Sound familiar?Toronto
- The call
- You let a part-time employee go on Friday. The shop key is on a ring in their apartment, or their car, or a friend's kitchen, and on Monday morning the register and the stock room open with it.
Your 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.
In plain words
The first useful move after losing a key is to think about where it worked rather than where it went. A house key commonly opens more than the front door: the back door, a side entrance, the door from the garage into the house, a shed, a gate padlock, sometimes a storage room or a mailbox. A same-visit rekey starts by listing those openings, then treats the ones that are yours to change and points you to the right person for the ones that belong to a landlord, a condominium or the postal service. Every cylinder on the list leaves the visit taking a new key.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey · Toronto
How the visit goes
Scene 1
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.
Scene 2
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.
Scene 3
A known number of keys, with names on them
You leave with a set of keys whose count you agreed and can name: one each for the adults, one for the neighbour, one in the lockbox. That is the count of authorised keys, not proof against every copy unless the key system also controls its blanks. A small habit keeps it honest: when a key goes to a contractor, a cleaner or a house sitter, note it and get it back, or rekey when the arrangement ends. From today the answer is a figure you wrote down, not a guess about who might still hold something from years ago.
In the van
- Key gauge and decoder
- Plug follower set
- Pin tweezers and shims
- Dry graphite or PTFE lubricant
- Key blanks in common keyways
What shapes the quoteHumberlea Lock Experts
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
FeesSame any hour
Things people wonder about
Do I need to be there for the whole visit?
An authorised adult should be present at the start, for identification and to agree the list of doors and the number of keys, and at the end, to test every key and take the count. In between, the work happens at the doors and on the van, so you are free to get on with your day inside. A property manager or a family member with your authorisation can stand in if you cannot be 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.
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.
Lockout Services
- Business Lockout ServiceYou signed the lease on the unit last week and the landlord handed over possession, but the previous tenant's locks are still on…
- Broken Key ExtractionThe padlock on the shed has been stiff all summer.
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThey did not get in.
- Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningThe shop's lever handle goes down as usual, but the latch inside the mortise case never pulls back.
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Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey · Fairhaven, Humberlea, Kingsview Village, Martin Grove Gardens, Pine Point, Princess Anne Manor, Richview Gardens, St. Phillips, Westmount, Weston
- Town
- Toronto
- In business
- 13 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 804-5807
- 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.
- 58 in 100 homes · older homes
- 23 in 100 homes · mostly attached
- About 58% of homes in Toronto were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Where most homes were built decades ago, doors often still carry their original mortise locks and brass knobs. That hardware can usually be cleaned, re-sprung and kept in service, with a modern deadbolt added above it for strength without losing the look.
- Single-detached houses make up about 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).In a building, a lockout happens in a hallway rather than a porch, and the neighbours notice. A locksmith confirms you belong to the suite, opens the door with the least fuss the lock allows, and leaves the door and cylinder intact for the night.
Nearby
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
Your purse was taken from the back of a chair at a restaurant.
(289) 804-5807, open 24/7.