Rekeying keeps the lock you already own and changes which key opens it, which makes it the tidy answer to a lost key, a departed roommate or a staff change. Across Whitby we rekey single doors, whole houses and small commercial buildings, and cut the new keys on the spot.
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Rekeying keeps the lock you already own and changes which key opens it, which makes it the tidy answer to a lost key, a departed roommate or a staff change. Across Whitby we rekey single doors, whole houses and small commercial buildings, and cut the new keys on the spot.
Businesses in Whitby get exit hardware that lets everyone leave without hunting for a key, while the door stays locked from the outside. We fit and adjust push bars, panic bars and deadlatches, set the closers so the door shuts on its own, and check that the whole exit path works in one motion from inside.
Offices and clinics in Whitby often need access managed for a changing group of people. We set up master-key systems, install keypads or card readers where they make sense, and keep mechanical locks working alongside the electronics. The aim is a system the office manager can run without calling us, backed by hardware that closes and locks properly every time.
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Whitby
Every lock service we provide in Whitby starts with the same first step, which is looking at the door properly before deciding anything. The individual pages below explain what that look involves for each job, how the work is carried out, and what to expect from the hardware afterwards.
Home Lockout ServiceIt is minus fifteen, the wind is coming across the driveway, and the key will only go halfway into the deadbolt.
Business Lockout ServiceThe manager who holds the only set of office keys is on a plane.
Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningThe key turns a full circle without any resistance and the deadbolt stays exactly where it is.
Safe Opening & Combination ChangeThe bookkeeper who set the office safe's code retired in a hurry, and the float cash for tomorrow's registers is sitting behind a keypad nobody else in the building can operate.
Commercial RekeyingTwo people left over the summer and the keys they handed back came up one short.
Car Lockout ServiceYour toddler is buckled in the back seat, the doors locked when you shut yours, and your keys are on the front seat beside your phone.
Car Key ReplacementThe car is yours now, but somebody else still holds a key to it.
Spare Car Key DuplicationOne key opens the car, starts the car, and rides in one pocket every day.
Vehicle Lock RepairThe car came with a second key that grinds and catches in the rear door, unlike the smooth key you use every day on the front two.
Lock RekeyingYour basement tenant has given notice, and a new one arrives on the first.
Deadbolt InstallationThe back door has a deadbolt in name only: a short bolt, a thin brass strike held by two little screws, and a jamb you can flex with your palm.
Lock Replacement & UpgradeThe keys the seller handed over came in a sandwich bag: six unlabelled copies for two locks of different makes from different decades.
Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceThe key turns freely in the round cylinder on the door, all the way around and back, without the bolt shifting at all.
Smart Lock InstallationHalf the evenings someone asks whether the back door got locked, and nobody is sure.
Gate & Building Entry LocksSomeone pried at the gate latch overnight, and now the strike plate hangs by one screw and the cylinder spins loose in its housing.
Mailbox Lock ReplacementThe little brass key for your curbside mailbox was on the same ring as the one you lost at the gym last week.Durham, Ontario
2021 Census
About 25% of homes in Whitby were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.
In newer developments the hardware is often the same finish and style from house to house. A locksmith can offer upgrades that match what is already there, so a stronger cylinder or a new lever set fits in without looking like an afterthought.
Single-detached houses make up about 70% of homes in Whitby (2021 Census).
Families in houses hand keys to children, cleaners, dog walkers and neighbours. A locksmith can set up a keypad on the side door for the household and keep the front door on a conventional key, so access matches how the family actually comes and goes.
High security
Firearms cabinets, jewellery, passports, business records and cash all raise the same question: is a locked drawer enough? Safe installation and servicing sit under high security here, with advice on size, anchoring and where in the building a safe belongs.
After the attempted break-in the police officer pointed at your door and said the strike plate was held by two short screws.
The keys the seller handed over came in a sandwich bag: six unlabelled copies for two locks of different makes from different decades.
The back door has a deadbolt in name only: a short bolt, a thin brass strike held by two little screws, and a jamb you can flex with your palm.
The shop's aluminum door has a bent meeting stile and the hookbolt is jammed half out.
Sensible optionHome Lockout Service
WhyMost lockouts end with the original lock still on the door and still working.
Sensible optionBusiness Lockout Service
WhyA locked business loses trading time, so the visit is arranged around getting people back to work.
Sensible optionSeized & Jammed Lock Opening
WhyThis service has a season here.
Sensible optionSafe Opening & Combination Change
WhySafe opening favours the gentlest method that fits the particular safe and lock, with drilling kept as a later option rather than a first resort.
Sensible optionCommercial Rekeying
WhyA commercial rekey is planned around the trading day.
Sensible optionCar Lockout Service
WhySafety and authorisation frame every car lockout, and both are on your side.
Sensible optionCar Key Replacement
WhyOlder vehicles without an immobilizer are a pleasure to key, but whether a given car has one is checked rather than assumed from age, since several early-2000s vehicles already shipped with a factory immobilizer.
Sensible optionSpare Car Key Duplication
WhyA vehicle used by more than one person, such as a shared family car, a small business van or a vehicle looked after by a caretaker, works better with a key for each regular driver rather than one ring changing hands.
Sensible optionVehicle Lock Repair
WhyA used vehicle sometimes arrives with a lock or two that never quite matched the rest, whether from a prior repair, a replaced door, or a key cut from a worn original.
