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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, Clearview

Commercial · Clearview

Commercial Rekeying in Clearview

A key turned up in the parking lot with the shop's name on its fob. It came back to you, which is lucky, but it means keys are leaving the building on rings you have never seen, and the shop's locks have not changed since opening day.

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Commercial Rekeying

In plain words

A commercial rekey is planned around the trading day. The locksmith agrees a window, often after close or before opening, and works door by door so the premises is never left without a locking entrance. Cylinders come out, are repinned at a bench in the van or on a counter, and go back in; interchangeable cores are simply swapped for freshly combinated ones. Each door is tried with both new and old keys before the next is started. New keys go to whoever opens up in the morning, and a written chart of doors and key groups stays with the manager.

Sound familiar?

The drawer behind the counter holds a tangle of keys with tape labels: front old, side, Dave. Some open things, some open nothing, and the hardware-store copies mean the true count drifted long ago past anything written down.

How the visit goes

Clearview

How the visit goes

  1. Who needs to open what

    The keying plan is a picture of how the business runs, so the assessment asks who goes through which door on a normal day. Front-line staff need the customer entrance and perhaps the stockroom; supervisors add the office; the owner and the bookkeeper hold the cash room; the IT contractor reaches the server closet and nothing else. Out of that conversation come the key groups: doors keyed alike so one key covers a role, doors keyed differently where separation matters, and whether a master for the owner earns its place. The plan also names anything left out on purpose, so the chart shows both what changes and what stays.

  2. Door by door, never a gap

    The sequence agreed at the assessment is followed on the day. The locksmith finishes one opening entirely before beginning the next: cylinder out, repinned, refitted, tested with both the new key and the old, and locked again. Only then does the next door come apart. The main entrance is usually left for last and done while someone from the business is present, so there is never a moment when the premises has a door that will not lock. Staff who are working during the visit are handed their new key before the door they use is changed, and a short note goes to anyone off shift about where to collect theirs.

  3. Storefront hardware ready for the salt

    Cylinders on a street-facing door live a hard life: slush, salt spray from the sidewalk plough and a dozen freeze-thaw swings a winter. Each cylinder handled during the rekey is cleaned and dressed with the lubricant approved for that model, a dry graphite, PTFE or specified liquid lubricant applied sparingly, since too much graphite can gum a cylinder just as oil traps grit. Keep it that way with a puff of the same lubricant each autumn and a wipe of the key before it goes in on a slushy morning. A set screw snugged, a cam aligned and a bolt that throws fully are part of the handover, so the rekeyed door also locks more cleanly than it did before.

Commercial Rekeying

In the van

  • Mortise cylinder set screws and cams
  • Standard and restricted key blanks
  • Key gauge and decoder
  • Master pins
  • Cylinder removal and spanner tools

What affects the quote

Same fees day, night or weekend

  1. 1No existing chart or keys

    When nobody knows what the current keys open, the locksmith reads and records each cylinder before planning the new keying, and that reconstruction is time in the quote.

  2. 2Upgrades chosen on the day

    Some businesses use the visit to move to interchangeable cores, add a lockbox for the alarm company or fit a heavier cylinder on the cash room. Each is a separate line you can accept or leave.

  3. 3Documentation and register

    A keying chart, a key register and stamped codes on every key are part of a proper commercial rekey, and the quote names the paperwork so it is never skipped.

What to have ready

0 of 3 ready

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Commercial Rekeying: questions

We lost a master key. Does the whole building need doing?

Only the cylinders that master opened, which the keying chart identifies. If the lost key was the top master, that is every lock in the system; if it was a departmental master, it is that department's doors. Where no chart exists, the locksmith reads the cylinders first to establish what the key reached. The remaining doors, and any keys that never opened them, are left exactly as they are.

How often should a business change its keys as a matter of routine?

There is no fixed interval. Rekey on events rather than on a calendar: a key not returned, a lease change, a break-in, a renovation crew finished, or a key count that no longer matches the register. Businesses with a good register and a restricted keyway often go years between rekeys because nothing prompts one. A yearly check of the register against the keys on the hook is the habit that tells you when the time has come.

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.

Commercial Locks

Two rows of lock cylinders on a metal surface with keys and colored key tags in front. — Master Key System Design, Clearview
Master Key System DesignA new hire at the shop gets handed whatever spare key happens to be in the drawer, and it turns out to open the stockroom, the back office…

Commercial Rekeying near you

Below, each lock and key service we offer in Clearview gets its own page, with a description that assumes no prior knowledge. Start anywhere. Many customers arrive for a lockout and leave knowing exactly why the strike plate on the back door has bothered them for years.

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