Milpitas neighborhood · 24/7
Milpitas Hills: larger lots on the climb toward Ed Levin, side gates, yard gates, and a full set of keys that stopped existing years ago
The streets that climb east out of the flat city toward the park: larger houses on larger parcels, long driveways, retaining walls and stepped yards, a pedestrian gate beside most vehicle gates, and very little light on the upper blocks after dark. Twenty-two minutes.
4.9 / 5· 207 reviews from Milpitas and the north end of the valley
~22 min
Avg. arrival
$89
Service call
24/7
Availability
Start a hillside property by walking it once with a notebook, because the number of locks on it is never the number anybody remembers. Between the road and the back fence there is the front entry, a door from the kitchen onto the side path, a slider onto the deck, the service door into the garage, a pedestrian gate next to the vehicle gate, a gate into the back yard, and cut into the slope somewhere a shed or a pump house. Seven and eight are ordinary totals up here. When a parcel changes hands, every one of those is a lock that somebody who no longer lives there may still carry a key for. That is why the figure is $30–$47 per cylinder rather than a price per house, with everything after the first at the low end, and why five minutes of counting before you call turns a guess into a real number.
The gates take the worst of it, because they are the only hardware on the property that lives outside all year. A post shifts on a slope, the bolt stops meeting its keeper, and a padlock that has hung on a yard gate for a decade seizes with the key still working perfectly. The usual state of affairs on a hillside lot is a vehicle gate that works, a pedestrian gate that has not been locked in years, and no key for either that anybody can produce. Bringing them back is mechanical and cheap against what it holds: the keeper is moved to where the bolt actually lands, and a cylinder or a padlock keyed to the same key as the house goes on at $126–$338 depending on the leaf.
The trouble this whole site is about is at its most literal up here. One household per entry means there is no second key anywhere, and the houses stand far enough apart that the neighbor who might once have held one is not in sight, never mind at home at nine in the morning. A house lockout is $129–$246 with the $89 call-out inside the figure, $48 added between eight and midnight and $86 between midnight and seven, all of it quoted before the van moves. Identification with the address is checked at the step. Where a door has been forced, the jamb goes back together through to the stud and a strike takes long screws into framing, at $172–$455 with each part itemized for a claim.
Two practical notes about the climb. First, twenty-two minutes is the real figure to these streets, and it is longer than the flat city because the last part of the drive is narrow roads that double back rather than because of the mileage. You hear that number on the phone rather than discovering it on the driveway. Second, addresses up here are hard to read after dark, so say what marks the driveway mouth and leave a light on at the road if you can. Long ownership on these parcels also means safes: a wall safe or a floor safe left by a previous owner opens at $204–$548 and is set afterward to a number you choose.
Walk the parcel and count the locks before calling, since the shed and the lower gate are the two that get left off the list. Describe what the driveway mouth looks like from the road, because numbers on fence posts are unreadable from a moving van once it is dark. If a gate crosses the drive, say whether it is working and who can open it at this moment.
Nearby
Over the hill, the same van
FAQ
Asked about Milpitas Hills
There are eight locks on this property. How does a repin get priced?+
One cylinder at a time, $30–$47 each, and only the first one carries the trip, so the rest sit at the low end of that. Eight openings is most of a morning of work, and it ends with the house, the garage service door, the shed and both gates all answering to a single key you can actually hand to somebody. Do the walk first and write the list down. The pump house cover and the gate at the bottom of the yard are the two that get missed, and they are also the two nobody has had a key for in years.
Nobody has had a key to the side gate for years. Can it be brought onto the house key?+
Usually yes, and it is worth doing at the same visit as the house rather than as a separate errand. First the gate itself gets looked at, because on a slope the post has generally moved and the bolt is no longer meeting its keeper, and no lock works properly on a gate that does not line up. Then a cylinder or a padlock keyed to the same key as the doors goes on at $126–$338 depending on what the leaf needs, and the old hardware comes off with you watching.
Will the van actually find us up here at night?+
It will if you tell us what to look for, and that is the difference between a twenty-two minute run and a driver working his way along a dark road reading fence posts. Name what marks the mouth of the driveway — a mailbox cluster, a retaining wall, a gate — and which side of the road it sits on. A light left on at the road buys back real minutes. If a gate crosses the drive, say whether it is working and who can open it right now, because that is the piece that stretches the run more than the climb does.
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Name the door, and say who else has a key for it
Milpitas, at any hour, every day of the year. A front door in the tracts, a gate at a complex, a garage service door, a storefront in Midtown or a car in the mall lot — that decides the work, and the work decides the figure. The figure comes back on the same call with the $89 call-out and the clock already inside it, and it is the figure on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing. The van is already on this side of the interchange.