Non-destructive entry first, always - and we re-key Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin locks on the spot while you watch
You get a price before we start. It does not change when we arrive. No surprises.
Fast, Reliable Change Door Locks Across San Anselmo
If you need to Change Door Locks in San Anselmo, you’re likely dealing with hardware that wasn’t designed for the way we live now: a new move-in, a tenant turnover, or simply an old lock that’s finally given up. Dunmore Locksmith serves San Anselmo homeowners with a team that understands the town’s vintage housing stock, its creek-side flood zones, and the salt air that works on metal year-round. We quote a written price before any work begins, and we answer the phone with a live person every time you call, any hour of the day or night. Reach us at (910) 714-4287 for a free estimate.
Why Dunmore Locksmith Is San Anselmo’s Preferred Change Door Locks Company
San Anselmo isn’t a cookie-cutter suburb, and the lock work here isn’t either. Most of the homes we enter along streets like Tunstead Avenue, Crescent Road, and the blocks flanking San Anselmo Creek were built between 1895 and 1940. That means original mortise locksets, skeleton-key cylinders, and doors that don’t tolerate modern deadbolt retrofits without some skill. Our technicians see this weekly, not occasionally. Led by Perry Osgood, our team trains on period hardware specifically because San Anselmo demands it.
Every Dunmore Locksmith technician arrives background-checked, identity-verified, and photo-badged, sent to you by name and photo before the visit. That’s the Threshold Standard, and it exists so you know exactly who is at your door before you turn the handle. If someone shows up you weren’t told to expect, that visit is covered at no charge. We’ve operated under the Threshold Group umbrella since 2007, and our San Francisco Bay Area office coordinates dispatch; crews serve San Anselmo locally. Call (910) 714-4287 and you’ll speak to a human.
Door Lock Installation in San Anselmo
Door Lock Installation in San Anselmo usually means one of two things: replacing a deadbolt on a modern or postwar door, or retrofitting something into a pre-1940 door with dimensions that were never meant for modern hardware. The latter is far more common in this town than in neighboring San Rafael. In San Anselmo, a standard deadbolt installation typically runs $95 to $185 including hardware, while fitting a lock onto an older door that needs custom prep or a mortise-to-cylinder conversion runs $180 to $340.
Working With Period Door Prep
Many San Anselmo bungalows have doors under 1 3/8 inches thick, with backsets that don’t match today’s off-the-shelf deadbolts. We carry adapters, extended tailpieces, and reinforced strike hardware to make a modern lock sit correctly without butchering the door.
Fresh Move-In Standard
If you’ve just bought a house between the downtown corridor and the Seminary area, we recommend a full exterior lock change, not just a rekey. You don’t know who holds copies of the old keys. We’ll swap every exterior cylinder and hand you a single set of new keys for the whole house.
Patio Door Lock Change in San Anselmo
Patio Door Lock Change in San Anselmo tends to be driven by two forces: old aluminum sliding doors on hillside decks and salt-air corrosion on everything that faces west or gets morning fog off the coastal range. The lock itself is often fine; the strike, the keeper, or the sliding mechanism has worn or corroded. In San Anselmo, a patio door lock replacement on a standard sliding or French door typically runs $110 to $210, while a multi-point or mortise-style patio lock repair runs $160 to $280 depending on what has to be disassembled.
Sliding Door Tension and Alignment
Hillside settling is real in San Anselmo, and it throws sliding patio doors out of alignment just enough that the lock hook misses the keeper. We adjust the rollers, shim the strike, and replace the lock body so the door actually latches instead of pretending to.
Corrosion-Resistant Replacement Hardware
For patio doors that face the fog or sit near the creek, we fit marine-grade stainless keepers, strikes, and lock bodies. They cost a bit more up front and last years longer in this specific climate. We’ve pulled apart too many pitted, white-corroded patio locks in the Fairfax hillsides and downtown creek corridor to recommend anything less.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Anselmo
We’re factory-authorized to install and service Schlage, Kwikset, Medeco, Yale, Baldwin, Mul-T-Lock, Sargent, and Abloy hardware. For San Anselmo customers that means we stock the parts local homes actually use: Kwikset cylinders for postwar infill houses, Baldwin mortise locksets for the period homes along Kensington and Madrone, and Yale and Medeco for deadbolts that hold up to the San Anselmo climate better than bargain brands. If you’ve got an original Baldwin lock on your front door and want to keep it, we can rebuild it rather than replace it.
Common Change Door Locks Problems We See in San Anselmo Homes
- Silt-seized mortise locks along the creek corridor. When San Anselmo Creek floods, fine silt and mud get pushed into door hardware on low-lying homes near downtown. The bolt mechanism binds, the key grinds, and eventually the cylinder fails. We disassemble, clean, lubricate, and replace the strike with a stainless marine-grade plate that won’t rust in the next flood cycle.
