Commercial · Clarington
Commercial Rekeying
A key turned up in the parking lot with the shop's name on its fob. It came back to you, which is lucky, but it means keys are leaving the building on rings you have never seen, and the shop's locks have not changed since opening day.
Commercial Rekeying
In plain words
Taking over a commercial unit is the moment to make the locks yours. The keys handed across at signing are only the ones the previous occupant remembered; cleaners, suppliers and former staff may still carry others. Rekeying every cylinder your lease gives you control of gives you a clean start on day one, with keys cut for your team and a chart of which door each one opens. The locksmith also clears up the odds and ends that come with a new lease: a padlock with no key, a mailbox lock seized since the last tenant. You open knowing exactly who can get in.
How the visit goesYou have just signed the lease on a unit the previous tenant ran for a decade. The landlord handed over three keys, the back door wears a padlock nobody can open, and nobody can say how many front-door keys are still out there.
Clarington
How the visit goes
Who needs to open what
The keying plan is a picture of how the business runs, so the assessment asks who goes through which door on a normal day. Front-line staff need the customer entrance and perhaps the stockroom; supervisors add the office; the owner and the bookkeeper hold the cash room; the IT contractor reaches the server closet and nothing else. Out of that conversation come the key groups: doors keyed alike so one key covers a role, doors keyed differently where separation matters, and whether a master for the owner earns its place. The plan also names anything left out on purpose, so the chart shows both what changes and what stays.
Retiring the old keys
The job is finished when the old keys are proven dead, not when the new ones work. At every rekeyed opening the locksmith tries a sample of the old keys, including the master if one existed, and confirms that each one enters the keyway and turns nothing. The collected old keys are then cut through with snips in front of the manager and can be handed back as scrap or taken away. Any door deliberately left on its original key is written on the chart in plain words so nobody assumes it changed. That last check is what turns a day of brass work into a genuine reset of who can open the business.
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
- Code key machine
- Master pins
- Rekeyable padlocks
- Commercial pin kit
- Key stamp set and tags
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1Documentation and register
A keying chart, a key register and stamped codes on every key are part of a proper commercial rekey, and the quote names the paperwork so it is never skipped.
2Padlocks, cabinets and mailboxes
Small locks add up. Each padlock repinned to the door key, each cabinet keyed alike and each mailbox cylinder replaced is listed on its own so you can decide what to include.
3Doors 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.
Commercial Rekeying: questions
How many keys should we have cut?
Count the people who need each group, add one spare per group for the safe, and stop there. Extra keys cut 'just in case' are the ones that end up unaccounted for. Because the keys are cut to code from the pinning records, more can be produced later to the same standard, so there is no need to stockpile on the day. Restricted keys are ordered by the named signatories when needed.
How long should we set aside for a commercial rekey?
It depends on the count and the mix. A shop with a front door, a back door and a stockroom is a short visit; an office suite with a dozen lever sets, a master key plan and a mailbox takes a good part of a day. Interchangeable cores are the shortest of all, since they are swapped rather than repinned on site. The locksmith gives a time estimate at the assessment, once every cylinder has been counted.
What do you do with the old keys?
They are gathered, tested at each rekeyed door to confirm they no longer work, and then cut through so they can never be used or copied. You can keep the pieces or the locksmith takes them away. Any old key that still operates a door you chose to leave unchanged is handed back and noted on the chart, so it is clear which keys remain live and which are scrap.
Commercial Locks
- Access Control InstallationSomething went missing from the storeroom over a weekend, and when you ask who was in the building…
- Panic & Exit HardwareThe fire inspector's note is blunt: the banquet hall's second exit still turns on a deadbolt, and…
- Commercial-Grade Lock ReplacementOvernight someone forced the back door, and the cylinder face is scarred, the metal around the…
Commercial Rekeying near you
Below is the full menu of lock and key work available in Clarington, written for people who are not locksmiths. Each entry says what the service is, when it makes sense, and roughly how a visit unfolds, so you can arrive at the door already knowing what the technician is going to do and why.