Commercial locksmith for San Diego businesses

A rekey, normally the same day. We repin the cylinders on the doors that key opened so it stops working, and issue new keys to the people who should have them.

If the key was part of a master system, tell us which level it sat at — a lost sub-master is a bigger conversation than a lost door key, because of how many doors it reaches.

Yes. We are open 24 hours, 7 days, and a lot of commercial work is easier when the shop is shut and the floor is empty. Say when you call that you want it done out of hours and we will book it that way.

A deliberate hierarchy of keys. Each person's key opens only the doors they need. Above them, a sub-master opens a floor, a department or a building. At the top, one master opens everything.

It is designed as a whole, on paper, before a single cylinder is touched — because a system that grew by accident is a system nobody can control.

Usually. If your existing cylinders are a common commercial keyway we can add and rekey within it, so new doors join the system you already run rather than adding a second key to every pocket.

Bring one of the existing keys to the survey and we will tell you what it is.

Because it is a different animal. Aluminium storefront doors normally carry a narrow-stile hookbolt or deadlatch built for a thin frame, and many commercial timber and steel doors use a mortise lock — a whole lock body let into the edge of the door rather than a cylinder through a bored hole.

They are repaired, rekeyed and replaced differently, and the parts are not interchangeable with residential hardware.

No, and no legitimate locksmith will. A door that people leave a building through has to open from the inside without a key, without special knowledge and in a single motion. Fire and building codes are explicit about it and it is the difference between a locked shop and a trapped one.

If your problem is people coming in, that is solved on the outside of the door — a deadlatch, a proper strike, a restricted key so nobody is copying yours — not by disabling the way out.

Yes — unit turnovers, common-area doors, rekeys between tenancies and master key systems across a building are ordinary work for us. We take instructions from the owner or the managing agent, not from an individual resident, for anything shared.

If you manage residential units in California, our guide to landlord and tenant lock changes covers what the state actually requires.

Usually, if we know the scale before we come. Tell us the number of doors, the lock types and whether there is an existing master system, and we plan the pinning before we arrive rather than working it out in your corridor.