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Get your free estimateMedeco Locksmith in Larkspur, CA | Cypress Lock & Key
We provide independent Medeco locksmith service across Larkspur, CA, with Corte Madera Medeco service available nearby as well. Our work is built on the town’s specific conditions: older Craftsman homes with original mortise hardware, downtown storefronts on clay soil, and damp Ross Valley winters that swell wooden door frames every season. Call us at (877) 265-4385 when your Medeco needs service, rekeying, or repair. Cypress Lock & Key specializes in repairing Medeco cylinders rather than replacing them.
Why Larkspur Residents Choose Us for Medeco Service
Medeco locks are high-security workhorses, but they demand a locksmith who understands how the sidebar and pin system behaves when a door frame moves. That’s our daily reality in Larkspur. Noel Carver, our owner and lead locksmith, has been rekeying and repairing these cylinders in the Ross Valley for going on two decades. He knows the M3 and Biaxial internals well enough to say when a cylinder deserves a cleaning and re-lube versus a full replacement, and we also handle Medeco in Kentfield.
Larkspur homeowners don’t call us because a Medeco broke. They call because the door around it shifted. We work on the lock you already have, and we keep an independent service relationship with the brand. Medeco dealers sell locks; we repair them on a door-by-door basis across Larkspur’s 94939 and 94977 ZIP codes. For more on how we handle Medeco sales and service, see our Medeco sales & service page. Our approach is simple: genuine Medeco OEM parts for the cylinder core, quality commercial-grade hardware for everything around it, and no push to replace a lock that only needs a cam, a strike adjustment, or a rekey.
Styles & brands we work with
Common Medeco Locksmith Problems We Solve in Larkspur
Here’s what actually crosses our bench and our trucks in Larkspur, week after week:
- Medeco Maxum deadbolts binding in swollen jambs. Larkspur’s damp winters and fog-heavy summers cause wood door frames to expand and contract. The hardened bolt on a Maxum is unforgiving; a few millimeters of swelling means it won’t throw, even though the cylinder and key turn fine. We don’t force these. We correct the door alignment first.
- Sidebar cylinders that feel “spongy” or stick. The fog cycle in Larkspur lets fine grit collect inside Medeco sidebar-and-pin cylinders. Older Craftsman homes near the creek see this constantly. A cylinder that hasn’t been cleaned and correctly lubricated for years starts to feel gritty or catches mid-turn. We clean, inspect, and re-lube with the right product, not whatever is on the shelf.
- Key-spin without the bolt throwing on original mortise cylinders. Early-20th-century bungalows in Larkspur often carry mortise-mounted Medeco cylinders where the cam or tailpiece has worn. The key turns 360 degrees but the bolt stays put. That’s a part-level repair, not a reason to replace the lock.
- Strike plates misaligned by settling clay soil. Downtown Larkspur sits on clay-rich ground. Storefront doors along Magnolia Avenue twist out of square over decades. A correctly keyed Medeco cylinder can’t seat the bolt if the strike sits a quarter inch off. We relocate the strike and, when needed, plane the door edge to match the frame’s new line.
- Rekey needs for new owners and tenants. Larkspur rental turnover is steady, and property managers call us to rekey Medeco cylinders between tenants. It’s cheaper than replacing high-security hardware and it restores full key control.
Medeco Service in Larkspur: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment
In Larkspur, the problem is rarely the Medeco lock. It’s the door. The town’s historic downtown core, especially along Magnolia Avenue, was built on clay-rich soil that shifts subtly with every wet and dry season. Over fifty or sixty years, a wood-framed storefront door has settled into a shape that it didn’t have when the hardware was milled for it. A brand-new Medeco Maxum cylinder, correctly installed and keyed, still won’t throw a bolt through a strike plate that’s now sitting a half inch from where the frame expects it to be. Locksmiths in flatter neighboring towns don’t run into this with anywhere near the same frequency. Here, the call comes in as “the lock is broken” and the actual job is planing the door edge, then relocating the strike and driving longer screws into the jamb so the Medeco bolt has a clean line to travel. We once responded to a Magnolia Avenue shop owner whose new Medeco Maxum we had installed kept jamming every rainy season. Our tech found the settled wood frame had twisted the strike out of alignment. We planed the door, relocated the strike plate, and reinforced the jamb with longer screws. The cylinder was perfect. That was two wet winters ago. It has thrown cleanly ever since. That’s the Larkspur difference: know your hardware, know your options; the rest is just turning a key.
Medeco Models & Products We Service in Larkspur
We service the Medeco lines most common across Larkspur: the Maxum deadbolt for residential and small-business doors, the M3 deadbolt cylinder with its sidebar and key-control features, the older Original and Biaxial cylinders still mounted on many mid-century and Craftsman doors, and the Maxum Smart electronic unit for storefront owners who want keypad or fob access. Our parts policy on the cylinder internals is strict. We use genuine Medeco OEM cylinders, keys, and cams. Aftermarket pin kits compromise the restricted keyway, and that defeats the point of owning a Medeco in the first place. For strike plates, mounting screws, and door hardware, we use quality commercial-grade aftermarket parts where they perform equally well. We keep a working stock of common Medeco pin kits and cams in our van, so a rekey on a Larkspur bungalow usually happens the same visit rather than after a parts order. See our full Larkspur service area for what we cover.
Medeco Service Pricing in Larkspur
Medeco work prices by the job, not by the minute. A standard Larkspur Medeco rekey on a single cylinder starts around $85 to $150, and that includes new OEM keys. Replacing a worn cam or tailpiece inside a mortise cylinder runs $45 to $95 in parts and labor. A full Medeco Maxum deadbolt installation, including door prep if the frame is true, typically lands between $250 and $420. When a Larkspur door needs planing or a strike relocation on top of that, expect the door work to add $60 to $140. The free estimate we give you on the phone covers all of it: parts, labor, and any door adjustment we can identify from your description. The price we quote is the price on your invoice; we don’t surprise people with add-ons. Call (877) 265-4385 and tell us what the lock is doing, and we’ll give you an honest number before anyone rolls a van.
Serving Larkspur, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Larkspur area and know this community well, including Medeco service in Ross. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs – Medeco Locksmith in Larkspur
Yes. A Medeco Maxum rekey keeps your existing lock body and replaces only the internal pins and sidebar so old keys no longer work. It’s straightforward for us in Larkspur because we carry the OEM pin kits in the van. The rekey takes about twenty minutes on a standard install, and you get new keys cut to the new pinning. If the cylinder body is damaged after years of damp-winter swelling pressure, we’ll tell you honestly whether repair is still worth it. For an exact quote on your specific lock, call us at (877) 265-4385.
The cold-season moisture in Larkspur’s Ross Valley swells the wood door frame around the deadbolt, and we see the same pattern with Medeco in Mill Valley. The cylinder and key still turn, but the bolt channel narrows by a few millimeters. That’s enough to bind a hardened Medeco bolt. The fix is almost always on the door, not the lock. We re-align or plane the door edge and adjust the strike, and the bolt throws cleanly through the wet months. If your lock is sticking now, call (877) 265-4385 before the swelling worsens and the frame takes more stress.
We do. Genuine Medeco cams, tailpieces, cylinder housings, and pin kits for the Original and Biaxial lines are what we use for interior cylinder work. If an older mortise lock simply needs a worn cam replaced or a fresh set of pins, we make the repair without pressuring you into a new lock. Larkspur’s older bungalows often have original hardware worth keeping. We’ll tell you if the lock body itself is too worn to justify more parts, and we’ll show you what the better option costs. Reach us at (877) 265-4385 and describe the door; we’ll tell you what’s likely going on.
You’re describing a classic clay-soil Larkspur problem. The door frame has twisted or settled, so the strike plate no longer lines up with the bolt, and no correctly keyed Medeco will throw until the door is corrected. Our process starts with a site look: we check the reveal, the hinge-side sag, and where the bolt meets the strike. Then we plane the door edge where it’s binding, relocate the strike plate on the new alignment, and drive longer screws into the jamb for reinforcement. The Medeco cylinder itself usually needs nothing. Schedule a look by calling (877) 265-4385. We’ll quote the door work before we start.
We can. A master-key system for a Larkspur property, whether it’s a mixed-use building on Magnolia or a multi-door Craftsman house, lets each keyholder open only what they need while one key opens everything. Medeco’s sidebar-and-pin design works well for this because it gives us more cut depth combinations without compromising key control. We design the system, pin the cylinders, and cut the keys. Tell us how many doors and how many keyholders, and we’ll price it flat. Call (877) 265-4385 for a free estimate on a master-key setup.
Service Areas Near Larkspur
Our Medeco service covers Larkspur and the surrounding communities. We run calls to Medeco service in Hillsborough for high-security residential work, and south to Medeco service in Foster City for commercial and multi-unit rekeys. We also regularly serve Mill Valley, San Mateo, and the greater Ross Valley area.
Book Your Medeco Service in Larkspur Today
If your Medeco is sticking, spinning, or simply not throwing this season, call us at (877) 265-4385. We’ll ask what the door is doing and give you a price before we head out. Same-day service is often available for urgent Larkspur calls.
Written by Noel Carver, Owner at Cypress Lock & Key, serving Larkspur and the Ross Valley since 2004.