San Bruno · San Mateo County
The one city that put lockouts in its own code.
San Bruno Municipal Code chapter 6.20 is called Assisting Locked-Out Person. It is worth knowing what it says before you call anybody.
Chapter 6.20, and what it means for you
Most cities say nothing at all about lockouts. San Bruno has a chapter.
Section 6.20.010 states that "The fire and police departments are authorized to answer calls from persons who have locked themselves out of their property", and provides for a charge per call set by the city council.
Section 6.20.020 is the part people should read twice. It says that neither the city nor any officer, agent or employee "shall be civil liable for any damage to property" where that property belongs to or is possessed by the person who asked for the help.
Read plainly: if you call the fire department to get into your own house and the door, the frame or the glass is damaged doing it, that is on you. The city has written down in advance that it is not paying for it.
That is not a criticism of either department. They are there for emergencies and they do not carry locksmith tools. It just means that for an ordinary lockout, where nobody is in danger and nothing is burning, a locksmith is the cheaper answer and the one that leaves your door intact. If somebody is actually at risk, call 911 first and worry about the door afterwards.
San Bruno Municipal Code §§6.20.010 and 6.20.020, read from a secondary code publisher. The per-call fee figure was not confirmed, so we do not quote one.
The airport rule that can catch a door replacement
San Bruno sits beside San Francisco International, and it has a chapter about that too. Chapter 6.18 makes a seller disclose to the buyer that the property lies between about a quarter mile and four miles from the airport's developed-area perimeter, and it attaches a map of the 1983 FAA 65 CNEL noise contour.
Two parts of it reach the hardware on your house.
- For a home inside that contour, if it is rebuilt after destruction or renovated at a cost of 25 percent or more of current market value, it has to be insulated to FAA noise insulation program standards. That rule has applied since 1 January 1993.
- Where FAA program insulation already exists, the owner may not "deliberately or wilfully act to reduce or destroy the effectiveness of the noise mitigation measures".
If your front door was fitted under the airport insulation program, it is a sound rated assembly: a heavier leaf, a particular set of seals, often a specific threshold. Swapping it for an ordinary door from a builders' merchant is exactly the kind of thing that second provision is pointed at.
We can usually rekey or replace the cylinder in that door and leave the assembly alone, which is both cheaper and keeps you out of that argument entirely. Tell us if your door came from the program.
San Bruno Municipal Code ch. 6.18, read from a secondary code publisher; California Civil Code §1102.6a is the disclosure form it uses.
No local lock standard here
We read through San Bruno's municipal code titles looking for a building security chapter and there is none. Title 11 is a list of adopted model codes and nothing in it sets lock specifications.
So San Bruno is the opposite of Pacifica, eight minutes over the hill, which has had a Security of Buildings chapter since 1988. Here the governing rules are the state codes plus Civil Code 1941.3's thirteen-sixteenths inch deadbolt duty on rentals.
San Bruno was incorporated in 1914, with about 1,400 residents, and the San Bruno Park addition was developed into housing after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The city runs from the flats along Highway 101 up the eastern slope of the Coast Ranges, so a street number in the Avenues and a street number in Crestmoor are different kinds of house.
Search of the San Bruno Municipal Code table of contents: no security or lock-standards chapter. City of San Bruno annex to the 2026 San Mateo County Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Where we go in San Bruno
Rollingwood, Crestmoor, Pacific Heights, Portola Highlands, Monte Verde, Belle Air and Belle Air Park North, San Bruno Park, the low-lying streets locals call the Avenues, downtown, the Crossing on the old Navy site, Bayhill, and the Transit Corridors area along El Camino Real, San Bruno Avenue and San Mateo Avenue.
In an emergency, 20 to 30 minutes.
Questions people ask here
Should I call the fire department or a locksmith?
If somebody is in danger, call 911 and do not wait for us. For an ordinary lockout, a locksmith is cheaper and your door survives. Chapter 6.20.020 says the city is not liable for damage when it is your own property.
My door came from the airport sound insulation program. Can you still rekey it?
Almost always yes. We change the cylinder and leave the door assembly, the seals and the threshold exactly as they are. That keeps the sound rating intact.
Does San Bruno require a one inch deadbolt?
No. There is no local security ordinance. State codes apply, and Civil Code 1941.3 at thirteen-sixteenths for rentals. We fit the one inch anyway.
I am in a hillside house with the garage underneath.
Common in Crestmoor and Rollingwood. Say which door you are outside, the garage, the man door or the entry at the top, because they are three different jobs.
Need a locksmith in San Bruno 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.
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