About
Most of the work here is old hardware and a housemate on the porch.
A shared house near campus whose lock is older than anyone living in it, and a door that latched behind somebody who stepped outside for thirty seconds: those two account for most of what comes in. Independent, on Berkeley streets since 2012, and the line takes calls at any hour on (510) 392-6966.
4.9 / 5· 457 reviews from Berkeley & the north East Bay
2012
On Berkeley streets since
24/7
Calls answered
90 days
Workmanship warranty
Price first, then the pick
I have been at the bench since 2008 and working Berkeley under this name since 2012. The city taught me early that most of its doors want adjusting, not replacing, and I would rather sell you two long screws than a deadbolt you did not need.
One rule holds on every call I answer for: nobody touches your lock until you have heard the full figure, late-hour charge included, and said yes to it.
Theo Ashford
Owner · on the bench since 2008 · with Campanile Lock & Key since 2012
An independent bench, on Berkeley streets since 2012
Campanile Lock & Key has worked this city since 2012, and there has never been a counter to walk up to. The lock in question is bolted to a door on Shattuck Ave, or sunk into a car parked at the North Berkeley BART garage, and it is not going to travel anywhere; so the bench travels instead, in a van, at whatever hour the door decided to stop working. The name is borrowed from Sather Tower, which a good half of Berkeley can see from its own front steps, and it was picked because this business belongs to that view rather than to a territory drawn on a map somewhere else.
Three things it is not, since all three are common in this trade. It is not a franchise renting a name by the year. It is not tied to any lock maker or car brand, so nothing is recommended because a supplier wants it moved. And it is not a call center collecting addresses to pass to whichever van bids for them. One 510 number, one bench, one set of hands, and calls are answered 24/7 including holidays.
The stock a Berkeley door actually takes
Hardware here sorts into a handful of families, and the van carries every one of them at the same time. Mortise cases, levers and spindles for the brown-shingle and Craftsman fronts in North Berkeley and Elmwood, with warded blanks for the skeleton-key interior doors those houses still have upstairs. Aluminum deadlatches, hookbolts and closer parts for the glass shop doors along Telegraph Ave, Solano Ave and Fourth Street. Strike plates, three-inch screws and jamb reinforcement for the flats west of San Pablo Ave, where the frame gives up long before the cylinder does. Keypad locks and unit cylinders for the shared houses and small apartment buildings below campus, exit devices for the West Berkeley workshops and laboratories, and key blanks with the programmers to match for most of what parks at the BART garages.
Carrying all of it at once is the whole point: it keeps the job to one visit. A part ordered on Monday means a door propped open or a housemate sleeping on somebody else's floor until Wednesday, and that is the outcome the stock list exists to prevent. The load shifts with the calendar too. Rekeys below campus cluster in August and January, when a house turns over half its occupants, so pins and blanks ride deeper in those months.
The Agreed-First Price
Four commitments made before a tool comes out of the van, and kept through the receipt. Ninety days on the workmanship, written on the receipt.
- The visit
- $89, already inside
- The labour
- All of it
- The parts fitted
- Named before work starts
- Added later
- Nothing
The service call is counted within the figure you agree to. It is never a separate line that appears once the door is open.
Picking, decoding, cutting, pinning, fitting and adjusting the door until it closes properly. No hourly clock and no charge for a second attempt.
Cylinders, deadbolts, latches, pins, strike plates, cut and programmed keys. You are told which parts and what they cost while you are still on the call.
No mileage up the hill, no fee for long stairs or a side gate. Evening and overnight hours are stated inside the figure at the time you agree to it.
What happens between the call and the emailed receipt
The figure is settled while you are still on the phone, read off the published list rather than guessed at. The $89 service call sits inside that figure instead of underneath it: a house lockout is $109 to $189, a rekey $22 to $37 per cylinder, new hardware $105 to $285 per door, a car key $135 to $375. An arrival between 8pm and midnight carries $35 and one between midnight and 7am carries $70, and both are counted into the total before you agree to it, not produced at the curb. Only master key systems and access control work differently: those are walked, counted and quoted in writing, because a door count guessed over the phone turns into an argument later.
