Redwood City · San Mateo County
Half the city owns, half the city rents.
Redwood City is almost exactly fifty-fifty between owners and renters, which makes the turnover rekey the single most ordinary job we do here.
Two cities in one set of boundaries
The City's own figures put households at 30,829, split 15,342 owners to 15,487 renters. You will not find a closer split anywhere on the Peninsula.
About 46 percent of the housing was built before 1960, and only around 13 percent between 1990 and 2011. So the stock is mostly mid-century, with a late layer out on the water.
What that means on the ground is two different jobs under one city name. West of El Camino, in Farm Hill, Canyon, Edgewood Park, Eagle Hill and Mount Carmel, you get hillside houses with the garage underneath and a second entry at the lower level. Out at Redwood Shores and Bair Island you get planned bayfront development, which means sliding patio doors, HOA keyed common doors, gated garages on fobs and cluster mailbox banks instead of a slot in the front door.
Downtown, Stambaugh-Heller, Central, Redwood Village and Friendly Acres are the older core, and that is where the pre-war hardware still turns up: mortise locks on the street doors and bit-key furniture still hanging on the bedroom doors inside.
Redwood City 5th and 6th cycle Housing Elements; the City's own neighborhood boundaries, adopted 2017.
There is no local lock ordinance here, and that is worth knowing
San Mateo has a Building Security Code. South San Francisco has a Minimum Security Standards chapter. Redwood City has neither. We went through the municipal code chapter by chapter and there is no security or lock article in Chapter 9, Buildings.
So in Redwood City the rules that govern your door hardware are the state codes the city adopts, plus Civil Code 1941.3 if you rent. That is a thirteen-sixteenths inch deadbolt throw on a rental's main entry, not the one inch two of your neighboring cities ask for.
We fit the heavier bolt anyway. It costs the same and it is the difference between a bolt that holds in a jamb that has moved and one that does not.
Redwood City Municipal Code chapter list and Chapter 9 article list; California Civil Code §1941.3.
The tenant protection ordinance that landed in January
Redwood City replaced its old Chapter 42 with a new Tenant Protection chapter by Ordinance 2554, adopted on 10 November 2025 and effective 1 January 2026. If you own rental property here, three parts of it touch our work.
- Section 42.4. You have to offer a written lease of at least one year, with a bilingual notice of that right in capitals at a minimum of 12 point type.
- Section 42.5. Just cause applies after 12 months of lawful occupancy. A substantial remodel counts as a no-fault ground, but it needs City permits and a vacate period of at least 30 consecutive days, and the tenant has a right to return at the prior rent.
- Section 42.6. Base relocation is one month's rent for every displaced tenant regardless of income, paid within 15 calendar days of serving the notice, or a written waiver of the final month. Income-eligible households get considerably more.
The chapter says nothing about locks. It does not have to. Changing a lock on a tenant who still lives there is Civil Code 789.3, and that is $100 a day with a $250 floor and the tenant's legal costs on top.
Our position is the same in every city: we rekey for an owner once possession is genuinely back. If there is any argument about it, show us the sheriff's writ.
Redwood City Ordinance 2554 and Municipal Code ch. 42; Civil Code §789.3.
Where we go in Redwood City
All seventeen of the neighborhoods the City adopted in 2017: Farm Hill, Redwood Shores, Woodside Plaza, Canyon, Central, Centennial, Stambaugh-Heller, Redwood Oaks, Palm, Friendly Acres, Edgewood Park, Mount Carmel, Eagle Hill, Redwood Village, Roosevelt, Downtown and Bair Island.
The four mobile home parks the City names, Le Mar, Redwood City Mobile Home Park, Redwood Mobile Estates and Harbor Village, are ordinary calls. Mobile home doors run thinner and on non-standard backsets, so say that on the phone and we bring the right hardware rather than coming back.
In an emergency, 20 to 30 minutes.
Questions people ask here
I just bought and the previous owner has keys. What is the fastest fix?
Rekeying. We keep the locks and change what they answer to, usually inside an hour for a normal house. It is cheaper than new hardware and it is the one job worth doing the week you move in.
I live in Redwood Shores and the HOA controls the gates.
Your own door we do on your identification. Gates, pool doors and garage access belong to the association and we need their authorization. Worth having the manager's number to hand before you call.
My mobile home door will not take a normal deadbolt.
Usually true. The door is thinner and the backset is often not the 2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inches everything on a shelf is cut for. Send a photo of the door edge on WhatsApp and we will tell you what fits before anyone buys anything.
Does Redwood City require a one inch deadbolt like San Mateo?
No. There is no local security chapter here, so the state minimum of thirteen-sixteenths applies to rentals. We fit the one inch regardless.
Need a locksmith in Redwood City now?
A person answers, at any hour, in English or Spanish. If it is not urgent, we will hold a day and a time for you instead.
Or leave your details and we will call you.