Lost Keys — Same-Visit Rekey in Ajax

Plan on an hour or two for a typical house with three or four cylinders, including the walk-through, identification, pinning, cutting and testing. Each additional cylinder adds a little, as does swapping a cylinder to bring a mismatched door onto the same key, resetting a homeowner-rekeyable lock or clearing a garage opener. The locksmith gives a realistic window on the phone once the list of doors is known.

The priority. A stolen wallet gives the holder your address, and the ring gives them the key to it, so the rekey moves to the front of the queue and the locksmith says so when you call. The work itself is the same: every cylinder the key fitted is repinned and new keys are cut. It helps to list the doors on the phone so the right pin kits and blanks are on the van when it arrives.

No. On a conventional pin-tumbler cylinder, the housing, springs and top pins are untouched and only the bottom pins are exchanged for the same grade of part the lock left the factory with; a homeowner-rekeyable design is reset through its own procedure instead, and a high-security cylinder may also need its sidebar or finger-pin elements reset. If the locksmith notices worn parts, replacing them is offered as a separate step, leaving the lock stronger, not weaker.