Lockouts · Newmarket
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
You let a part-time employee go on Friday.
In plain words
The visit runs in a steady order. On the phone you describe what was lost, which doors it opened and whether you have a way in. At the door the locksmith confirms your connection to the property, then walks it with you listing every cylinder. Each one comes off in turn, is repinned to the new key and refitted. The first key is cut to the new combination and checked in every lock, and the remaining copies are cut from it. Then every key is tried in every door with you watching, the count is agreed, and the new key code is written down for future copies.
How the visit goesThe lawyer's envelope held two keys for the new house. The previous owners mention a cleaner, a dog walker and a brother who checked on the place, and the builder's paperwork shows six were cut originally. Four are unaccounted for.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
How the visit goes
Where the tenant and landlord line falls
Rented and shared buildings add a boundary that the locksmith maps early. A tenant's suite door is theirs to use but a lock change is agreed with the landlord, who receives keys as well. A condominium suite cylinder may sit on the building's master system, so its rekey is planned so the master still works, and the lobby, garage and amenity doors stay with the corporation. A small business rekeying a shop door checks what the lease says about the landlord holding a key. Sorting this out on the doorstep keeps every party informed and lets the work proceed with no surprise phone calls the following week.
Handling a restricted or high-security keyway
Restricted and patented keyways rekey in much the same way, with more parts and a little more care. A high-security cylinder's own elements, a sidebar's finger pins, a rotating element or another system-specific part, are reset to the new key's profile alongside the ordinary pins, and the finished plug is checked before refitting. Key blanks for these systems are issued through whatever authorised channel that system uses, a letter, a registered account, a dealer agreement, or sometimes a key card; bring whatever credential you were given. The reward is that copies of the new key can only be made through that same channel, one of the stronger kinds of key control a household can have.
When to think about rekeying again
Rekeying is a repeatable act, and after this visit you know what triggers it. Moving into a new home, because previous occupants and their helpers may hold copies. A contractor or tenant leaving without handing a key back. A separation or a change of roommates. A ring lost with anything that names your address. Manufacturers list exactly these moments, and a household that treats them as routine stays in control of its doors for decades with the same hardware. The locks on the door today can be repinned many more times; only the small pins and the keys change each time.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
In the van
Cylinder retaining-clip and cap tools
Key tags and a key register
Key gauge and decoder
Top pins and cylinder springs
Pin tweezers and shims
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
What affects the quote
Travel to the property
Every call-out includes the drive. A house across town and a rural property at the end of a concession road involve different time on the road, and the quote reflects the trip.
Condition of the cylinders
A clean, healthy cylinder is repinned as is. One clogged with salt and grit is cleaned first, and a worn or damaged one is replaced rather than repinned, each priced as its own item.
Getting to each cylinder
Doors spread across a large lot, a suite up several flights behind a locked lobby, or a gated property with a padlock at the road add walking and waiting time that the quote allows for.
What to have ready
- Which doors did the missing key open: front, back, side, garage, shed, gate?
- Do you know roughly how many copies of the old key exist?
- Was anything with your address, such as a licence or a mail tag, lost with the keys?
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey: questions
QuestionsCan I just have another key cut instead?
You can, and it solves being without a key. It leaves the lost one working, though, which is the half of the problem that keeps people awake. Rekeying takes about as much effort as a trip to a hardware store counter and ends with a new key in your hand and the old one retired. If the key was mislaid somewhere it will never be found and named nothing, a plain copy is a fair choice.
I live in a condominium. Which locks are mine to rekey?
Your suite door is generally the one you can act on, and it may sit on a building master system, so the locksmith plans the rekey so the master still operates while the old change key stops working. Lobby doors, the parking gate, amenity rooms and the mailroom belong to the corporation; report a lost fob or key for those to the property manager, who deactivates or reissues it. The locksmith can help sort which is which.
What about the mailbox key?
It depends on whose mailbox it is. A private box at your door or on your post is yours, and its small cylinder can be rekeyed or replaced in the same visit. A compartment in a community mailbox or an apartment mailroom belongs to the postal service or the building, which handles lost-key lock changes through its own process. The locksmith will tell you which you have and who to call.
Related services
- Business Lockout ServiceYou signed the lease on the unit last week and the landlord handed over possession, but the previous tenant's locks are still on both doors and no keys came with them.
- Broken Key ExtractionIn the parking lot your car key snapped in the driver's door.
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe shop's aluminum door has a bent meeting stile and the hookbolt is jammed half out.