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AshburnhamLock ExpertsOpen 24/7 (249) 494-7410
Person holding a door-handle and latch assembly at a worktable outside a glass entrance, with additional handles and tools laid out. — Commercial Rekeying, Peterborough

Commercial · Peterborough

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.

In plain words

A business hands out keys as people join and rarely gets every one back as people leave. Rekeying resets that count. Instead of guessing how many copies of the front-door key exist, the cylinders are repinned so only the newly cut set works, and those keys are numbered and signed for. Where turnover is steady, the locksmith can fit interchangeable cores, which let a manager swap a core with a control key in a couple of minutes when someone departs, so the reset becomes routine rather than an event. Either way you end up with a premises where the keyholder list matches the staff list.

Sound familiar?Peterborough

The call
The manager's key ring went missing somewhere between the bank and the car, and the master on it opened every door in the building. Until the cylinders are changed, whoever finds it is holding the run of the place.

NextHow the visit goes

Commercial Rekeying · Peterborough

How the visit goes

Handheld diagnostic unit with a screen and buttons lying on a dirty car floor mat, cabled to a port under the dash.
  1. Scene 1

    A walk of every door and lock

    The locksmith walks the premises with you and lists every opening that should be in the plan: the customer entrance, the receiving door, offices, stockroom, cash room, server closet, the mailbox, cabinets, and any padlocks on gates, compounds or roll shutters. Each lock is identified by type, since a mortise cylinder in an aluminum storefront door, a key-in-lever set on an office, a rim cylinder on a back door and an interchangeable core in a stockroom each come out and go back in differently. The keyway and the maker's mark are noted, and the condition of each cylinder is checked, so the list from the walk is what the quote and the work are built on.

  2. Scene 2

    Storefront and mortise cylinders

    Aluminum storefront doors carry a threaded mortise cylinder held by a small set screw in the door edge. The locksmith loosens the screw, spins the cylinder out, repins it, and threads it back to the same depth so the cam engages the deadbolt or hook bolt behind it and nothing else. Mortise locks in older office doors work on the same principle with a heavier lock body. On both, the depth and cam type matter as much as the pinning: a cylinder a turn too far in or a cam of the wrong shape will feel right in the hand but fail to throw the bolt, so each is cycled open and closed.

  3. Scene 3

    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.

In the van

  • Key stamp set and tags
  • Interchangeable cores and control key
  • Commercial pin kit
  • Standard and restricted key blanks
  • Key gauge and decoder

What shapes the quoteAshburnham Lock Experts

Padlocks, 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.
A master key plan
Pinning cylinders to accept both a change key and a master, and designing the chart so no key opens a door it should not, is more work per cylinder than keying everything alike.
Doors 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.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

(249) 494-7410

Questions we hear most

Does stamping keys 'do not duplicate' stop people copying them?

Not reliably. The stamp is a request, and any key on a standard blank can be copied by anyone with the blank and a machine. What does work is controlling the blank itself through a restricted keyway, or controlling access to the lock through interchangeable cores and a tight register. Stamping still has a place: a serial code on each key, instead of the business name, lets you track it without telling a finder where it fits.

What information should I have ready before the locksmith arrives?

A list of the doors and other locks you want included, a copy of the lease or the property manager's contact, every existing key you can find, and a rough idea of who needs to open what. Note which doors, if any, are interchangeable cores and where the control key is. Knowing your quiet hours and who opens up in the morning helps the locksmith plan the order of work and the key handover.

What is a keying chart and why does it matter afterwards?

A keying chart is a plain list of every opening, the key group that operates it, the code stamped on those keys and the number issued. Months later it lets you answer exactly which doors a missing key opened, and it lets a locksmith add a new door to the system without changing anything else. Keep it with the key register, somewhere locked, with a copy off site.

Peterboroughinformation

PeterboroughOntario

Town
Peterborough
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.

  • 64 in 100 homes · older homes
  • About 64% of homes in Peterborough were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Layers of paint build up on older doors and frames, and a lock that seemed to fail is sometimes a latch glued shut by the last coat. Part of the visit in an older area is freeing hardware, cleaning the edges and checking the door swings true.
  • Single-detached houses make up about 57% of homes in Peterborough (2021 Census).Where housing is mixed, the same street can hold a solid wood front door, a steel townhouse door and a metal-clad suite door. A locksmith fits each with hardware suited to its construction, so every neighbour ends up with a door that locks properly.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census Profile

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On-site assessment

Request a visit.

The renovation is finished and the contractors have gone, along with the loaner keys they used for six weeks.

(249) 494-7410, open 24/7.