Houses in Don Mills collect locks over the years: a front door from one decade, a side entry from another, a garage door that takes its own key. We rekey them all to a single key so the ring in your pocket finally gets lighter, and set up a spare that lives somewhere sensible.
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Houses in Don Mills collect locks over the years: a front door from one decade, a side entry from another, a garage door that takes its own key. We rekey them all to a single key so the ring in your pocket finally gets lighter, and set up a spare that lives somewhere sensible.
After a break-in, households in Don Mills need the door secured tonight and the decisions made later. We come out, board or repair what is damaged, replace or rekey anything that might have been compromised, and leave you with a locked house. Conversations about strike plates and better cylinders wait until the shock has passed and you are ready to have them.
When a lock in Don Mills starts fighting the key, the cause is usually one of a few things: worn pins, a strike that has moved, a door that has dropped on its hinges or a key copied too many times. We find which one it is before suggesting anything, then address the cause. Often the lock you have is fine and simply needs to be set right.
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Don Mills
Think of this as the workshop list for Don Mills. Emergency lockouts and key extraction. Rekeying after a move or a staff change. Lock replacement and deadbolt installation. High-security cylinders and reinforced strikes. Commercial hardware, closers and master keys. Safe opening and service. Key cutting for house and car.
Broken Key ExtractionIn the parking lot your car key snapped in the driver's door.
Break-In Damage Lock RepairSomeone smashed the little window beside the door, reached in and turned the thumb-turn.
Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningEvery time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty.
Lock RekeyingYour basement tenant has given notice, and a new one arrives on the first.
Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceSomeone painted the door years ago without removing the hardware.
Smart Lock InstallationYou have just taken possession of the house and the previous owners handed over a keypad deadbolt with a code nobody wrote down and an app account you cannot get into.
Commercial-Grade Lock ReplacementHead office wants every branch keyed alike under one system, and half the locations are still running whatever lockset the original contractor happened to install years ago.
Car Key ReplacementMinus twenty outside, the fob button does nothing, and the door keyhole has a crust of road salt over it because you have not used a metal key in that car since the day you bought it.
Vehicle Lock RepairEvery door drops into place together when the fob is pressed, except the driver's door, which stays unlocked while the rest click shut around it.
Home Lockout ServiceYou reached the front step with the groceries, patted every pocket twice, and the house key is simply not there.
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 both doors and no keys came with them.
Broken Key ExtractionIn the parking lot your car key snapped in the driver's door.
Break-In Damage Lock RepairSomeone smashed the little window beside the door, reached in and turned the thumb-turn.
Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningEvery time you pull the key out of the side door it comes away gritty.
Lost Keys — Same-Visit RekeyThe renovation wrapped up in the spring.Toronto, Ontario
2021 Census
About 58% of homes in Toronto 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 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).
Townhouse rows often share a keyway chosen by the builder. A locksmith can move a household onto a keyway of its own so a neighbour's key, or a key from the construction phase, no longer has any chance of fitting.
A roommate tried to help with tweezers, then by gluing the other half to it. The fragment is now further in than it started, there is dried glue around the keyway, and the front door still does not open.
Broken Key ExtractionPolice have come and gone, the occurrence number is on a sticky note, and you are standing in a cold hallway looking at a splintered frame, wondering how the house gets locked before everyone tries to sleep.
Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe shop's lever handle goes down as usual, but the latch inside the mortise case never pulls back. Staff are waiting on the sidewalk with their coffees, the door is locked, and the handle is simply moving air.
Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningYour basement tenant has given notice, and a new one arrives on the first. The lock on the separate entrance works perfectly well. You simply want a fresh key for the incoming tenant and for the old one to be retired.
Lock RekeyingAfter a wet summer the entry door sits lower in its frame. The lock works perfectly when the door is open, but with it shut you have to lift the handle and shoulder the door to get the deadbolt to throw.
Vintage Mortise Lock ServiceThere are four copies of the front-door key floating around: one with the cleaner, one with a neighbour, one on a hook at your parents' place, and one you honestly cannot account for. You would rather hand out codes you can switch off.
Smart Lock InstallationThe key to the office entrance turns with almost no resistance now, and some mornings the deadbolt does not fully retract until someone jiggles the handle and tries the key again.
Commercial-Grade Lock ReplacementYou bought the car privately and it came with a single key on a shoelace. Every time it leaves your hand you notice, and you would like a second one made before the first goes missing.
Car Key ReplacementThe button on your key fob does nothing now: no beep, no flash of the lights, no click from the doors. The metal blade folded inside the fob still turns the door by hand, so you are getting in and out, just without the remote.
Vehicle Lock RepairCommercial
Doors with closers, exit devices, electric strikes and card readers have more parts to fail than a house door. When a commercial door stops behaving, we look at the whole assembly, find the part that is wrong and fix it without disturbing the rest.
High security
The pharmacy's drop safe has a keypad that finally lost power for good, and the little override key that was supposed to live behind the counter cannot be found anywhere.