Describe the property, the hardware and what has changed, and the visit starts from what you have seen.
01
We ask what the safe is for, how it is opened and what has changed: a lost combination, a dead keypad, a bolt that will not retract. Each points to a different approach.
02
Where a combination can be reset or a keypad replaced, we do that. Where the safe must be opened without its code, we use the method that leaves it usable afterwards.
03
Once it works we help you choose a new combination or code, show you how to change it later and suggest a sensible place to keep a record.
The keypad on the smart lock blinks once and goes dark. The batteries have finally given up, your phone is at four percent, and the little backup key that came in the box is in a kitchen drawer on the other side of the door.
Home Lockout ServiceAfter last night's power flicker the card reader beside the clinic door shows nothing. Fobs do nothing, the electric strike stays locked, and the small brass override key that came with the system is in a desk drawer on the far side of the door.
Business Lockout ServiceYou are inside, the deadbolt is thrown, and the thumb-turn will not budge. It moved a little last week with some effort. Now the door you walk through every day is a wall, and you need it open.
Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningDecades of daily use have left the law firm's old dial safe drifting: the numbers line up close to where they should, never quite enough to drop the bolt.
Safe Opening & Combination ChangeA 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 RekeyingThe rental van came with one key. It went into the door lock, turned partway, and snapped, leaving half the blade in the cylinder and the other half in your hand. The delivery is due, the van is locked, and the rental desk is an hour away.
Car Lockout ServiceThe fob went through the washing machine in a jacket pocket. It came out clean and completely silent. Nothing unlocks, the push-button start ignores it, and the little metal blade hidden inside only opens the driver's door.
Car Key ReplacementA teenager just passed a driving test and reasonably wants a key of their own rather than negotiating over the family's single copy every time the car is needed. Two drivers and one key keep colliding on the same schedule.
Spare Car Key DuplicationAfter a cold night the driver's door key barely goes in, and when it finally seats it stops halfway and will not turn any further. Meltwater from the day before ran into the keyway and the overnight drop in temperature sealed it solid.
Vehicle Lock RepairThe address and which door you are outside of, what kind of lock is on it as far as you can tell, and where the key is: inside, lost, broken or simply refusing to turn. Mention whether the door is a rental, whether anyone is inside, and whether the lock is electronic. If you have photo identification on you, say so; if not, say that too so the verification route is agreed before the locksmith arrives.
Yes. From outside, an exit device is operated through its trim, which may be a keyed lever, a pull with a cylinder or a bare rim cylinder. Depending on the trim fitted, picking or decoding that cylinder either retracts the latch directly or unlocks a lever, knob or thumbpiece that then has to be turned to let the latch go. The bar, rods and dogging feature stay as installed for the emergency way out, and the bar is pressed afterward to confirm it releases the latch with one push.
Occasionally, but wear and weather are far more common. Signs that point to tampering are fresh scratches around the keyway, a plug that sits crooked, or debris such as glue or a broken tool tip inside, none of which appear from ordinary use. The locksmith looks for these during the inspection and says plainly what was found. If the cylinder has been damaged that way, it is replaced and, if you wish, the other doors are rekeyed.
You choose the numbers yourself, within whatever range and spacing that lock's rules allow, rather than being handed a default sequence. On a mechanical lock the locksmith uses a manufacturer change key to reset the wheel pack to your chosen combination; on an electronic lock the new code is entered directly through the keypad or a connected programming tool. Either way it is tested several times, door open and then closed, before the visit is considered complete.
Yes. The narrow stile of a storefront door houses a screw-in mortise cylinder secured from the edge, and it unthreads, is repinned and screws back in like any other. What the locksmith watches is the cam: it has to suit the hook or deadbolt mechanism inside the door and sit at the correct depth, or the bolt throws short. Weather-facing cylinders showing salt wear are pointed out so you can decide on replacement.
Make one habit stick: keys go into a pocket before any door closes. Keep a spare at home or with someone nearby, and store a spare fob away from the main one. Change your fob battery every autumn before the cold arrives. If your car offers a setting that stops the doors locking with the fob inside, turn it on. Keep a photo of your vehicle permit on your phone so identification is never behind glass.
Yes, with the right paperwork. For a leased car, the lease agreement in your name together with your identification and the permit covers it. For a company vehicle, the locksmith needs authorization from the business: a work order, purchase order or letter naming the VIN and the person collecting the key. Mention the arrangement when you call so the correct document is ready and the record can be completed properly.
They solve the same problem differently. Cloning copies the working key's existing code onto a new chip, which some vehicles' systems permit directly. Programming instead has the vehicle itself learn a brand-new code and accept it as an additional valid key, which is how most recent vehicles with rolling codes or added cryptography are handled, since their systems are built specifically to resist straightforward copying.
It is reasonable to check the obvious things first, such as whether the trunk release button works from inside, but forcing a spinning key or prying at the surrounding panel can bend the linkage further. A locksmith arrives with tools shaped for the mechanism and can usually reach the fault without extra damage.
Businesses in Whitby get exit hardware that lets everyone leave without hunting for a key, while the door stays locked from the outside. We fit and adjust push bars, panic bars and deadlatches, set the closers so the door shuts on its own, and check that the whole exit path works in one motion from inside.