Commercial · Wilmot
Commercial-Grade Lock Replacement
A new tenant moved into the unit next door, and the property manager just found three different cylinders on three doors, none of them cut to the same key.
In plain words
Think of it as re-equipping a door for the job it actually does rather than swapping one lock for a similar one. A back door taking deliveries all shift needs different internals than a quiet office entrance, and a storefront's aluminum frame needs a narrow-stile lock a wood door was never built to accept. The locksmith matches lock body, cylinder and strike to the door's real prep and real use, decides with the business whether the new hardware joins an existing master key system or starts a new one, and leaves the opening cycling cleanly from both sides before the visit ends.
How the visit goesThe 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 Replacement
How the visit goes
Weighing what the new hardware needs to do long term
The last part of the assessment looks past today's problem to how the business expects to manage this door going forward: does staff turnover happen often enough that an interchangeable core, which lets a key holder change the combination without pulling the whole cylinder, would pay for itself in convenience? Does the business want a restricted keyway so blanks cannot be cut at an ordinary hardware counter? These questions shape the specific hardware ordered as much as the door's physical construction does.
Fitting the new lock body or lockset
The new hardware is installed into the existing prep, with the lock body or lockset, strike and any reinforcing plate seated so the door closes without binding. On a narrow-stile storefront door, the hookbolt or deadlatch is aligned so it engages the keeper across its full travel rather than catching on one edge. On a mortise-prepped door, the case is fitted so the trim sits flush and the spindle and cylinder line up with the existing holes cut for them.
Confidence after a break-in or a security scare
Where the visit followed a forced door or a lost key that worried the business, the finished hardware answers that concern directly: the damaged cylinder or strike is gone, any compromised key no longer operates the cylinders that were rekeyed or replaced, and the new lock has been cycled and tested rather than simply swapped in and assumed to work. The business can tell staff, tenants or an insurer exactly what changed and why, with a working lock and a written record standing behind that answer rather than a guess about whether the problem was actually solved.
Commercial-Grade Lock Replacement
In the van
Strike plates and keepers
Narrow-stile storefront lock
Heavy-duty cylindrical lockset
Key cutting and coding machine
Mortise lock body
Commercial-Grade Lock Replacement
What affects the quote
Key-control documentation
Setting up or updating a written key-control log, recording who holds which key and which doors share a system, is a small but distinct task the quote can name separately from the physical hardware work.
Site access and building type
A ground-floor storefront is the simplest case to reach and work on. A unit inside a larger building with its own access rules, or a site requiring coordination with building management, can add steps the quote takes into account.
Type of hardware the door takes
A mortise lock body, a heavy cylindrical lockset and a narrow-stile lock or hookbolt are priced differently as hardware and take different amounts of labour to fit, so the quote follows what the door's own construction requires.
What to have ready
- Is the door part of a fire separation or a marked exit route?
- Do you have a record of the current keying or key-control log?
- Roughly how many times a day does this door open?
Commercial-Grade Lock Replacement: questions
QuestionsWhat happens to keys held by former employees or contractors?
Once a cylinder is replaced or rekeyed, any key that was not reissued for the new combination simply stops working on that door. This is the direct answer to a key that walked out with someone who left the business, and it is worth doing across every door that key used to open, not only the one that prompted the call.
Does an electric strike need to match a specific lock function?
Yes. An electric strike has to suit the latch or deadlatch type it will receive, the door's handing and swing, and whether the application needs fail-safe or fail-secure operation, meaning whether the door should unlock or stay locked if power is lost. Choosing a strike without checking these against the mechanical lock is a common reason a door releases electronically but still binds mechanically.
Do you handle interchangeable-core (IC) cylinders?
Yes. An interchangeable-core cylinder lets an authorized key holder pull the core and swap in a new one when a key needs retiring, without removing the whole lock from the door. Businesses with regular staff turnover often move to this system because it turns a rekey into a short in-house task rather than a full service call every time.
Related services
- Master Key System DesignAfter a busy shift the manager counts the keys coming back in and loses track of who still has one.
- Access Control InstallationHead office wants a record of who opens the branch and when, tied to an actual name rather than a shared code scrawled on a sticky note taped under the till.
- Panic & Exit HardwareThe fire inspector's note is blunt: the banquet hall's second exit still turns on a deadbolt, and the crowd it is rated to hold needs a door that opens under one motion, no key involved.