A text goes out before the van moves, carrying the technician name, what the van looks like and a thirty-minute window. At the door, proof that the address or the vehicle is yours is asked for first, then the lock is picked, decoded or bypassed. Drilling only enters the conversation when those fail, and then only after you have heard what the replacement costs and said yes; the figure does not move either way. Payment is card or tap once the door behaves, the receipt arrives itemized by email, and ninety days on the workmanship is printed on that same page. Downtown sees the van in about twelve minutes, Southside and Telegraph in fourteen, the Berkeley Hills honestly in twenty-six, and nineteen is the average across the whole city.
The cheaper answer, when the cheaper answer is right
A deadbolt that will not throw has usually moved with the frame rather than failed in the cylinder. In a 1920s bungalow that has settled a fraction every decade, the honest repair is a strike plate shifted an eighth of an inch and two long screws into the stud, not a hardware sale. Five keys that no longer match each other is a rekey at $22 to $37 per cylinder, not five replacements at $105 to $285. An original mortise case in a brown-shingle can nearly always be stripped, re-sprung and rekeyed, and the escutcheon the builder chose stays on the door where it belongs.
Some work is turned down on the call rather than at the curb, which is the only time refusing is worth anything to you. A few car makes tie key programming to a dealer tool, and you should hear that before a van is dispatched. Safes with relocking devices, high-security cylinders whose keys are cut only against a registered card, and anything where the manufacturer is genuinely the right route get named as such. Intercom wiring, shop-door glass, alarm panels and garage-door openers are not lock work, and they are not taken on here.
Where we work
Berkeley & the north East Bay, any hour
Pick your area for its own arrival time and the jobs we run there most.
FAQ
About the business, not the bill
Is Campanile Lock & Key independent, or part of a larger network?+
Independent, and Berkeley is the whole of the territory. The 510 number on this site reaches this business, the van that pulls up belongs to it, and no job is handed to a third party for a share of the ticket. The difference shows up in the arithmetic rather than in the wording: a broker can quote any number it likes, because the van that eventually arrives was never on the call and never agreed to it. Here the figure agreed on the call is the figure charged to the card, and the receipt repeats it line for line.
How long have you been working in Berkeley?+
Since 2012, on the same trade the whole time: lockouts, rekeys, hardware replacement, storefront doors, safes and car keys. What the years actually buy is pattern recognition. The rekey rush through the shared houses below campus every August and January. The mortise cases still in daily service in the North Berkeley shingles. The frames in the flats that move with the wet season. The hill addresses where the front door sits a stair flight above the road and the van parks facing downhill. Theo Ashford, who writes these pages, has been on the bench since 2008.
Why is there no shop I can bring a lock to?+
Because a counter would help almost nobody who calls. It means rent on Shattuck Ave, hours that end at six, and a drive across town at the worst moment of your week, all paid for out of the same invoice. The van stages between Downtown, the flats and the campus edge instead, which puts Downtown near twelve minutes, Southside and Telegraph near fourteen, Elmwood and West Berkeley near sixteen, and the Berkeley Hills near twenty-six, because those streets double back on themselves. Key cutting, pinning and fob programming all happen at your curb, off the bench that rides in the van.
Who will be standing at my door, and how do I check it is them?+
Someone whose name reached you before the van left. The text sent at dispatch carries the technician name, a description of the van and a thirty-minute window, and holding that text up against the person in front of you costs nothing and settles the question in a second. If the two do not match, send them away and call the number on this site again. Nobody turns up here unannounced, and nobody should expect to be let near your door on the strength of a magnetic sign.
What happens if the lock will not come open without damage?+
You are told first, and told plainly. The great majority of doors give way to picks, a decoder or a bypass tool with nothing to show for it afterwards: house deadbolts, unit cylinders, shop latches, car doors. When a cylinder has seized, or is already broken inside, or is high-security to the point that picking will not get there, you hear what drilling does, what the replacement hardware costs and what the alternatives are, and nothing touches the door until you say so. The figure agreed on the call covers that conversation whichever way you decide.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
One call, one figure, agreed before the work starts
Calls answered 24/7 across Berkeley and the north East Bay. The $89 service call, the labour and the parts are inside the number you agree to, and nothing is added to it afterwards.