Lockouts · Wasaga Beach
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
The lawyer's envelope held two keys for the new house. The previous owners mention a cleaner, a dog walker and a brother who checked on the place, and the builder's paperwork shows six were cut originally.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
In plain words
A missing key is also the moment a household can stop carrying four. Because a rekey sets a fresh combination in every cylinder anyway, the locksmith can set the same combination in all of them, provided they share a keyway family, so the front door, back door, garage entry and side gate open with one key. Where a cylinder belongs to a different family, it can be swapped for one that matches during the same visit. The result is a single key on each ring, fewer copies to keep track of, and the certainty that the lost one operates none of them.
How the visit goesA roommate moved out on bad terms and says the key was left on the counter. It was not. You have already changed the Wi-Fi password, but the front door still opens for a key that could be anywhere.
Wasaga Beach
How the visit goes
Which cylinders the key actually opened
The locksmith walks the property with you and tries to think like the key. Front door deadbolt and handle, the back door, a side door, the door between the garage and the house, the shed, a gate padlock, a basement walkout, the door to a storage room or workshop. Each cylinder the missing key fitted goes on a list. Anything it fitted that is not yours to change goes on a second list: a shared lobby door, a parking gate, a community mailbox compartment, a workplace. The first list becomes the scope of the visit; the second becomes a set of calls you can make with the locksmith's help while the work goes on.
Resetting a homeowner-rekeyable cylinder without its key
Some newer residential locks carry a small slot beside the keyway that lets a homeowner change the key with a learn tool, but only while a working key is in hand. When that key is the one that was lost, the locksmith uses the manufacturer's reset tool instead: the cylinder is pulled from the lock, seated in the reset fixture, and its internal sidebar and wafers are returned to a blank state. A new key of the right blank is then inserted, the learn tool sets the cylinder to it, and the lock goes back on the door taking the new key and rejecting the old one.
Cylinders that turn more sweetly than before
A cylinder that has been apart, cleaned and repinned usually feels better than it did before the key went missing. Old grease, road salt and the grit that collects in a keyway over a decade came out with the plug, and a dry lubricant went in. Keys cut to code seat fully and lift each pin cleanly. If a door had a key that needed a wiggle or a shove, that is often gone. Follow your lock's own maintenance guidance to keep it that way: many cylinders take a puff of graphite or PTFE into the keyway now and then, some a specified liquid lubricant instead; general household oils and sprays collect dust and gum the pins.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
In the van
- Key gauge and decoder
- Code key machine
- Key blanks in common keyways
- Replacement cylinders
- Plug follower set
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1Entry as well as rekeying
If the lost key was your only key and you are locked out too, the door is opened first and that opening is quoted as its own step ahead of the rekey.
2Travel to the property
Every call-out includes the drive. A house across town and a rural property at the end of a concession road involve different time on the road, and the quote reflects the trip.
3Number of keys cut
New keys are cut on site and counted individually. Two for a couple or six for a household with teenagers and a sitter: name the number and the quote reflects it.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey: questions
Does rekeying weaken the lock?
No. On a conventional pin-tumbler cylinder, the housing, springs and top pins are untouched and only the bottom pins are exchanged for the same grade of part the lock left the factory with; a homeowner-rekeyable design is reset through its own procedure instead, and a high-security cylinder may also need its sidebar or finger-pin elements reset. If the locksmith notices worn parts, replacing them is offered as a separate step, leaving the lock stronger, not weaker.
How long does a whole-house rekey take?
Plan on an hour or two for a typical house with three or four cylinders, including the walk-through, identification, pinning, cutting and testing. Each additional cylinder adds a little, as does swapping a cylinder to bring a mismatched door onto the same key, resetting a homeowner-rekeyable lock or clearing a garage opener. The locksmith gives a realistic window on the phone once the list of doors is known.
My key fell in the snow in my own yard. Do I still need to rekey?
It is your call, and it is a reasonable one either way. A key lost on your own property is unlikely to be picked up by a stranger, but it will surface in the spring thaw, and until then you are trusting a guess about where it lies. Many households rekey anyway for the certainty, and because the visit also lets them put every door on one key while the locksmith is there.
Lockout Services
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey 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.
- Wasaga Beach
- Clearview
- Midland
- Penetanguishene
- Creemore
- Stayner
- Brocks Beach
- New Wasaga Beach
- Oakview Beach
- Oxbow Park
- Firth's Corners
- Portage Park
- Sunnyside
- Dunedin
- Glen Huron
- Singhampton
- Balm Beach
- Coutnac Beach
- Edmore Beach
- Georgian Heights
- Kettle's Beach
- Marygrove
- Ossossane Beach
- Perkinsfield
- Sawlog Bay
- Wahnekewaning Beach
- Woodland Beach