week of watching the house. Not one of those needed a van at the curb. The deadbolt in the front door did not get any of it, and it never will, because a bolt is a piece of metal that has to be cut and fitted by somebody standing in front of the door. That is not a complaint about the technology. It is just the part of the house that still runs on a visit.
The boundary here gets stated early because it saves wasted trips. The cylinder, the padlock, the lock on a pedestrian gate, the strike and the keeper are ours. The motor on a powered gate, the loop buried in the driveway, the safety edge and the wiring behind the pillar are a different trade, and we say so instead of driving out to look. Where a powered gate has died with the power, almost every operator has a manual release, and finding and using it is the first move rather than the last. If your gate has a keyed pedestrian leaf beside it, mention that, because it is usually the quickest way onto the property.
The common openings are their own conversation. Where a gate, a mail room or a pool building serves a group of houses, the request has to come from whoever is responsible for them, and master key systems and access control are both quoted after the openings are walked and counted on site. There is a reason for that beyond caution: the count of doors, the state of each frame and what already sits in them decide the number, and none of the three can be established over the phone. What can be given on the phone is what a walk-through costs and how long it takes.
Inside the house the doors are modern and cooperative, which is a relief after the flat part of town. Bores are standard, so a keypad lock generally goes on without surgery at the low end of $199 to $495, and the sensible request is a code for the housekeeper or the dog walker that can be retired the day the arrangement ends. Keep a working keyway underneath it. A house lockout is $135 to $245, repinning is $29 to $47 a cylinder, and nineteen minutes is the honest run up the slope, said before you decide to wait for it.
Say where exactly you are stopped: the tract entrance gate, a pedestrian gate, your own front door, or a side door off the driveway. Say whether the gate is powered and whether it has any power at all right now. If a code is needed to get the van in, have it ready or have somebody who can open the gate on the phone.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Oak Valley
There is a gate at the entrance to the tract. How does the van get in to reach me?+
Either you give the technician a code or the entry number to call, or somebody meets the van at the gate. Sort it out on the call rather than at nineteen minutes past, because a van sitting outside a gate is the single commonest way an arrival window gets missed. If a keyed pedestrian gate stands beside the vehicle gate, say so, since that is often the simplest route.
The power went out and the driveway gate will not move. Can you open it?+
Usually, and without forcing it. Nearly every operator has a manual release designed for exactly this, and locating and using it is the first thing tried. What we do not touch is the motor, the loop or the wiring: that belongs to the gate company, and you will be told that on the phone rather than after a call-out fee.
Everything else in this house is on an app. Why is the lock still a house call?+
Because it is the only part of the house that has to be physically cut, fitted and aligned to a specific door. Software reaches your thermostat down a wire. A bolt has to meet a hole in a frame within a millimeter or two, and no update can move a strike. That is why a lock still means a van, a key machine and somebody standing at your step, and it is the whole reason this business exists.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say the year the house was built, and the rest of the call is short
Cupertino and the west valley, every hour of the day. The age of the door decides the work and the work decides the figure, so the number comes back on the call with the $89 service call and the hour already inside it, and it is the number on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing.