A locksmith for Cardiff-by-the-Sea
Lockouts, rekeys, cottage hardware and rental changeovers for 92007, from the lagoon to Restaurant Row.
Cardiff is its own place
Cardiff has its own zip, 92007, and its own post office, and residents write "Cardiff, CA" on the envelope, not Encinitas. It sits between the rest of Encinitas to the north and the San Elijo Lagoon to the south, with Solana Beach across the water and the Kook keeping watch over 101. We work Cardiff every week, so it gets its own page rather than a line on a list.
The lagoon side has the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center and its trails, the campground sits on the bluff above San Elijo State Beach, and the Kook, officially "Magic Carpet Ride", gets dressed up by neighbors for every holiday and most surf contests. It's a small enough town that we recognize the houses.
Beach cottages west of 101
The blocks between 101 and the sand, and around San Elijo Avenue, hold Cardiff's original cottages, many with their original doors, mortise locks, and a back door that still takes a skeleton key. Our usual advice: keep the old lock, rebuild and rekey it, and add one modern deadbolt for real security.
Sand and salt are worse here than almost anywhere in Encinitas, because the state beaches are across the highway. Sliders fill with sand and stop latching; plated hardware goes green; strike screws rust. We fit marine-grade and stainless hardware on these houses and won't pretend a bargain deadbolt will last a second summer.
View homes up the hill
East of 101, up through the Composer District, where the streets are named for Mozart, Verdi and Liszt, and on toward the ridge, the houses are bigger, newer, and built for the view: wide entries, walls of sliding glass on the ocean side, side-yard gates, and often a detached studio. That's a different problem: more openings, more keys, and glass doors whose locks were an afterthought. We key the gates and the studio to the house key, fit proper locks on the sliders, and set up smart locks that don't strain against a heavy door.
Cardiff rentals
Between Cardiff State Beach, San Elijo State Beach and the campground, a lot of Cardiff's cottages and view homes are short-term or seasonal rentals. Changeovers between guests, keypads with a code per stay, and keys for cleaners make up a good share of our Cardiff week. How changeovers and rental keypads work.
Summer weekends and the campground's busy months bring the same families back year after year. Owners who rent by the week want the code changed every Saturday, so we set the keypads up so the manager can do that without a service call, and we handle the keyed doors and the once-a-season hardware check ourselves.
The San Elijo campus of MiraCosta College is here too, and student houses change roommates every semester. A rekey of the doors the departed roommate had is the usual fix.
Restaurant Row and Cardiff Town Center
The restaurants along 101 on Restaurant Row and the shops around Cardiff Town Center and Seaside Market open early and close late. We do storefront rekeys and cylinder swaps at opening time, before the first customer, and back-door hardware that survives a kitchen. Staff turnover is a rekey trigger; call when the keys walk.
Getting to you
From our side of town it's 101 south past Swami's, or Santa Fe Drive to Birmingham for the hill. Birmingham Drive is the spine of the hill side, and Chesterfield drops to 101 right at the Kook, so "near the Kook" or "up Birmingham" tells us most of what we need. Most of the year that's a quick run. On a summer beach afternoon 101 through Cardiff crawls and the state beach lots are full, and we'll tell you the honest ETA on the phone rather than a number that sounds nice.
Keys locked in the car at the Cardiff State Beach or San Elijo lots after a session are a weekly call, and we come for those. How a lockout call goes.
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The rest of Encinitas, village by village, is on the villages page.
Cardiff callouts welcome.
Call, or text the lock and which side of 101 you're on.
- Hours
- Mon–Sat 8am–8pm
After-hours lockouts by phone - Credentials
- Licensed and insured
- Area
- Encinitas & Cardiff-by-the-Sea
92024 · 92007