Papenhausen Hardware

Old school hardware store and great customer service. Has everything you need and things you never knew you needed! Amazingly low prices; you can even find unique and cool gifts galore.

Papenhausen is the perfect local hardware store. All employees are knowledgeable and happy to help and answer whatever questions you have.
They are reasonably-​priced and have a great return/​exchange policy.
It’s surprising how many times you need to return to a hardware store when you move into a new place and I’m happy to say that Papenhausen Hardware is my go-​to.

Very helpful and friendly staff. Had a problem with my toilet and they went out of their way to help me find a replacement part. Even gave me a couple of pieces free to take home and try. Will definitely shop here again.

They are hiring right now.
Came here to get some lighter fluid and that was rather simple. The have some good tools as well.
For heaven sake’s it is a hardware store! There is nothing extravagant about this place. You can ask the person at the counter where to look for stuff if you are confused or have a question about anything. They tend to be rather helpful.
You can also find a bunch of gardening items here as well. I think they have fertilizer in bulk, in a big bag. Yeah, just local hardware shop in West Portal that meets most peoples hardware needs.

Great neighborhood hardware store, with wide selection and helpful staff. Took my downrange tomahawk /​tactical breaching tool here for sharpening, and it came back with a perfect edge to it. The sharpening only cost $ 10, and the tomahawk is now ready in the event of catastrophic structural failure, or anything else an earthquake might throw at it. I am also confident that this weapon could now cleave a zombie skull, if it comes to that. Highly recommended!
Sharpening is performed by a service that comes in on Mondays — you drop off your survival tools (or kitchen knives) sometime before then and pick up before close Monday or on Tuesday when complete.

Papenhausen is a neighborhood gem. I have been shopping here for 30 years. They have nearly everything you would need for small home projects and they carry very high quality products. I always buy my paint here. Everyone who works there is quite knowledgeable, but major kudos to Matt the owner and to Carl who seems to know how to fix anything! Well organized, well lit and a great location. Parking can be a bit of a problem.

This is a great local business. The staff is friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and the place is amazingly well stocked. You can ALWAYS get assistance. Need we say more?

Great place to buy hardware. The staff is super useful and even if they don’t know the exact answer, they will make sure to ask other staff members to get the right advice. I love the place!

This little store keeps on delivering solid service. I was recently also impressed by their prices. I compared three items here with Amazon’s price for the identical items. All items were within 50 cents or less of each other (one cheaper at Papenhausen).

I’d like to say I was one of those guys who make a conscious effort to shop at small, local stores. I’d like to have the time, energy, and social drive to seek out neighborhood places and give them the largest possible share of my spending. Maybe in some other, better world, I’m a better person. In this world, I don’t have a lot of time, and I have even less patience.

Thankfully, the good folks at Papenhausen never let me down. I seldom get more than five steps in before someone says hi and asks if they can help. And if I need help (even the manliest of men sometimes needs some help at the hardware store, just as we occasionally cry while watching Gladiator), their people can and do provide actual useful, informed, intelligent, helpful help!

I once had to return a nice watering can that broke (from the weigh of the water, :/​). I walked in, told the guy at the counter I wanted to trade him his nice can for my busted one, he walked back, grabbed one off the counter, and we just traded. No «where’s the receipt,» no «how do I know this didn’t break when you filled it with mercury,» just a flat out «we’ll take the broken one, here’s a new one, sorry for the inconvenience.»

It’s easy to shop locally when the local shop also happens to be the best.

This is our local neighborhood family frequented hardware store. Now I know why. I went in earlier for a «zip-​it» and came out with a snake for around ten bucks more and a thorough, detailed demonstration of how to use it (and why as opposed to alternatives) from a friendly member of the staff there. I will be returning for my various and extensive hardware needs, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this store to friends.

Pimp!
Love this place. Knowledgeable folk, great selection, great attitude. Love, love love. Seriously, what more do you need?

They have a very good selection for a small, local hardware store and are knowledgeable about their products.

I have an office on West Portal Ave. and have had various hardware needs over the past few years. I always find what I need here, and I find it easily! They are stocked with everything from basic painting supplies to gardening supplies to cleaning supplies to hardware items. The workers are nice and knowledgeable and usually greet you on your way into the store.

I took a long walk at Lunch last week through the West Portal neighborhood. It’s another Midwest world on this side of the Muni tunnel, although the yupscale restaurants and other gentrification signs are slowly creeping in. Papenhausen Hardware immediately caught my eye and like a tractor beam, I was soon drawn inside.
Of course, it didn’t really matter whether I bought anything as I was enthralled with their selection and with a clear deference to what local homeowners needed to keep their properties in good shape. I bought a few things for around the house and of course I could have purchased all this more locally to my home. But what fun would that be with such a «real deal» hardware store like Papenhausen right in front of me?

The folks at this neighborhood hardware store represent the principled manner of store operation.
They are friendly, the KNOW their merchandise and its applications, they are polite and professional and willing to go out of their way to help folks with their everyday household needs.
Great place and folks !

Do you secretly long for simple stopping? Finding what you need without pawing through pills of stuff?
Today was the third time in a year I found exactly the food or beverage container I needed, from a selection of about 25.
And they carry colored toilet seats to match your vintage toilet. You won’t find that in a Home Depot.
Curated is the new black in hardware stores.

Very nice people. They are one of the few stores in the Sunset to recycle CFLs.
Turns out they are not allowed to receive cracked bulbs due to the exposure to mercury. One of my bulbs was cracked, but the gentleman working at the store let me deposit it since it was my first time there. How convenient. Thank you, guys.
For those who wish to recycle cracked CFLs, please call Sunset Scavenger to arrange a pickup from your home.

I called up this place and Carl picked up. He is the nicest and most helpful over the phone customer service person ever! He listened to what I was looking for, looked it up in the store, made sure he had the right item and placed it on hold for me.
I’ve been looking for this item for the longest time! I tried online but they did not have the color I was looking for. All other stores I tried were sold out and had mean people answering their phones!
I shall return!

I only stopped in to check out the succulents they had on sale. Upon entry, I was greeted warmly by the guy at the register AND the guy moving stuff around on a ladder. Although I was just browsing, they were so helpful!
They’ve got a bunch of stuff in here for your household needs. I like small businesses, especially when they know what they are doing and have a lovely staff.
I’ll be back to pick up things :)