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 Lock Installation & Rekey Across Los Gatos
Lock rekeying in Los Gatos typically runs $25-$45 per cylinder, and a standard lockset installation lands between $150-$350 before hardware. A new smart lock install, which is one of the most common calls we handle in the 95030 and 95032 zip codes, usually falls between $250-$500 for the labor when the existing door prep is standard. We quote the full price on the phone before a technician is dispatched, and that price is the price on the invoice. No call-out surcharge added on arrival. Call (331) 310-8471 and you’ll reach a live person, not a voicemail tree.
Los Gatos is not a generic suburb. The houses up in Los Gatos Hills and Lexington Hills are a different animal from the Craftsman bungalows around Tait Avenue and downtown. The door hardware, the lock types, the weather, and the access situations all change by neighborhood. Our Lock Installation & Rekey team knows the difference, because we’ve been opening, rekeying, and rebuilding these doors for years. When a deadbolt binds on a wet February night off Kennedy Road, we know why before we park.
Why Novak Lock & Security Is Los Gatos’s Preferred Lock Installation & Rekey Company
Novak Lock & Security, led by Daniel Novak, has serviced over 60,000 locks, keys, and systems since 2002. Every one of those jobs started with a written price and ended with a documented photo record. That’s the Haven Standard, the same quality framework applied across all ten Haven brands. Haven Standard Clause 1: the price on the phone is the price on the invoice. We say it because it’s the rule we built the company on, and because Los Gatos homeowners read the three-star reviews. They should.
Our technicians are background-checked and uniformed. They don’t show up in an unmarked van. They document the condition of the existing lock, the door prep, and the finished work with photos you receive before we leave. In Los Gatos, where a front door might be a $6,000 custom iron entry on a hillside estate, that documentation is not a courtesy. It’s the record that proves the work was done right.
For this page’s context: Novak Lock & Security is independently owned and operated. Scheduling is coordinated from the brand’s San Francisco Bay Area office, with technicians serving Los Gatos locally. Response time to most Los Gatos neighborhoods is under 45 minutes for non-scheduled lockout and emergency rekey calls during normal hours.
Our Lock Installation & Rekey Services in Los Gatos
Smart Lock Installation
Los Gatos homeowners ask for smart locks at a rate far above the Bay Area average. It’s not surprising, given the tech-industry concentration up in the hills. A homeowner off Quito Road might want a Z-Wave deadbolt programmed into a Control4 system alongside their gate and garage. That’s a routine call for us. We install Yale, Schlage Encode, and other major smart platforms, and we quote the full integration labor before we touch the door. Nonstandard door prep, which is common on the 1970s-2000s hillside customs, gets flagged and priced in the written scope.
Keyless Entry
Keyless entry is the most practical upgrade for Los Gatos households with kids, cleaners, dog walkers, or a rotating cast of contractors. A keypad deadbolt means you can issue a code and delete it, instead of chasing keys. We install numeric keypads and touchscreen entry systems on standard cylindrical doors and on heavier solid-wood and iron doors where the prep depth matters. For multi-tenant buildings, we work with the HOA or property manager to ensure the keyless hardware doesn’t violate the building’s master key policy.
Keypad Lock
Keypad lock installation in Los Gatos usually runs $180-$380 including the hardware and labor, depending on the grade. Entry-grade Kwikset and Schlage keypads are fine for interior garage doors and side entries. For exterior doors on the hillside, where fog and moisture work on everything, we recommend a heavier weather-sealed keypad lock. The Lexington Hills corridor pushes marine fog straight through, and cheap zinc components corrode within two or three winters. We’ll tell you that before you buy the hardware, so you don’t pay twice.
Biometric Lock
A biometric lock makes sense when you need audit-quality control over who opens the door. Fingerprint and keypad-combo biometric deadbolts run $300-$700 installed in the Los Gatos market, with labor depending on door prep. We see these most often on wine cellars, home offices, and detached ADU entries where the owner wants a record of every entry. The hardware is only as good as the install. We cut strikes and backset clean, and we document the finished work with photos.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Los Gatos
We’re factory-authorized on Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, Abloy, Baldwin, and Schlage. That matters in Los Gatos, because half of this town is running Medeco or Mul-T-Lock high-security cylinders that cannot be picked or bumped by standard tools, and the other half owns Baldwin hardware on a Craftsman that’s older than most of the South Bay. We don’t jam an off-the-shelf cylinder into a Baldwin mortise body and call it done. When a Los Gatos customer asks for Lock Installation & Rekey in Los Gatos, they’re asking for exactly this level of brand-specific, house-specific work.
For local key duplication, we stock Los Gatos-compatible key blanks for Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, Baldwin, and Schlage in our service vehicles. Restricted key blanks aren’t cut without authorization, which is the whole point.
Common Lock Installation & Rekey Problems We See in Los Gatos Homes
- Wet-winter door frame swelling. Moisture from the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills rolls through the Lexington Hills corridor and into the hillside neighborhoods. Wood door frames absorb it, the frame shifts, and the deadbolt stops lining up with the strike. A rekey won’t fix a binding deadbolt. The technician has to reset the strike plate or realign the deadbolt, then rekey if key control is the goal. We do both on the same visit.
- Restricted key system conflicts in HOAs and condos. Los Gatos has a dense stock of HOA-governed condos and apartment buildings with restricted key systems. A resident loses a key, calls around, and gets told a quick rekey will solve it. But a standard rekey violates the building’s key control policy, because the new keys may not match the master system. We verify the system before we cut a single cylinder, and we rekey to match the building’s master keying scheme, not against it.
