The previous owners left a coffee tin of keys on the counter, some labelled, most not. The house is yours now, but you have no idea how many copies were cut over the years or who still has one in a drawer somewhere.
Rekeying is really about knowing who can open your door. Over the life of a home, keys are lent to trades, handed to neighbours for the holidays, given to a cleaner or a dog walker, and copied at the hardware store. Nobody keeps a list. Rekeying draws a line: from today, the only working keys are the ones counted into your hand. Good practice afterwards is simple, and a locksmith will suggest it: know how many keys exist, know who holds each one, tag them with a colour or code rather than the address, and rekey again whenever a key leaves your control.
Sound familiar?Bradburn Subdivision
Lock Rekeying · Bradburn Subdivision
Scene 1
A cylinder about to be pinned to a new key should be worth pinning. The locksmith turns the existing key in each lock and feels for a plug that drags, soft springs, a wobbling cam or a keyway packed with grit and old oil. A cylinder in good order is rekeyed as it is. A worn one is cleaned and given fresh springs while it is apart, and one that has truly worn out is pointed out so you can choose a replacement rather than have new pins dropped into a tired lock. A bolt that binds against its strike gets noticed here too, so the strike can be adjusted while the locksmith is at the door.
Scene 2
On a pin-tumbler cylinder, the plug goes back into the housing with the new key in it, pushing the follower out ahead of it, and the cam or tailpiece is refitted with its retainer. Before the cylinder goes anywhere near the door, the locksmith turns the new key and checks that the plug rotates freely with no catch, then removes the key and confirms the plug is locked solid. A pin a fraction too long or too short shows up here as a rough turn and is corrected on the bench. Only a cylinder that passes goes back into its lock, where it is tested again with the door open and then closed.
Scene 3
Rekeying gives you a clean start on who holds a key, and a few habits keep it clean. Give a key only to people who need one regularly, and know who they are. If a dog walker, a cleaner or a contractor needs access for a season, a lockbox with a code you can change afterwards is simpler than a key you have to ask for back. Tag spares with a colour or a number rather than the address. When a key does leave your control, a lost ring, a departing tenant, a relationship that has ended, that is the trigger to rekey again, and the next visit is simpler because the doors are already on one system.
What shapes the quoteBradburn Subdivision Lock & Key Co.
FeesSame any hour
Yes, and it is a welcome part of the job. Rekeying decides who can enter, so the locksmith confirms the person asking has the standing to make that decision. For an owner that means photo identification alongside a document that links them to the property, for instance a property tax notice or the closing statement. A manager brings the owner's written authorization. A tenant mentions that the landlord has agreed and will be given a key, since tenancy rules here expect both to hold one.
What changes depends on the cylinder. Many locks turn when a row of small bottom pins lines up at a precise level, set by the cuts on your key, and during a rekey the locksmith tips those pins out and loads a set that lines up with a different key, cut new for you; some residential cylinders instead reset a side-locking bar without removing any pins. From then on the new key operates the lock and older keys do not, and the hardware on the door stays as it was.
As many as you ask for, cut on site from the fresh pinning and tested in each door they should open; two or three is typical for a household. More can be cut later. When you do, bring one of the locksmith's originals to be copied rather than a copy of a copy, since every generation strays slightly from the intended depths. If any key is a restricted type, additional copies come from the record kept for that system rather than from a hardware store.
OxfordOntario
Lock Rekeying · Woodstock, East Zorra-Tavistock, Ingersoll, Norwich, South-West Oxford, Zorra, Perrys Lane, Burgessville
Every square is one home in a hundred.
On-site assessment
The previous owners left a coffee tin of keys on the counter, some labelled, most not.
(226) 705-0421, open 24/7.
On-site assessment preferred · (226) 705-0421, open 24/7
