Short answer: The time to think about your locks is not the day after something goes wrong. This is a practical, no-scare-tactics look at which hardware upgrades genuinely slow down a forced entry, why the frame usually fails before the lock does, and the smart first move to make when you take over a new place in the Bay Area.
The time to think about your locks is not the day after something goes wrong. This is a practical, no-scare-tactics look at which hardware upgrades genuinely slow down a forced entry, why the frame usually fails before the lock does, and the smart first move to make when you take over a new place in the Bay Area.
Residential deadbolts are commonly sold in three tiers, often labeled by ANSI/BHMA grade, and the difference is real: a higher-grade bolt resists more force, kick-in attempts, and wear over years of daily use. For an exterior door, look for a solid deadbolt with at least a one-inch throw — the length of bolt that actually crosses into the frame — because a bolt that barely engages gives you far less protection than the lock's brand name suggests. Hardware in a stronger tier typically costs somewhere in the range of $30 to $90 at retail, which is a modest gap over a bargain-bin bolt for a meaningful jump in resistance. If you cannot find the grade on the packaging, that absence is itself a hint about where the product sits.
Most forced entries don't defeat the lock — they defeat the wood around it. A door can be split at the jamb while the deadbolt stays perfectly intact, because the short screws in a factory strike plate only bite into the thin trim. The high-value, low-cost upgrade is a reinforced strike plate secured with three-inch screws that reach past the trim into the wall stud, so force is spread into the framing instead of a sliver of molding. It is worth adding that many Bay Area homes have doors that already bind or sit slightly out of square from decades of foundation settling and seismic movement; a door that sticks is often a frame that has shifted, and reinforcing it while you are in there solves two problems at once.
When you move into a home or unit, you have no idea how many working keys are floating around — previous tenants, cleaners, a contractor, an old roommate. Rekeying resets the lock's internal pins so every old key stops working while you keep the existing hardware, and it is almost always cheaper and faster than swapping out the locks entirely. Rekeying a cylinder often falls somewhere around $15 to $40 per lock in parts and labor on top of a service call, depending on the lock and how many you do at once. Choose full replacement instead when the hardware is corroded, badly worn, or you are upgrading to a higher security grade anyway. Renters should confirm their rekey rights with the landlord first, since the lock belongs to the property owner.
Residential deadbolts are commonly sold in three tiers, often labeled by ANSI/BHMA grade, and the difference is real: a higher-grade bolt resists more force, kick-in attempts, and wear over years of daily use. For an exterior door, look for a solid deadbolt with at least a one-inch throw — the length of bolt that actually crosses into the frame — because a bolt that barely engages gives you far less protection than the lock's brand name suggests. Hardware in a stronger tier typically costs somewhere in the range of $30 to $90 at retail, which is a modest gap over a bargain-bin bolt for a meaningful jump in resistance. If you cannot find the grade on the packaging, that absence is itself a hint about where the product sits.
Most forced entries don't defeat the lock — they defeat the wood around it. A door can be split at the jamb while the deadbolt stays perfectly intact, because the short screws in a factory strike plate only bite into the thin trim. The high-value, low-cost upgrade is a reinforced strike plate secured with three-inch screws that reach past the trim into the wall stud, so force is spread into the framing instead of a sliver of molding. It is worth adding that many Bay Area homes have doors that already bind or sit slightly out of square from decades of foundation settling and seismic movement; a door that sticks is often a frame that has shifted, and reinforcing it while you are in there solves two problems at once.
When you move into a home or unit, you have no idea how many working keys are floating around — previous tenants, cleaners, a contractor, an old roommate. Rekeying resets the lock's internal pins so every old key stops working while you keep the existing hardware, and it is almost always cheaper and faster than swapping out the locks entirely. Rekeying a cylinder often falls somewhere around $15 to $40 per lock in parts and labor on top of a service call, depending on the lock and how many you do at once. Choose full replacement instead when the hardware is corroded, badly worn, or you are upgrading to a higher security grade anyway. Renters should confirm their rekey rights with the landlord first, since the lock belongs to the property owner.
Send a request through the site with your location and what you need, and you will get a straight answer and an honest estimate before any work begins.
Request service — tell us what you need and we will reply with a straight answer and an honest estimate.