A homeowner inherited a heavy old dial safe from a parent's house, moved it into the new place, and has no idea whether the bolt-work still works, whether the lock is sound, or how it should be anchored.
Sensible optionBroken Key Extraction
WhyWhat you have when the locksmith leaves matters as much as what was removed.
Sensible optionBreak-In Damage Lock Repair
WhyBreak-in damage lock repair is the visit that turns a forced door back into a locked one.
Sensible optionSeized & Jammed Lock Opening
WhyOn storefronts, offices and older houses the hardware is often a mortise lock with a lever, and the jam is frequently inside the case, not the cylinder.
Sensible optionLock Rekeying
WhyRekeying is a change made inside the lock rather than to the lock itself.
Sensible optionVintage Mortise Lock Service
WhyOccasionally a case really is finished, with a cracked body, a bolt worn to a sliver or a hub broken in two, and the answer is a replacement that respects the door.
Sensible optionSmart Lock Installation
WhyOur winters shape how a smart lock should be fitted.
Sensible optionCommercial-Grade Lock Replacement
WhyA great deal of what happens during this service is choosing the right category of hardware before a single screw comes out.
Sensible optionCar Key Replacement
WhyEvery replacement key starts with a simple question: is this your car to key?
Sensible optionVehicle Lock Repair
WhyWhich lock is affected shapes the whole visit.
Describe the property, the hardware and what has changed, and the visit starts from what you have seen.
01
Before touching the lock we ask for identification or another way to show you live or work there. It protects you as much as anyone.
02
Most doors can be picked or bypassed with no damage. We start there and only move to a firmer method if the lock leaves no other choice, explaining as we go.
03
Once you are inside we check the lock still turns properly and that you have a key that works. If the lock was the reason you were stuck, we say so.
It depends on how the piece is sitting. A protruding fragment in a plug at rest can be out in moments. A deep piece behind lifted pins takes patient work with hooks and spirals. A glued or corroded fragment may mean removing the cylinder and freeing it from behind. Cutting and testing the new key, and any door adjustment, add their own time. The locksmith gives a sense of it after the first look.
A security strike is a heavier plate with a formed steel pocket that wraps around the bolt instead of leaving it in bare wood. It is set into the jamb and fixed with long screws, typically three inches, that pass through the jamb and the shim space into the framing, with the longest screws placed nearest the door stop where the bolt bears. Manufacturers specify the pocket depth so the bolt extends fully. The result spreads a kick across the wall stud rather than two small screws.
The key and cylinder are doing their job; the bar behind the cylinder that drives the bolt, called the tailpiece or cam, has broken, slipped or twisted out of engagement. It is a small part. The locksmith retracts the bolt through the mechanism or removes the cylinder to reach it, then fits a tailpiece of the right length and profile. Your cylinder and keys are unchanged afterwards.
Rekeying keeps your existing deadbolt or handle set and gives it a new key, commonly by changing the pins inside, though some cylinders reset a different way. Replacing removes the whole lock or cylinder and fits new hardware. Rekeying suits locks that are in good condition and simply need a fresh key. Replacement is the better call for hardware that is worn or damaged, built to a low grade, on a keyway the other doors cannot share, or due for a change of style or a keypad.
A drop of the right lock oil into the latch and bolt once a year is plenty. If the lock has a pin-tumbler cylinder, use whatever lubricant that cylinder's maker specifies, since some take a dry graphite or PTFE product and others a specified liquid one. Try the latch and deadbolt each spring and fall; if the bolt starts to scrape, the strike wants a small adjustment before anything is strained. Keep bit keys out of a pocket where they bend.
Many people do, and on a door that already closes perfectly with the standard holes the instructions are manageable. Where a locksmith earns their place is everything around the box: recognizing a bolt that drags before it wears out a motor, enlarging or filling holes cleanly, fitting a reinforced strike, rekeying the override so the old key retires, and setting up the account and codes in a way that is easy to manage later. If you have started and hit a snag, that is a normal call too.
Once a space holds enough people, or handles a high enough hazard, its exit doors need to open with a single motion and no key, which is what panic or exit hardware provides. It is not a preference; it is a function tied to how many people the space is built to hold and what is happening in it.
Often, yes. A key that has been copied from copies or worn thin over the years lifts the wafers to the wrong heights, and a fresh blade cut to code restores the fit. If the wiggle continues with the new key, the wafers in the ignition cylinder have worn as well, and that cylinder can be overhauled so both the old and new keys turn cleanly. The locksmith checks the cylinder during the visit and tells you which it is.
Wherever possible, yes. The point of repairing rather than replacing a lock outright is to keep it working with the key and fob you already carry, so the whole vehicle continues to answer to one set rather than needing a second key for one door.
After a break-in, households in Don Mills need the door secured tonight and the decisions made later. We come out, board or repair what is damaged, replace or rekey anything that might have been compromised, and leave you with a locked house. Conversations about strike plates and better cylinders wait until the shock has passed and you are ready to have them.