- Salt-air corrosion on exterior padlocks and door hardware. Homes on the western hills and the antique-district storefronts along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard get seasonal marine fog. Pitted keyways, seized springs, and broken pin-and-tumbler cylinders are standard. We swap in stainless or marine-grade hardware where the old stuff has failed.
- Misaligned strikes from creek-side foundation movement. The silt-rich soil near San Anselmo Creek shifts, and it pulls door frames out of square. A lock that worked fine in July doesn’t latch in February after the rains. We correct the door alignment, reset the strike, and make sure the deadbolt actually throws into the jamb reinforcement.
- Original mortise lock cylinders that no one else will touch. Many San Anselmo lock changes start with a call to another shop that says “just drill it out.” That’s not how we work. We rekey, rebuild, and restore original mortise cylinders whenever the hardware is salvageable, because saving your vintage brass escutcheon is part of what makes a San Anselmo home look right.
Pricing for Change Door Locks in San Anselmo, CA
A standard deadbolt lock change in San Anselmo runs $95 to $185 including basic hardware, with a written quote delivered before any work starts. Rekeying a standard knob lock (changing the internal pins so your old keys no longer work) typically runs $65 to $120 per lock for the first lock, and less for each additional lock at the same visit. Mortise lock rebuilds on period homes run $160 to $340. Patio door lock changes run $110 to $280 depending on the lock type and what’s failed. What you’ll get from us every time is a flat, written price before the first tool comes out, no call-out surcharge on arrival, and the same number on the invoice as on the quote. Call (910) 714-4287 for your free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Anselmo
Our San Anselmo service area runs through the Ross Valley and beyond. We regularly handle Change Door Locks jobs in Fairfax, Kentfield, San Rafael, and Larkspur. Give us a call and we’ll have a technician out to your neighborhood, wherever you are in central Marin.
Serving San Anselmo, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Anselmo area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Change Door Locks in San Anselmo
Yes, and that’s most of what we do in San Anselmo. We disassemble the mortise lock body, rekey or replace the cylinder, and keep your original faceplate, escutcheon, and knob as they are. If the body itself is beyond repair, we can fit a modern mortise cassette into the existing pocket without enlarging the door prep. Your door keeps its period hardware and you get a lock that actually turns. Call (910) 714-4287 and tell us what you’ve got; we’ll walk you through the options.
Get it serviced before you have to call us at 2 a.m. for an entry. Silt from San Anselmo Creek works into the pin and tumbler assembly and the bolt track, causing friction that eventually snaps a key or seizes the cylinder. We’ll remove the lock, flush out the silt, lubricate with a graphite or PTFE dry lube that won’t hold grime, and replace the strike with a stainless one if the old steel has rusted. Most flood-damaged locks are recoverable if you address them within a season. Call (910) 714-4287 for an inspection.
We can, and we do it regularly for San Anselmo homeowners who want to keep the original brass hardware on their Victorian or Craftsman front door. The skeleton-key cylinder gets new internal wafers or levers and we cut new skeleton keys on-site, so the lock works like it did in 1920. The only time we can’t rekey an antique lock is if the body is cracked or the keyway is corroded beyond saving; in that case, we’ll show you what’s happened and give you a written quote for a rebuild before we do anything. Call (910) 714-4287 to talk it through.
Yes, but we’re straightforward about what works and what doesn’t. On a pre-1940 door with a thin slab and a mortise prep, a smart deadbolt can sometimes be fitted with an adapter plate and a long tailpiece, but it may not clear your original trim. We’ll measure the door prep and the backset before recommending a specific model. For most San Anselmo homes, a modern smart lock on the back door or a patio door makes more sense than fighting the front door’s period hardware. Call (910) 714-4287 for an honest assessment, not a sales pitch.
Usually it’s alignment, corrosion, or both. Hillside settling on properties in the Terra Linda and Butterfield corridor pulls sliding door frames out of square, so the lock hook misses the keeper. Add salt air and fog from the coastal range, and the moving parts inside the lock body wear faster than they should. We fix this by resetting the door alignment, replacing the keeper and striker, and fitting a corrosion-resistant lock body when the old one is done. A patio door lock that actually latches is a solved problem in one visit. Call (910) 714-4287 for a written quote.
Dunmore Locksmith serves San Anselmo with honest written prices, named and photo-verified technicians, and a 365-day guarantee on every repair. The 365-Day Done Right Promise means that if a lock change we performed fails within a year, we come back and make it right at no charge. Every phone call is answered by a live person, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you’re ready to change the locks on your San Anselmo home, call (910) 714-4287 and we’ll get you a free, written estimate before anyone is dispatched.
Written by Perry Osgood, Owner at Dunmore Locksmith, serving San Anselmo since 2007.