Skip to content
Wasaga BeachLock Services · Wasaga BeachOpen 24/7(249) 492-2389Request a visit
Person holding a door-handle and latch assembly at a worktable outside a glass entrance, with additional handles and tools laid out. — Commercial Rekeying, Wasaga Beach

Commercial · Wasaga Beach

Commercial Rekeying in Wasaga Beach

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.

Request a visit(249) 492-2389

Commercial Rekeying

In plain words

Rekeying is also a chance to decide how the keys should work, not simply to change them. Most businesses settle on a small number of key groups: one key for the doors every employee uses, another for the office, cash room or server closet that only managers open, and perhaps a single master for the owner that opens everything. The locksmith maps this out on a keying chart before touching a cylinder, then pins each lock so the plan holds true on the door. Staff carry one key instead of a ring, managers carry two, and the chart tells you at a glance who can open what.

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

Wasaga Beach

How the visit goes

  1. A walk of every door and lock

    The locksmith walks the premises with you and lists every opening that should be in the plan: the customer entrance, the receiving door, offices, stockroom, cash room, server closet, the mailbox, cabinets, and any padlocks on gates, compounds or roll shutters. Each lock is identified by type, since a mortise cylinder in an aluminum storefront door, a key-in-lever set on an office, a rim cylinder on a back door and an interchangeable core in a stockroom each come out and go back in differently. The keyway and the maker's mark are noted, and the condition of each cylinder is checked, so the list from the walk is what the quote and the work are built on.

  2. Repinning a standard cylinder

    The cylinder is taken off the door and its plug is slid out with a follower, a small tube that holds the top pins and springs in place so nothing scatters. The old bottom pins are tipped out, and a new combination is chosen from the pinning records so it does not collide with any other key in the plan. Fresh pins of the matching depths are dropped into each chamber, the plug goes back in, and the new key is tried: it should turn as smoothly as if the lock were new, and the old key should stop dead. The cylinder is then refitted and adjusted so the cam or tailpiece throws the bolt fully.

  3. A routine for the next departure

    Turnover stops being a security event once there is a procedure for it. When someone leaves, their key is collected against the register and ticked off; if it cannot be produced, the chart shows exactly which cylinders that key opened, and only those are dealt with. Businesses that chose interchangeable cores can go further: the manager takes the control key from the safe, swaps the affected core for a spare in less time than a coffee break, and the locksmith repins the removed core at leisure for the next time. Either way the response is measured and specific, and the front door is never left answering to a key that walked out with a former employee.

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. 1Number of cylinders

    The count of openings drives the quote more than anything else: each cylinder is removed, repinned, refitted and tested individually, so a three-door shop and a twelve-office suite are very different jobs.

  2. 2Padlocks, 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.

  3. 3Mix of lock types

    A key-in-lever cylinder, a storefront mortise cylinder, a back-door rim cylinder and a padlock take different handling, though several full-size formats can share one pin kit for the same key system; a premises with a wide mix of cylinder types and brands still takes longer than one with one.

What to have ready

0 of 3 ready

Call (249) 492-2389

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, Wasaga Beach
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

Whatever brought you to this page from Wasaga Beach, whether it was a lockout, a lost key, a move, a break-in or simply a door that has annoyed you for months, one of the services below fits. Each is written to tell you what happens, what it involves, and what you have when the locksmith leaves.

Open 24/7 · call(249) 492-2389Request a visit