A locksmith whose rate before you commit.

Estuary Lock & Key is a mobile locksmith for Oakland and the inner East Bay, named for the channel where the Port cranes stand and the city meets Alameda. There is no shop, because the work happens at the door, the car or the storefront. The van carries what Oakland doors actually take: mortise parts and rim locks for Craftsman and Victorian houses in Rockridge and Temescal, aluminum deadlatches and hookbolts for Telegraph and International storefronts, strike plates and jamb reinforcement for the flats, keypad locks for rentals near Lake Merritt, exit devices for warehouse and studio doors in West Oakland, and the blanks and programmers for most cars parked at the Coliseum or the airport. Calls are answered 24/7, nights, weekends and holidays included.

The pricing is built to be added up in your head. Every job begins with an $89 service call that is applied toward the work, so it never sits on the receipt as a separate charge. Lockouts, rekeys, replacements, smart locks and car keys are quoted from a published range, and the exact figure for your job is set on the call and locked. Evening arrivals between 8pm and midnight add $35, overnight arrivals between midnight and 7am add $70, and both are stated inside the total before anyone rolls. Master key systems and access control get a written, itemized quote after a walk-through. Once you approve the number, it holds through the receipt.

Coverage runs the length of the city. Downtown, Jack London Square and Lake Merritt see the van fastest, at 15 and 16 minutes. West Oakland, Temescal and Piedmont Avenue sit around 18, Rockridge and Fruitvale around 20, Laurel and Dimond around 22, and Montclair and the streets above Hwy 13 closer to 28 because of the grades. Across all 78 square miles the average is 24 minutes. Emeryville, Alameda, Piedmont, Berkeley and San Leandro are covered at the same rates, and for those addresses the arrival window given on the call is the number to plan around.