Sound familiar?Wilson Heights
- The call
- Your roommate moved out last weekend. Rent is settled, the room is empty, and the key is still on their ring. You trust them, but the lock on your front door should answer to the people who actually live here.
One key for the front door, another for the back, a third for the side door into the garage, and a fourth for the shed. You stand on the step every evening flipping through them in the dark, trying each one until something turns.
In plain words
A rekeying visit follows a straightforward order. First the locksmith confirms you are entitled to change the locks, which for an owner is identification and for a tenant includes the landlord's agreement. Next comes a walk around the house to list every door to include, read the keyway on each cylinder and check its condition. The cylinders come out one at a time, are pinned to the new key and go back in. Every door is then tested with the new key and with the old one, spares are cut and tried in each lock, and you receive a note of what was done.
Lock Rekeying · Wilson Heights
How the visit goes
Scene 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.
Scene 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.
Scene 3
Living with one key for the house
If the visit brought your doors onto a single key, daily life gets a little simpler: one key opens the front door, the back, the garage's side entry and the shed, and the ring in your pocket shrinks to the car key and one for the house. Anyone you give a key to gets the same freedom, which is convenient for family and worth thinking about for anyone who should only reach one door; that is what a separate group is for. Keypads and smart locks keep their codes, and their override cylinder now takes the same key. If you add a door later, its cylinder can be pinned to match.
In the van
- Code cutter or key duplicator
- Replacement cylinder for odd keyways
- Graded bottom pin kit
- Retaining clip tool
- Cylinder shim
What shapes the quoteLawrence Heights Locksmith Services
- Several units in one building
- A landlord rekeying a duplex, a triplex or a small apartment building, with each suite on its own key and a common entry shared, has more cylinders and a keying chart to build, and the quote grows accordingly.
- Mismatched keyways needing a cylinder swap
- Where one door's cylinder cannot take the key the other doors share, a compatible replacement cylinder is fitted and pinned to match, and that hardware appears as its own line in the quote.
- Smart lock override cylinders and codes
- Pinning the backup cylinder of a keypad or app lock to the house key is a small extra task, and reviewing or deleting user codes at the same time is another, each named in the quote.
FeesSame any hour
Straight answers
One of my locks is stiff and worn. Can it still be rekeyed?
Often the stiffness is grit, old oil and tired springs rather than real wear, and those are handled while the cylinder is on the bench: the plug is cleaned, new springs go in with the new pins, and a dry lubricant finishes it. If the plug has worn oval or the housing is damaged, the locksmith shows you and suggests a replacement cylinder pinned to the same key, rather than fresh pins in a lock that will keep dragging.
Should I rekey when I move into a new home?
It is the single most common reason to rekey, and a sensible one. A resale home has typically passed through owners, agents, inspectors, cleaners and trades, any of whom may have had a key cut. A newly built home has been opened by construction crews using a builder's key. Rekeying on move-in means the only working keys are yours, and the same visit can bring every exterior door onto a single key, retiring the assorted keys you inherited.
I am a landlord. Should I rekey between tenants?
Many landlords do, and it removes the question of whether every copy came back. The locksmith rekeys the unit's cylinders so the incoming tenant holds the only working keys, cuts the copies you want, and notes the count for your move-in record. Because provincial tenancy rules expect the tenant to be handed replacement keys whenever a landlord changes a lock, the visit ends with keys for both of you and a clear list of which doors were done.
Change or Rekey Locks
- Lock Replacement & UpgradeThe century home's original mortise lock takes a key the size of a spoon, sticks in humid weather and has worn its strike to a…
- Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceThe key turns freely in the round cylinder on the door, all the way around and back, without the bolt shifting at all.
- Smart Lock InstallationYou have just taken possession of the house and the previous owners handed over a keypad deadbolt with a code nobody wrote down…
- Gate & Building Entry LocksBetween the front gate, the side gate and the one behind the shed, there are three different padlocks, three different keys, and…
- Mailbox Lock ReplacementThe little brass key for your curbside mailbox was on the same ring as the one you lost at the gym last week.
Wilson Heightsinformation
TorontoOntario
Lock Rekeying · Toronto, Armour Heights, Lawrence Heights, Lawrence Manor, Winston Park
- Town
- Wilson Heights, Toronto
- In business
- 14 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 236-8131
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 58 in 100 homes · older homes
- 23 in 100 homes · mostly attached
- About 58% of homes in Toronto were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Older housing means older frames. Wood that has settled for years leaves strikes slightly out of line, so a bolt drags or needs a lift of the handle. A locksmith expects this and brings the shims, longer screws and strike plates to correct it.
- Single-detached houses make up about 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).Attached housing turns over more often than detached, so rekeying between tenants or owners is a constant. Because suite doors tend to be standard, the job is usually a straightforward pin change and a fresh set of keys cut on site.
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
One key for the front door, another for the back, a third for the side door into the garage, and a fourth for the shed.
(289) 236-8131, open 24/7.