Sunnyvale · Santa Clara County
Nearly two thirds of it went up between 1950 and 1979.
Sunnyvale was built in one long run after the war, and the hardware on its doors still tells you which part of that run your street belongs to.
Three decades, two thirds of the city
Sunnyvale's adopted Housing Element counts 55,933 housing units. The 1950s are the largest single decade at 13,882 units, 24.8 percent, with the 1970s at 20.9 and the 1960s at 18.8. Add them together and 36,077 units, just under 65 percent of the city, were built between 1950 and 1979. Only 5.4 percent predates 1950.
That is a narrow window, and it maps onto hardware. A 1950s tract house came with a bored cylindrical knob set and frequently no deadbolt at all. By the 1970s the deadbolt was standard but the strike was still two short screws into a softwood jamb. Both get opened the same way, by someone spreading the frame rather than touching the lock.
If your house is from that stretch and nobody has been near the door in forty years, the cheapest useful thing you can do is not a new lock. It is longer screws and a proper strike plate into solid backing. We will do it while we are there.
City of Sunnyvale Housing Element, table 20, 2010 Census. Percentages computed from the published counts.
Seven percent of Sunnyvale lives in a mobile home
By structure type the city runs single family detached 21,620 (38 percent), single family attached 5,038 (9 percent), two to four units 4,962 (9 percent), five or more units 21,378 (37 percent), and mobile homes 3,900, which is 7 percent of all housing in the city.
Seven percent is a lot. It is the highest share of any city we cover, and mobile home doors are their own small discipline. The door leaf is thinner than a stick-built door, the backset is often not the 2-3/8 or 2-3/4 inches every lock on a shop shelf is cut for, and the frame is usually aluminum rather than wood, so a strike plate with long screws has nothing to bite into.
None of that makes the job hard. It makes it a job you have to arrive prepared for. Say mobile home when you call and the right parts come with us the first time.
Sunnyvale Housing Element, table 19, California Department of Finance 2013 estimates.
What Sunnyvale does not have
Several cities on this list carry their own minimum security ordinance. South San Francisco has one. San Mateo has one. Pacifica has one. Fremont has one.
Sunnyvale does not. We went through the municipal code looking for a building security chapter and there is none. What governs your door here is the state building and residential codes the city adopts, plus Civil Code 1941.3 if you rent, which asks for a deadbolt with a thirteen-sixteenths inch throw on the main entry.
That is a floor, not a target. We fit a one inch bolt as a matter of course, because the extra three sixteenths is free and it is the part of the lock that actually resists anything.
Search of the Sunnyvale Municipal Code for a minimum-security or building-security chapter: none found. California Civil Code §1941.3.
Where we go in Sunnyvale
The Heritage District and downtown around Murphy Avenue, Cherry Chase, Cherry Hill, Ortega Park, Raynor Park, Washington Park, Panama Park, Lakewood Village, San Miguel, SNAIL, Stowell and Orchard, Victory Village, Bidweller's, Charles Street 100 and Charles Street Gardens, Cumberland South and Cumberland West, Valley Forge, Stevens Creek, Wrightmont Corners, Braly Corners, Gavello Glen, Sunny Arts, Hazelheads, Sunset Pastoria, Challenger West and Serra North.
The plan areas work as landmarks too if you do not know your neighborhood name: Downtown, El Camino Real, Lawrence Station, Moffett Park, Peery Park, Lakeside, Arques and Fair Oaks Junction.
In an emergency, 20 to 30 minutes.
Questions people ask here
My 1950s house has a knob lock and no deadbolt. What should I do?
Fit one, and fit the strike properly while the door is open. A deadbolt into a two-screw strike in soft pine is mostly decorative. Two and a half inch screws into solid backing is what makes it work.
I live in a mobile home park. Can you help?
Yes. Tell us it is a mobile home on the phone. Thinner door, odd backset, aluminum frame, and we bring hardware that suits all three.
Does Sunnyvale require anything special on locks?
No. There is no local security ordinance here. State codes and, for rentals, Civil Code 1941.3 at thirteen-sixteenths of an inch.
How far out are you? Sunnyvale is a long way from San Francisco.
It is the far end of our range. In an emergency we still aim for 20 to 30 minutes, and if it is not urgent we would rather book a time and turn up when we said.
Need a locksmith in Sunnyvale 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.