Change or rekey · Newmarket
Lock Rekeying in Newmarket
Three months of renovation are finally done. The kitchen looks wonderful, and along the way a general contractor, a tile installer, a plumber and an electrician each carried a key to your front door at one point or another.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 803-1633In plain words
What you keep after rekeying is almost everything. The deadbolt, the handle set, the finish that matches your door hardware, the strike plate and the holes in the door all stay exactly where they are, which matters on an older door where new hardware rarely lines up with old mortises. What changes is a handful of brass pins a few millimetres long inside each cylinder, and the key in your pocket. The work is done on site, one cylinder at a time, so the house is never left with an unsecured door, and worn springs or a sticky plug can be dealt with while the cylinder is already apart.
How the visit goesThe builder handed over your new home with a stack of identical keys, and you know the framing crew, the painters and the flooring installers all used a construction key during the build. The doors are brand new, but the key that opens them should be yours alone.
Lock Rekeying · Newmarket
How the visit goes
- 1
Doors that belong to someone else
A few openings around a home are not the occupant's to change, and sorting them out early avoids awkwardness later. In a condominium, the lobby, the garage, the locker room and the mailroom are the corporation's doors, and the suite door itself may need to remain on a system the building can access in an emergency. In a rental, the landlord has a say and must be given a key. A shared side entrance in a semi-detached or a duplex serves two households. The locksmith asks about each of these, confirms who needs to agree, and keeps them separate from the doors that are plainly yours.
- 2
Proving the old keys are finished
The last operation at every door is the test that matters most. The locksmith turns the new key from outside and inside with the door open, then closed, and confirms the bolt throws fully and draws back cleanly. Then the old key is tried in the same cylinder and must turn nothing. This is repeated at every rekeyed door, because the door that gets skipped is the one an old key still opens. Spares cut from the new pinning are tried in every lock they are meant for. The old keys, now just shaped brass, are collected or handed back to you for the recycling bin.
- 3
Knowing when to rekey again
Rekeying is not a once-in-a-lifetime event; it is a habit tied to changes in who holds keys. The moments to think about it are the same ones that brought you here: a move, a tenant or roommate change, a key lost with anything identifying the address, a contractor who has finished, or a relationship that has ended. Between those events there is nothing to schedule. Because the house is now on a known system with a record, a later rekey is a shorter visit, and any new lock you add along the way can be pinned to the existing key so the household never drifts back to a ring full of mismatched keys.
In the van
- Graded bottom pin kit
- Cylinder shim
- Pinning tweezers and tray
- Code cutter or key duplicator
- Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
What affects the quote
- 1
Condition of the existing cylinders
A clean cylinder is repinned as it is. One with collapsed springs, a plug packed with old oil or a worn housing needs service or replacement while it is apart, and that shows separately.
- 2
Access to each door being rekeyed
A rekeying visit goes smoothly when every door is reachable without delay: an empty unit, a cleared hallway, or someone available to let the locksmith into each room. Locked common areas, tenants who are out, or furniture blocking a cylinder all add time the locksmith accounts for on site.
- 3
Mailboxes, padlocks and cabinets
Small cam locks on mailboxes and cabinets are usually replaced rather than repinned, and padlocks vary in whether they can join the house key; each of these is priced as its own item.
Same fees day, night or weekend.
Lock Rekeying: questions
Can the garage side door, shed and gate be included?
Yes, and they usually should be, because a side door into the garage is the opening most often forgotten and left on an old key. Any pin-tumbler cylinder on the property can be pinned to the house key if its keyway allows: the man-door into the garage, a shed, a keyed gate latch, and many padlocks. A mailbox lock is usually a small cam lock that is replaced rather than repinned. Mention every opening when you book so the right blanks and cylinders are in the van.
What is a restricted keyway, and does it change anything?
A restricted or patented keyway is one whose blanks are not sold to the public, so copies can only be cut by an authorized dealer from a record of who is allowed to have them. Rekeying such a cylinder is the same operation inside, but the new keys are cut from controlled blanks and the count is logged. The benefit is that a key cannot be duplicated at a kiosk without your knowledge, which makes the record of who holds one much easier to trust.
Can I keep one door on a different key from the rest?
Yes, and it is common. A basement suite or in-law apartment often gets its own key so the tenant's key opens their door and nothing else, while your key opens the main house. A home office, a storage room or a shed can be kept separate for the same reason. The locksmith sets up the groups you want, pins each accordingly and tags the keys so the separate one is not mixed into the household set.
Lock Rekeying near you
York, Ontario
Newmarket information
- Town
- Newmarket, York, Ontario
- In business
- 25 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7 · nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 803-1633
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
What the census means at the door
30%
Newer homes. About 30% of homes in Newmarket were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.
New construction settles in its first years, and a door that closed perfectly at move-in can begin to catch as the frame finds its final position. A locksmith visiting a newer home adjusts strikes and hinges so the bolt throws freely again.
60%
A mix of homes. Single-detached houses make up about 60% of homes in Newmarket (2021 Census).
Mixed housing means a locksmith sees a bungalow in the morning and a condo tower in the afternoon. The stocked van has house-door deadbolts, suite-door cylinders and the finishes for each, so neither kind of customer waits for a second visit.
Nearby
Open 24/7
Request a visit
Three months of renovation are finally done.
Call now · open 24/7(289) 803-1633- On-site assessment preferred
- Same fees day, night or weekend
- 25 years in business