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Two people exchanging a key at an open front door, with a disassembled lock cylinder and small parts arranged on a cloth nearby. — Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey, Erin Mills

Lockouts · Erin Mills

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.

In plain words

Rekeying and replacing a lock arrive at the same place by different roads. Replacement puts new hardware on the door: a new deadbolt or handle, and a finish that may not match its neighbours. Rekeying leaves all of that alone and changes what is inside the cylinder, commonly the pin stack on a conventional lock or a reset on a homeowner-rekeyable one, so a different key runs it. For hardware in good condition, that is the sensible choice: the door looks and feels as it did while the old key is retired. A worn cylinder can be replaced and keyed to match the rest in the same visit.

Sound familiar?Erin Mills

The call
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. Four are unaccounted for.

NextHow the visit goes

Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey · Erin Mills

How the visit goes

Hands fitting a steel door knob into the bore of a dark door, with a yellow drill and tool bag behind. — Erin Mills
  1. Scene 1

    Can all these doors share one key?

    With the cylinders read, the locksmith can say whether the whole property can live on one key. Cylinders from the same keyway family accept the same blank, so they can be pinned to the same combination. Where the front door is one family and the garage entry another, the choice is to keep two keys or swap one cylinder for a compatible one during the visit. Five-pin and six-pin cylinders, and homeowner-rekeyable types, each have their own limits on what they can be matched to. A minute of comparing keyways before the work begins is what makes a single ring possible afterwards rather than a near miss.

  2. Scene 2

    Dealing with the electronic things on the ring

    A rekey covers the mechanical keys; the visit also tidies what sat beside them. If a garage door remote was lost, the opener's memory is cleared at the unit on the ceiling so every remote is forgotten, and the ones still in the household are paired again. A keypad lock that shares a door with a rekeyed cylinder has its user codes reviewed and any code the lost ring's owner knew is changed. A building fob or parking card is reported to the property manager for deactivation, and the locksmith can make that call with you. A car key with a chip is booked as separate automotive work.

  3. Scene 3

    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.

In the van

  • Rekeyable-cylinder reset tool
  • Key tags and a key register
  • Pin tweezers and shims
  • Key gauge and decoder
  • Rekeying pin kit

What shapes the quoteErindale Lock Experts

Condition of the cylinders
A clean, healthy cylinder is repinned as is. One clogged with salt and grit is cleaned first, and a worn or damaged one is replaced rather than repinned, each priced as its own item.
Travel 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.
Whether the doors can share one key as they are
Cylinders from the same keyway family are pinned alike with no extra parts. A door from a different family needs a compatible cylinder swapped in if you want a single key, and that part is quoted separately.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

(289) 805-4851

Let's clear a few things up

My lock is the homeowner-rekeyable type but the working key is lost. Can it still be reset?

Yes. Those cylinders let an owner change the key with a small learn tool, but only while a working key is in hand. Without one, a design such as Kwikset SmartKey is removed and placed in its own reset fixture, returning it to a blank state; other cylinder types are rekeyed by their own method instead. A new key is then set and the lock goes back on. It is a few extra minutes rather than a replacement.

A 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.

Does the locksmith need to see the actual lost key, or just look at the lock?

Just the lock, and the door it is fitted to. A rekey works on the cylinder itself: the locksmith opens it, fits a new set of pins matched to a fresh key, and the old key stops working the moment that is done, whether or not it ever turns up again. Knowing roughly how the old key looked, cut on both edges, a chip on the head, a certain brand, can still help identify which cylinders in the house shared that key.

Erin Millsinformation

PeelOntario

Town
Erin Mills, Peel
In business
27 years
Hours
Open 24/7
Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
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.

  • 38 in 100 homes · mixed ages
  • About 38% of homes in Mississauga were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.In an area of varied housing ages, rekeying is the one job that fits every door. Old cylinders and new ones both take fresh pins, so a household moving into either kind of home can start with keys that nobody else holds.
  • Single-detached houses make up about 37% of homes in Mississauga (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.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census Profile

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On-site assessment

Request a visit.

The lawyer's envelope held two keys for the new house.

(289) 805-4851, open 24/7.