- DIY smart lock retrofits that damaged non-standard door prep. We’ve lost count of the pre-WWII Craftsman and Victorian doors in downtown Los Gatos where someone tried a box-store smart lock retrofit. The mortise pocket is square, the cross-bore drill went through the wrong spot, and the old mortise body got destroyed. We do full mortise conversions back onto those doors without widening the existing hole or chewing up the face of the door. The door survives. The key control gets modernized.
- Vehicular gate operator and keypad failures on hillside properties. A homeowner on a private drive off Highway 17 or in Los Gatos Hills loses gate access on a rainy night. Now they can’t get to their own front door. That’s an access-control call we handle regularly. Flat suburban locksmiths in Campbell or San Jose rarely see the volume of hillside gate keypad and operator failures that we do, because those driveways, and those 10-20-year-old gate systems, are a Los Gatos signature.
Pricing for Lock Installation & Rekey in Los Gatos, CA
What follows are our real starting ranges for Los Gatos work. These are quoted in writing before anyone is dispatched, and the technician is not permitted to change the price at the door.
- Rekey a single cylinder: $25-$45 per cylinder, plus a $75-$95 service call in Los Gatos.
- Rekey a typical 3-bolt residence (front, back, garage): $150-$220 total, keyed alike with two keys per lock.
- Standard lockset/deadbolt installation: $150-$350 labor, depending on door prep.
- Smart lock or keyless entry installation: $250-$500 labor, hardware not included.
- High-security Medeco or Mul-T-Lock cylinder install (per cylinder): $150-$300, hardware included.
- Mortise lock conversion on a historic Craftsman or Victorian door: $300-$650 labor, depending on condition of the original mortise pocket.
- Key duplication for standard residential keys: $3-$8 per key. Restricted keys require authorization and proof of ownership.
Call (331) 310-8471 and describe the door, the lock, and the neighborhood. We’ll give you a firm written quote. If you have a competitor’s written estimate, bring it. We’ll review it at no charge as part of our Free Second Opinion policy.
One thing to know about the Los Gatos market specifically: the high-end hillside custom homes often have nonstandard door prep, solid wood or iron-clad doors, and multi-point locking systems. Those jobs cost more, because the install takes longer and the hardware runs heavier. We’ll tell you that in the quote, in writing, before we start.
We Also Serve Cities Near Los Gatos
For customers just outside the Los Gatos line, our service area covers Los Gatos proper, plus Saratoga, Campbell, Cupertino, and Santa Clara. Scheduling works the same from our Bay Area office, and the same Haven Standard documentation and pricing rules apply on every job in every one of those cities.
Serving Los Gatos, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Los Gatos 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 - Lock Installation & Rekey in Los Gatos
Yes, with authorization from the HOA or property manager. Restricted key systems in Los Gatos Hills condos are built on master keying, which means the building has a single master key that controlled your unit key. A standard rekey that ignores the master system would leave your new key outside the building’s key control policy, which most HOAs prohibit. We verify the system first, then rekey in compliance. The rekey cost is the same $25-$45 per cylinder; the buildable piece is the authorization channel. Call (331) 310-8471 and have your building management’s contact ready.
No. A binding deadbolt is usually a door frame or strike plate alignment issue caused by moisture-driven wood swelling from the Lexington Hills fog corridor, not a cylinder problem. Rekeying changes the key, not the door geometry. The correct fix is to realign the strike plate or reset the deadbolt so it throws cleanly, and then rekey if you need new keys. We do both on one visit. The frame movement in hillside homes off Kennedy Road and similar roads is seasonal, so the alignment fix often lasts for years if the strike is set correctly the first time.
Only with written authorization from the landlord, property manager, or building owner. A ‘Do Not Duplicate’ stamp is not legally binding in California, but cutting a restricted or marked key without authorization is against our policy and the building’s key control policy. For standard residential keys without restricted or high-security blanks, we’ll duplicate them on the spot from our Los Gatos service vehicle. For restricted keys like Medeco or Mul-T-Lock, we need the authorization card that came with the system. Bring the key and the auth card to the call, and we’ll handle it.
Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing mortise cylinder so the old keys no longer work. Replacing means removing the full mortise body from the pocket, which is a much larger job on a historic door. Many pre-WWII Craftsman and Victorian homes in downtown Los Gatos still have original mortise locks with specialty parts no longer in production. If the mortise body is intact, rekeying is cleaner and cheaper. If the body is worn, cracked, or someone damaged it during a DIY smart lock attempt, replacement or conversion is the better call. Our techs will show you the condition of the body before they touch it.
Yes, in most cases, if the existing door has standard cylindrical prep. For apartments with original mortise locks, we install a smart lock conversion that leaves the mortise body intact, so there’s no new cross-bore drill and no damage to the face of the door. The tenant does not own that door, so the installation has to be reversible and non-destructive. We photograph the before and after, and the written quote includes any trim work so the original hardware can go back on if the lease ends. Call (331) 310-8471 and we’ll tell you over the phone whether your door prep is standard or needs a mortise conversion.
Get Your Lock Installation & Rekey Quote in Los Gatos
Novak Lock & Security has been putting locks on doors in Los Gatos since 2002. Every job, from a single-cylinder rekey on a Tait Avenue bungalow to a high-security Medeco install on a hillside gate, gets the same written price, documented record, and 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the work isn’t done right, we make it right. Call Daniel Novak’s team at (331) 310-8471 for a free estimate. You’ll reach a live person. You’ll get a real number. And the number won’t change when we pull up.
Written by Daniel Novak, Owner at Novak Lock & Security, serving Los Gatos since 2002.