Old houses deserve careful hands
Clinton's historic district takes in well over a hundred buildings, and the Greek Revival homes along College Street and the blocks off the green still carry original doors, often with original mortise locks behind them. Those locks are usually worth saving. We repair and rekey old hardware before we ever recommend replacement, and if a part truly is beyond help, we'll show you why and quote the exact cost of a period-appropriate fix before doing anything.
Old doors also settle. If yours needs a lift and a shove before the bolt throws, the real fix is often alignment rather than a new lock, and we'll tell you the honest difference.
Do you handle student rentals and turnovers?
Constantly. A college town runs on rentals, and rentals run on rekeys. Landlords call us between tenants to rekey every door, starting at $30 per cylinder plus the $39 service call, credited toward the work, with the whole job quoted before we arrive. Where the hardware allows, we can set every door in the building to a single key.
Students get locked out at bad hours, and bad hours are our normal hours. An apartment lockout starts at $85, quoted exactly on the phone first, and we open with picks and bypass tools rather than drills. Worth saving (916) 969-8748 in your phone before you need it.
Storefronts on and around the green
The businesses along West Park Row and around the village green depend on doors that lock at close and open at open. Storefront lockouts start at $95, quoted in full before we head out. We also install and repair panic bars and exit devices, and we build master key systems for owners tired of juggling staff keys. Commercial work can be scheduled outside your business hours, since we don't keep business hours ourselves.
Car keys, cold lots, and hockey nights
Hockey nights at Clinton Arena on Kirkland Avenue fill the lot, and cold lots are where keys get locked inside cars or snapped off in frozen door locks. A car lockout starts at $75. If the key breaks, we extract the fragment and can cut a replacement from the truck: basic cut keys from $120, transponder keys cut and programmed from $180, all quoted before we start. Call (916) 969-8748 from the lot and warm up while we drive.
Around Clinton, we regularly cover
- The village green
- College Street
- West Park Row
- Clinton Arena on Kirkland Avenue
- Hamilton College
- Elm Street
Clinton questions
Asked around here
Can you rekey my Clinton rental between tenants on a tight turnaround?
Yes. Rekeying starts at $30 per cylinder plus the $39 service call, credited toward the job, and we work nights and weekends, so a turnover doesn't have to wait for Monday. You approve the exact total before we schedule.
Will you drill my antique mortise lock?
Only as a true last resort, and never without talking to you first. We pick, decode, and repair before anything else. Most of the old locks we see in Clinton village can be rekeyed or rebuilt, and you'll have the exact price before we touch the door.
Do you cover the Hamilton College area and homes past the village line?
Yes, the campus and the surrounding Clinton area, typically 12 to 16 minutes from our Chadwicks shop. Pricing is the same as everywhere we work, quoted in full on the phone before dispatch.