Lockouts · Whitchurch-Stouffville
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
Your purse was taken from the back of a chair at a restaurant.
In plain words
When a key disappears, cutting yourself another copy solves the wrong half of the problem. You can get in again, but so can whoever finds the original. A same-visit rekey turns that around: the locksmith works through each cylinder the missing key operated, fitting new bottom pins on a conventional lock or resetting a homeowner-rekeyable one through its own procedure, and refits the lock to the door. The lost key still slides into the keyway but no longer lifts the pins to the right height, so it turns nothing. You leave with fresh keys cut on site and the same locks you already had.
How the visit goesYour purse was taken from the back of a chair at a restaurant. The cards can be cancelled by phone tonight, but the house keys were in the side pocket beside a driver's licence that shows exactly where those keys fit.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
How the visit goes
Rekey or replace, cylinder by cylinder
Rekeying suits hardware in sound condition, and most cylinders on a house qualify. The locksmith flags the exceptions while the list is being made: a plug worn oval by decades of use, a cylinder packed with salt and grit from a side door that faces the driveway, a knob lock so light it offers little resistance, or a keyway that no longer has blanks available. For those, a replacement cylinder or a complete new deadbolt keyed to match the rest is proposed as its own item, so you decide door by door. The aim is that every cylinder leaving the visit on a new key is one that will keep turning well for years.
Handling a restricted or high-security keyway
Restricted and patented keyways rekey in much the same way, with more parts and a little more care. A high-security cylinder's own elements, a sidebar's finger pins, a rotating element or another system-specific part, are reset to the new key's profile alongside the ordinary pins, and the finished plug is checked before refitting. Key blanks for these systems are issued through whatever authorised channel that system uses, a letter, a registered account, a dealer agreement, or sometimes a key card; bring whatever credential you were given. The reward is that copies of the new key can only be made through that same channel, one of the stronger kinds of key control a household can have.
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 blanks in common keyways
Replacement cylinders
Rekeyable-cylinder reset tool
Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
Key gauge and decoder
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
What affects the quote
Upgrades chosen during the visit
Some people take the moment to move to a heavier deadbolt, a restricted keyway, a reinforced strike or a lockbox for the spare. None of it is required; each option is a separate line.
Master-keyed building cylinders
A condominium or apartment suite cylinder on a building master system is pinned so the master still works, which takes coordination with management and a little more time than a stand-alone house door.
Entry 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.
What to have ready
- Was a garage remote, building fob or car key on the same ring?
- Was anything with your address, such as a licence or a mail tag, lost with the keys?
- Which doors did the missing key open: front, back, side, garage, shed, gate?
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey: questions
QuestionsA garage door remote was on the ring. What happens with that?
The opener on the garage ceiling holds a memory of every remote paired to it, and it can be erased in one step so the lost remote is forgotten. The remotes still in the household are paired again afterwards, and a keypad on the outside of the garage gets a new code if you have one. The locksmith can do this during the visit, and it takes only a few minutes at the opener.
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.
Should I rekey when I move into a new home?
Lock manufacturers list moving as one of the main reasons to rekey, and it is easy to see why: previous owners, their relatives, a cleaner, a dog walker and a contractor may all hold copies you know nothing about. Rekeying every exterior cylinder in one visit resets the count to the keys in your hand, and it is a convenient moment to put every door on a single key as well.
Related services
- Business Lockout ServiceA cook stepped into the alley with the recycling and the rear door swung shut behind him.
- Broken Key ExtractionThe key went in like any other morning, you turned it, and something gave with a small metallic click.
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe back door looks closed until you touch it.