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Person holding a door-handle and latch assembly at a worktable outside a glass entrance, with additional handles and tools laid out. — Commercial Rekeying, Glenwood Park

Commercial · Glenwood Park

Commercial Rekeying in Glenwood Park

Two people left over the summer and the keys they handed back came up one short. Nobody is sure whether the missing key was for the front door, the stockroom or both, and the sign-out sheet stopped being filled in a year ago.

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In plain words

Changing the locks answers today's question; key control keeps it answered. During a commercial rekey the new keys are stamped with a serial code rather than the business name or address, so a dropped key tells its finder nothing. Each key is logged against the person who receives it, and the old keys are collected and cut up on the spot. For premises that want copies kept out of hardware stores, the cylinders can be set up on a restricted keyway, with blanks released only against a signed authorization. What you end up with is a set of locks whose keys you can account for years later.

Sound familiar?

Two people left over the summer and the keys they handed back came up one short. Nobody is sure whether the missing key was for the front door, the stockroom or both, and the sign-out sheet stopped being filled in a year ago.

How the visit goes

Commercial Rekeying · Glenwood Park

How the visit goes

Technician with a yellow cordless drill and thin screwdriver bit fastening a brass-colored lock plate on a dark paneled front door. — Glenwood Park
  1. 1

    Who is entitled to order the change

    Every commercial rekey starts by confirming that the person asking for it has the standing to do so. For a small business that is usually the owner or a director; for a larger one, a facilities manager or property manager acting under written authority. The lease matters here too, because it decides which doors are the tenant's to alter and which remain the landlord's, and many leases ask that the landlord be given a key or told when locks change. Getting this straight before any cylinder comes out protects the business, its neighbours in the building and the locksmith, and it means the finished keying chart lands in the right hands.

  2. 2

    Pinning the master and change keys

    When the plan includes a master, each cylinder is pinned to accept two keys: its own change key and the master above it. Thin master pins sit in the pin stacks so the plug can turn at both the change key's height and the master's; master keying can also create extra, unintended combinations, so the locksmith charts the system to keep those from lining up with someone else's key, and the manager's key opens its whole group and nothing beyond it. A well-built system leaves unused combinations in reserve, so when the business adds a door or a department next year the new cylinder joins the plan without disturbing the keys already in people's pockets.

  3. 3

    How copies get made from now on

    If the business moved to a restricted keyway, the way keys are copied has changed for good. Hardware stores and kiosks do not stock the blanks, which makes running off a spare on a lunch break far harder to arrange. New keys are ordered from the locksmith by one of the people named on the authorization letter, who signs for them, and the register grows by exactly that many. On a standard keyway, the same discipline is kept by habit: the manager orders keys, the register records them and a key that turns up unlisted prompts a question. Either way the count on paper and the count in the world stay the same, which is what key control means.

In the van

  • Mortise cylinder set screws and cams
  • Commercial pin kit
  • Key gauge and decoder
  • Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
  • Interchangeable cores and control key

What affects the quote

  1. 1

    How many keys are cut

    Each key cut to code and stamped is counted into the quote. Two per door group for a small shop and forty for a warehouse shift are different numbers.

  2. 2

    Cylinders that need replacing

    Where a worn, corroded or low-grade cylinder is better replaced than repinned, the new part is added for that door alone, and the locksmith points it out before the work begins.

  3. 3

    Padlocks, cabinets and mailboxes

    Small locks add up. Each padlock repinned to the door key, each cabinet keyed alike and each mailbox cylinder replaced is listed on its own so you can decide what to include.

Same fees day, night or weekend.

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Commercial Rekeying: questions

Advice · (289) 816-4986

What do you do with the old keys?

They are gathered, tested at each rekeyed door to confirm they no longer work, and then cut through so they can never be used or copied. You can keep the pieces or the locksmith takes them away. Any old key that still operates a door you chose to leave unchanged is handed back and noted on the chart, so it is clear which keys remain live and which are scrap.

Will rekeying affect our alarm system or card readers?

Mechanical rekeying leaves electronics alone: alarm panels, card readers and keypads keep their codes and credentials. What changes is the list of people holding keys, and it is worth updating the alarm company's keyholder list and retiring the codes of anyone who has left at the same time, since keys and codes usually walk out together. Where a door has both a card reader and a keyed override, the override cylinder is rekeyed with the rest.

Can padlocks, cabinets and the mailbox go on the plan too?

Yes. Gate, cage and shutter padlocks that accept repinning can share the back-door key, and the locks on filing cabinets, drawers and display cases can be grouped so the people who work at them carry a single key while the manager holds a separate one. Mailbox cylinders are small and are usually swapped for new rather than repinned. Everything is entered on the chart, so one document covers the whole premises.

Halton, Ontario

Glenwood Park information

Town
Glenwood Park, Halton, Ontario
In business
16 years
Hours
Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
Visits
On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.

What the census means at the door

47%

Homes of every age. About 47% of homes in Burlington were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.

In an area of varied housing ages, rekeying is the one job that fits every door. Old cylinders and new ones both take fresh pins, so a household moving into either kind of home can start with keys that nobody else holds.

50%

A mix of homes. Single-detached houses make up about 50% of homes in Burlington (2021 Census).

Neighbourhoods of houses beside townhouses and low-rise buildings have a range of door constructions: solid wood, steel, fibreglass and metal-clad. A locksmith who works in such an area is used to fitting hardware to all of them without new holes.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population

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Two people left over the summer and the keys they handed back came up one short.

Call now · open 24/7(289) 816-4986
  • On-site assessment preferred
  • Same fees day, night or weekend
  • 16 years in business