Commercial · Toronto
Commercial Rekeying
The renovation is finished and the contractors have gone, along with the loaner keys they used for six weeks. Trades, delivery drivers and an inspector all came through, and the front door still answers to the key that was passed around the site.
Commercial Rekeying
In plain words
For most business doors, rekeying is the sensible middle path between doing nothing and buying new hardware. Commercial cylinders are built to be repinned many times, and a lever set, mortise lock or storefront cylinder in decent condition has years left in it. Rekeying keeps the finish, the door preparation and the handles you already have and changes only the small brass pins inside. Where a cylinder is worn, corroded by winter salt or too light for the room behind it, the locksmith says so and offers a replacement for that door alone; the rest are rekeyed to the new plan.
How the visit goesThe office has been reshuffled twice since the locks were last touched. Reception can open the server room, the warehouse crew has a key to accounting, and the chart that once explained who could open what has not been seen since the move.
Toronto
How the visit goes
Who is entitled to order the change
Every commercial rekey starts by confirming that the person asking for it has the standing to do so. For a small business that is usually the owner or a director; for a larger one, a facilities manager or property manager acting under written authority. The lease matters here too, because it decides which doors are the tenant's to alter and which remain the landlord's, and many leases ask that the landlord be given a key or told when locks change. Getting this straight before any cylinder comes out protects the business, its neighbours in the building and the locksmith, and it means the finished keying chart lands in the right hands.
Padlocks, cabinets and the mailbox
A business is more than its doors, and the same visit brings the smaller locks into the plan. Rekeyable padlocks on the compound gate, the propane cage or the roll shutter can be pinned to the same key as the back door, so the opening crew carries one key instead of four. Filing cabinets, the till drawer, a medicine or chemical cupboard and the display cases can be keyed alike for the staff who use them or kept separate for the manager. The lobby mailbox, which often still answers to a key from two tenants ago, gets a fresh cylinder or is repinned where its design allows. Each small lock is added to the chart alongside the doors.
Keys counted into named hands
Alongside the chart comes a key register: each key's stamped code, the person it was issued to, the date, and a line for the date it comes back. Filling it in as keys are handed out on the first morning takes ten minutes and pays off at every departure afterwards, because the question becomes 'return key A-07' rather than 'did she have a key?'. Spare keys are counted too and kept somewhere locked rather than in the drawer where the old tangle lived. When the register and the chart agree with the keys on the hook, the business knows exactly who can open it, which is the whole point of the exercise.
Commercial Rekeying
In the van
- Standard and restricted key blanks
- Cylinder removal and spanner tools
- Code key machine
- Key gauge and decoder
- Interchangeable cores and control key
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1No existing chart or keys
When nobody knows what the current keys open, the locksmith reads and records each cylinder before planning the new keying, and that reconstruction is time in the quote.
2Doors out of alignment
A door whose cam, strike or closer needs adjusting so the freshly rekeyed cylinder throws the bolt fully is corrected during the visit, and that adjustment is a separate item.
3Restricted keyway
Moving to a patented, restricted keyway means new cylinders or cores rather than a repin of the old ones, and the blanks themselves carry a higher price than standard keys.
Commercial Rekeying: questions
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.
Will every old key stop working once you are done?
Every old key that operated a cylinder included in the plan will stop working, and the locksmith proves it by trying old keys at each door before leaving. Old keys keep working only at openings you chose to leave alone, which are written on the chart so there is no confusion. If a master key existed, it is tested too, since a forgotten master is the most common way an old key stays alive.
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Commercial Rekeying near you
One team handles every service on this page for Toronto, so a lockout can turn into a rekey, and a rekey into a properly set deadbolt, within the same visit if you want it. Each service is described separately below, but at the door they fit together as one piece of work.