You have just signed the lease on a unit the previous tenant ran for a decade. The landlord handed over three keys, the back door wears a padlock nobody can open, and nobody can say how many front-door keys are still out there.
Rekeying is also a chance to decide how the keys should work, not simply to change them. Most businesses settle on a small number of key groups: one key for the doors every employee uses, another for the office, cash room or server closet that only managers open, and perhaps a single master for the owner that opens everything. The locksmith maps this out on a keying chart before touching a cylinder, then pins each lock so the plan holds true on the door. Staff carry one key instead of a ring, managers carry two, and the chart tells you at a glance who can open what.
Sound familiar?Buchanan
Commercial Rekeying · Buchanan
Scene 1
The last part of the assessment is practical: when can the work happen, and in what order. A retail shop may prefer the hour after closing; a restaurant, the mid-morning lull; a warehouse, the gap between the last outbound truck and the night shift. The locksmith also asks about deliveries, the cleaning crew, the alarm monitoring company and anyone else who holds a key and needs a new one before their next visit. From this comes a sequence, typically the doors staff use least first and the main entrance last, so there is always a working, lockable way in and out while the cylinders are being changed.
Scene 2
The sequence agreed at the assessment is followed on the day. The locksmith finishes one opening entirely before beginning the next: cylinder out, repinned, refitted, tested with both the new key and the old, and locked again. Only then does the next door come apart. The main entrance is usually left for last and done while someone from the business is present, so there is never a moment when the premises has a door that will not lock. Staff who are working during the visit are handed their new key before the door they use is changed, and a short note goes to anyone off shift about where to collect theirs.
Scene 3
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.
What shapes the quoteBuchanan Lock Services
FeesSame any hour
Between tenants is the ideal moment: the departing tenant has handed back their keys, the new one has not yet received any, and the unit is empty for the work. The incoming tenant then starts on keys nobody else has held, and the landlord's own master or emergency key is set up at the same time. Where a lease has ended in dispute, the locksmith asks to see the paperwork before changing locks on a unit that still holds a tenant's goods.
A small-format interchangeable core is a small figure-eight cylinder that slides out of the lever, deadbolt or padlock when a control key is turned, with no tools needed; larger doors sometimes use a large-format core with a different profile instead. A manager keeps the control key in the safe and a few spare cores on hand, so a missing key means the core is swapped in moments and repinned later. For a business with frequent staff turnover, it turns a call-out into a routine.
There is no fixed interval. Rekey on events rather than on a calendar: a key not returned, a lease change, a break-in, a renovation crew finished, or a key count that no longer matches the register. Businesses with a good register and a restricted keyway often go years between rekeys because nothing prompts one. A yearly check of the register against the keys on the hook is the habit that tells you when the time has come.
HamiltonOntario
Commercial Rekeying · Hamilton, Central, Chedoke Park, Cootes Paradise, Corktown, Hamilton Beach, Hopkins Court, Hopkins Survey, McDonald Court, North End, University Gardens, Waterdown, West Hamilton, Westdale, Pleasant View Survey
Every square is one home in a hundred.
On-site assessment
You have just signed the lease on a unit the previous tenant ran for a decade.
(289) 203-1527, open 24/7.
On-site assessment preferred · (289) 203-1527, open 24/7
