Lockouts · Port Colborne
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
The keys fell out of a gym bag somewhere between the arena and the parking lot. The ring has a tag from the building with the unit number on it.
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 goesThe spare under the planter by the side door is gone. Everyone in the family swears they did not take it, the planter has clearly been shifted, and you have no idea how long ago that happened.
Port Colborne
How the visit goes
What was on the ring
The next few minutes are spent on the ring itself, because a key ring is a bundle of different problems. House keys point to cylinders that will be repinned. A garage remote points to an opener whose memory should be cleared. A building fob or parking card points to a property manager. A car key with a chip points to the automotive side of the trade. A tag with an address, a licence lost in the same bag, or a work lanyard in the same pocket changes how soon the household side should be settled. Listing it all before any tool comes out means nothing on the ring is forgotten when the van pulls away.
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.
The old key is now a piece of brass
Whatever became of the lost key, it stopped mattering the moment the last cylinder went back on the door. It still slides into the keyway, because the keyway did not change, but the pins inside no longer line up with its cuts, so it turns nothing. Whoever finds it in a snowbank in April, or already has it in a drawer, holds a shape that fits your lock and does nothing to it. That is the whole purpose of the visit, and it is worth pausing on: the worry that started the day has a definite ending, and you can watch it demonstrated with the old key in your own hand.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey
In the van
- Replacement cylinders
- Cylinder retaining-clip and cap tools
- Plug follower set
- Code key machine
- Key gauge and decoder
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.
2The kind of lock each cylinder lives in
Knob, lever, deadbolt, mortise and rim cylinders come out of the door differently and take different care to refit. A mortise cylinder in a century home is more involved than a builder-grade knob.
3Travel 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.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey: questions
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.
Can I just have another key cut instead?
You can, and it solves being without a key. It leaves the lost one working, though, which is the half of the problem that keeps people awake. Rekeying takes about as much effort as a trip to a hardware store counter and ends with a new key in your hand and the old one retired. If the key was mislaid somewhere it will never be found and named nothing, a plain copy is a fair choice.
When is replacing a lock better than rekeying it?
When the hardware itself is the weak point: a plug worn oval, a cylinder eaten by salt from a driveway-facing door, a light knob lock on an exterior door, a keyway with no blanks left in supply, or when you want a different style, a heavier deadbolt or a keypad. In those cases a new lock keyed to match the rest of the house is fitted in the same visit. Everything else is rekeyed.
Lockout Services
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey near you
The pages that follow describe the lock services offered in Port Colborne one by one, without sales talk. Where a service has a simpler or less involved cousin, the page says so. Where a repair will do instead of a replacement, the page says that too. The aim is for you to choose well, not to choose more.